Navigating the Science System: Research Integrity and Academic Survival Strategies.

Research Integrity (RI) is high on the agenda of both institutions and science policy. The European Union as well as national ministries of science have launched ambitious initiatives to combat misconduct and breaches of research integrity. Often, such initiatives entail attempts to regulate scientific behavior through guidelines that institutions and academic communities can use to more easily identify and deal with cases of misconduct. Rather than framing misconduct as a result of an information deficit, we instead conceptualize Questionable Research Practices (QRPs) as attempts by researchers to reconcile epistemic and social forms of uncertainty in knowledge production. Drawing on previous literature, we define epistemic uncertainty as the inherent intellectual unpredictability of scientific inquiry, while social uncertainty arises from the human-made conditions for scientific work. Our core argument-developed on the basis of 30 focus group interviews with researchers across different fields and European countries-is that breaches of research integrity can be understood as attempts to loosen overly tight coupling between the two forms of uncertainty. Our analytical approach is not meant to relativize or excuse misconduct, but rather to offer a more fine-grained perspective on what exactly it is that researchers want to accomplish by engaging in it. Based on the analysis, we conclude by proposing some concrete ways in which institutions and academic communities could try to reconcile epistemic and social uncertainties on a more collective level, thereby reducing incentives for researchers to engage in misconduct.

How to lose your memory without losing your money: shifty epistemology and Dutch strategies.

An objection to shifty epistemologies such as subject-sensitive invariantism is that it predicts that agents are susceptible to guaranteed losses. Bob Beddor (Analysis, 81, 193-198, 2021) argues that these guaranteed losses are not a symptom of irrationality, on the grounds that forgetful agents are susceptible to guaranteed losses without being irrational. I agree that forgetful agents are susceptible to guaranteed losses without being irrational- but when we investigate why, the analogy with shifty epistemology breaks down. I argue that agents with shifty epistemologies are susceptible to guaranteed losses in a way which is a symptom of irrationality. Along the way I make a suggestion about what it takes for an agent to be coherent over time. I close by offering a taxonomy of shifty epistemologies.

Mitigating Health-Related Uncertainties During Pregnancy: The Role of Smart Health Monitoring Technologies.

Pregnancy is a time filled with uncertainties, which can be challenging and lead to fear or anxiety for expectant parents. Health monitoring technologies that allow monitoring of the vital signs of both the mother and fetus offer a way to address health-related uncertainties. But are smart health monitoring technologies (SHMTs) actually an effective means to reduce uncertainties during pregnancy, or do they have the opposite effect? Using conceptual reasoning and phenomenological approaches grounded in existing literature, this Viewpoint explores the effects of SHMTs on health-related uncertainties during pregnancy. The argument posits that while SHMTs can alleviate some health-related uncertainties, they may also create new ones. This is particularly the case when the abundance of vital data overwhelms pregnant persons, leads to false-positive diagnoses, or raises concerns about the accuracy and analysis of data. Consequently, it is concluded that the use of SHMTs is not a cure-all for overcoming health-related uncertainties during pregnancy. Since the use of such monitoring technologies can introduce new uncertainties, it is important to carefully consider where and for what purpose they are used, use them sparingly, and promote a pragmatic approach to uncertainties.Using conceptual reasoning and phenomenological approaches grounded in existing literature, the effects of SHMTs on health-related uncertainties during pregnancy are explored. The argument posits that while SHMTs can alleviate some health-related uncertainties, they may also create new ones. This is particularly the case when the abundance of vital data overwhelms pregnant persons, leads to false-positive diagnoses, or raises concerns about the accuracy and analysis of data. Consequently, it is concluded that the use of SHMTs is not a cure-all for overcoming health-related uncertainties during pregnancy. Since the use of such monitoring technologies can introduce new uncertainties, it is important to carefully consider where and for what purpose they are used, use them sparingly, and promote a pragmatic approach to uncertainties.

To(o) Queer the Analyst: Lesbiana, Junguiana and Sudamericana. Towards Woven Onto-Epistemologies.

This is a two-part paper: in the first one, a personal story serves as a conceptual prism through which I address the issue of how a queer analyst can be a problem for analytical psychology; in the second, I present some readings and images-mostly from decolonial feminisms-that have been of interest to me lately in my path to queer Jungian psychology, that is, to de-essentialize and de-individualize its theory and practice. By borrowing (and altering) the title from Gloria Anzaldúa's (1991/2009a) essay "To(o) queer the writer", this paper explores some themes she has elaborated there on solidarity, theorization and ways of writing and reading from othered points of view. In dialogue with Donna Haraway's (2016) Staying with the Trouble and Ursula K. Le Guin's (1989/2000) The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, together with the imagery of bags, weaving and string figures game, this paper aims to explore the potential of what I have called "woven onto-epistemologies". By imagining and developing this new condition of knowledge, other stories and theories in analytical psychology may have an opportunity to be told.

Cet essai est composé de deux parties : dans la première, une histoire personnelle sert de prisme conceptuel à travers lequel j'aborde la question de savoir comment un analyste queer peut être un problème pour la psychologie analytique ; dans la seconde, je présente quelques lectures et images ­ principalement issues des féminismes décoloniaux ­ auxquelles je me suis intéressée ces derniers temps, afin de rendre la psychologie jungienne plus queer, c'est­à­dire désessentialiser et désindividualiser cette théorie et cette pratique. En empruntant (et en modifiant) le titre de l'essai de Gloria Anzaldúa « To(o) queer the writer ¼, cet article explore certains thèmes qu'elle y a développés sur la solidarité, la théorisation et les manières d'écrire et de lire à partir du point de vue d'autrui. En dialoguant avec Staying with the Trouble de Donna Haraway et Carrier Bag of Fiction d'Ursula K. Le Guin, ainsi qu'avec l'imagerie des sacs, du tissage et du jeu avec des figurines en ficelle, cet article vise à explorer le potentiel de ce que j'ai appelé les onto­épistémologies tissées. En imaginant et en développant cette nouvelle condition de la connaissance, d'autres histoires et théories de la psychologie analytique auront peut­être l'occasion d'être racontées.

Este ensayo consta de dos partes: en la primera, una historia personal sirve como prisma conceptual a través del cual abordo la cuestión de cómo una analista 'queer' puede ser un problema para la psicología analítica; en la segunda, presento algunas lecturas e imágenes ­principalmente de los feminismos decoloniales­ que me han interesado últimamente, con el fin de 'queerizar' la psicología junguiana, es decir, des­esencializar y des­individualizar esta teoría y práctica. Tomando prestado (y alterando) el título del ensayo de Gloria Anzaldúa "To(o) queer the writer", este artículo explora algunos temas allí elaborados acerca de la solidaridad, la teorización y las formas de escribir y leer desde otros puntos de vista. En diálogo con 'Staying with the Trouble' de Donna Haraway y 'Carrier Bag of Fiction' de Ursula K. Le Guin, junto con las imágenes de bolsas, tejidos y juegos de cuerdas, este artículo busca explorar el potencial de lo que he denominado onto­epistemologías tejidas. Imaginando y desarrollando esta nueva condición para el conocimiento, otras historias y teorías en psicología analítica pueden tener la oportunidad de ser contadas.

The challenges of open data sharing for qualitative researchers.

'Open Science' advocates for open access to scientific research, as well as sharing data, analysis plans and code in order to enable replication of results. However, these requirements typically fail to account for methodological differences between quantitative and qualitative research, and serious ethical problems are raised by the suggestion that full qualitative datasets can or should be published alongside qualitative research papers. Aside from important ethical concerns, the idea of sharing qualitative data in order to enable replication is conceptually at odds with the underpinnings on most qualitative methodologies, which highlight the importance of the unique interpretative function of the researcher. The question of whether secondary analysis of qualitative data is acceptable is key, and in this commentary we argue that there are good conceptual, ethical and economic reasons to consider how funders, researchers and publishers can make better use of existing data.

Limits of Optimization.

Optimization is about finding the best available object with respect to an objective function. Mathematics and quantitative sciences have been highly successful in formulating problems as optimization problems, and constructing clever processes that find optimal objects from sets of objects. As computers have become readily available to most people, optimization and optimized processes play a very broad role in societies. It is not obvious, however, that the optimization processes that work for mathematics and abstract objects should be readily applied to complex and open social systems. In this paper we set forth a framework to understand when optimization is limited, particularly for complex and open social systems.

A dataset without a code book: ethnography and open science.

This paper reflects upon calls for "open data" in ethnography, drawing on our experiences doing research on sexual violence. The core claim of this paper is not that open data is undesirable; it is that there is a lot we must know before we presume its benefits apply to ethnographic research. The epistemic and ontological foundation of open data is grounded in a logic that is not always consistent with that of ethnographic practice. We begin by identifying three logics of open data-epistemic, political-economic, and regulatory-which each address a perceived problem with knowledge production and point to open science as the solution. We then evaluate these logics in the context of the practice of ethnographic research. Claims that open data would improve data quality are, in our assessment, potentially reversed: in our own ethnographic work, open data practices would likely have compromised our data quality. And protecting subject identities would have meant creating accessible data that would not allow for replication. For ethnographic work, open data would be like having the data set without the codebook. Before we adopt open data to improve the quality of science, we need to answer a series of questions about what open data does to data quality. Rather than blindly make a normative commitment to a principle, we need empirical work on the impact of such practices - work which must be done with respect to the different epistemic cultures' modes of inquiry. Ethnographers, as well as the institutions that fund and regulate ethnographic research, should only embrace open data after the subject has been researched and evaluated within our own epistemic community.

Comparative Law and Christianity-A Plank in the Eye?

This article examines the epistemic bias of comparative law scholarship. Comparatists are unable or unwilling to recognise the religious dimensions in Western law as they see religion only in the context of non-Western law. This problem is typical of modern macro-comparative law, which fails to recount the influence of Christianity on Western law and legal culture. The article invites legal scholars to reach beyond the notions of 'religious law' and 'secular law' in terms of classifying the world's legal systems. Firstly, the article explains how comparative law has a problematic relationship with religion; secondly, it shows that, despite Christianity having been deemed a thing of the past, its influence can and should also be charted in modern law. I argue for a need to rethink the manner in which Western law is depicted as a thoroughly secular law as opposed to the religious law of exoticised others.

The Social Epistemology of Clinical Placebos.

Many extant theories of placebo focus on their causal structure wherein placebo effects are those that originate from select features of the therapy (e.g., client expectations or "incidental" features like size and shape). Although such accounts can distinguish placebos from standard medical treatments, they cannot distinguish placebos from everyday occurrences, for example, when positive feedback improves our performance on a task. Providing a social-epistemological account of a treatment context can rule out such occurrences, and furthermore reveal a new way to distinguish clinical placebos from standard medical treatments.

Perceptions of Clinical Experience and Scientific Evidence in Medical Decision Making: A Survey of a Stratified Random Sample of Swedish Health Care Professionals.

BACKGROUND: Evidence-based medicine recognizes that clinical expertise gained through experience is essential to good medical practice. However, it is not known what beliefs clinicians hold about how personal clinical experience and scientific knowledge contribute to their clinical decision making and how those beliefs vary between professions, which themselves vary along relevant characteristics, such as their evidence base. DESIGN: We investigate how years in the profession influence health care professionals' beliefs about science and their clinical experience through surveys administered to random samples of Swedish physicians, nurses, occupational therapists, dentists, and dental hygienists. The sampling frame was each profession's most recent occupational registry. RESULTS: Participants (N = 1,627, 46% response rate) viewed science as more important for decision making, more certain, and more systematic than experience. Differences among the professions were greatest for systematicity, where physicians saw the largest gap between the 2 types of knowledge across all levels of professional experience. The effect of years in the profession varied; it had little effect on assessments of importance across all professions but otherwise tended to decrease the difference between assessments of science and experience. Physicians placed the greatest emphasis on science over clinical experience among the 5 professions surveyed. CONCLUSIONS: Health care professions appear to share some attitudes toward professional knowledge, despite the variation in the age of the professions and the scientific knowledge base available to practitioners. Training and policy making about clinical decision making might improve by accounting for the ways in which knowledge is understood across the professions. HIGHLIGHTS: Study participants, representing 5 health care professions-medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, dentistry, and dental hygiene-viewed science as more important for decision making, more certain, and more systematic than their personal clinical experience.Of all the professions represented in the study, physicians saw the greatest differences between the 2 types of knowledge.The effect of years of professional experience varied but tended to be small, attenuating the differences seen between science and clinical experience.

What is the Philosophy of Neurosurgery? Systematic Review and Defining the Discipline.

INTRODUCTION: Despite centuries of joint investigation of philosophy and neurological interventions, a founding account for the philosophy of neurosurgery has yet to be rigorously constructed or defended. This paper reviews recent work on the philosophy of neurosurgery, spanning metaphysics, epistemology, and value theory, to establish a framework and clinical relevance for study in the philosophy of neurosurgery. METHODS: A systematic review of an online database was conducted using the broad search terms, "Philosophy AND (Neurosurgery OR Neurological Surgery)." Records were included if they demonstrated relevance to the philosophy of neurosurgery and analytical rigor, but were excluded if solely legal, clinical, or ethical principles were considered without substantive discussion of underlying ethical frameworks and philosophical principles. RESULTS: Of 8025 candidates from online and print records, 16 records (14 from online sources and 2 from an edited volume) met inclusion criteria for the systematic review. Three dealt with metaphysics, 3 dealt with epistemology, 4 dealt with value theory, 5 dealt with metaphysics/epistemology, and 1 dealt with value theory/metaphysics. Questions of free will, consciousness, personal identity, neurosurgical knowledge, ascription of other minds, deontology, and minimalism, among others, were considered. DISCUSSION: Based on identified studies, the philosophy of neurosurgery is defined as the discipline of rigorously and methodically addressing metaphysical, epistemological, and value-theoretic questions arising from physically intervening in the nervous system. We discuss future directions for questions within the philosophy of neurosurgery and consider their relevance for patient care and the practice of neurosurgery.

Embracing the other: Revisiting the epistemological foundations of family systems therapy.

Family systems therapy originated in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s through the work of innovative thinkers and clinicians. However, despite the creative contributions of the mentioned colleagues and of later innovations in family therapy theory and practice, it seems as though the dominant culture of establishment psychiatry in the United States (and in most Western countries) to this day has not seriously incorporated relationships, social context, or community connectedness into the treatment of individuals with psychiatric diagnoses. For the "psychiatric" patients diagnosed according to the DSM-5, the dominant underlying epistemological perspective is the medical "scientific" paradigm. Within this approach there is a dearth of reflections about the truthfulness of so-called "empirical facts" and a lack of skepticism about the techniques of "measurement" of the psychiatric illness. The alternative, relationship-oriented, context-sensitive, and community-connected thinking paradigm is highlighted here in contrast to the "psychiatric" foundation. This paradigm consists of (a) the awareness that all human Subjects (including "psychiatric" clients) are constituted as such by their relational connection to others; (b) the awareness of our sensitivity to and embeddedness in a socio-economic, cultural, and racial context; and (c) the awareness of our involvement in and connectedness with many kinds of communities.

Evaluating the understanding of the ethical and moral challenges of Big Data and AI among Jordanian medical students, physicians in training, and senior practitioners: a cross-sectional study.

AIMS: To examine the understanding of the ethical dilemmas associated with Big Data and artificial intelligence (AI) among Jordanian medical students, physicians in training, and senior practitioners. METHODS: We implemented a literature-validated questionnaire to examine the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the target population during the period between April and August 2023. Themes of ethical debate included privacy breaches, consent, ownership, augmented biases, epistemology, and accountability. Participants' responses were showcased using descriptive statistics and compared between groups using t-test or ANOVA. RESULTS: We included 466 participants. The greater majority of respondents were interns and residents (50.2%), followed by medical students (38.0%). Most participants were affiliated with university institutions (62.4%). In terms of privacy, participants acknowledged that Big Data and AI were susceptible to privacy breaches (39.3%); however, 59.0% found such breaches justifiable under certain conditions. For ethical debacles involving informed consent, 41.6% and 44.6% were aware that obtaining informed consent posed an ethical limitation in Big Data and AI applications and denounced the concept of "broad consent", respectively. In terms of ownership, 49.6% acknowledged that data cannot be owned yet accepted that institutions could hold a quasi-control of such data (59.0%). Less than 50% of participants were aware of Big Data and AI's abilities to augment or create new biases in healthcare. Furthermore, participants agreed that researchers, institutions, and legislative bodies were responsible for ensuring the ethical implementation of Big Data and AI. Finally, while demonstrating limited experience with using such technology, participants generally had positive views of the role of Big Data and AI in complementing healthcare. CONCLUSION: Jordanian medical students, physicians in training and senior practitioners have limited awareness of the ethical risks associated with Big Data and AI. Institutions are responsible for raising awareness, especially with the upsurge of such technology.

The intersection between logical empiricism and qualitative nursing research: a post-structuralist analysis.

PURPOSE: To shed light on and analyse the intersection between logical empiricism and qualitative nursing research, and to emphasize a post-structuralist critique to traditional methodological constraints. METHODS: In this study, a critical examination is conducted through a post-structuralist lens, evaluating entrenched methodologies within nursing research. This approach facilitates a nuanced exploration of the intersection between logical empiricism and qualitative nursing research, challenging traditional methodological paradigms. RESULTS: The article focusing on the "what abouts" of sample size, analytic framework, data source, data analysis, and rigour and methodological considerations, challenging the predominance of semi-structured interviews and the reliance on spoken voice as primary data sources, and re-evaluating the conventional notion of "rigour". CONCLUSIONS: I advocate for a shift from qualitative positivism towards more interpretive and post-qualitative inquiries, this work proposes new trajectories through interpretive, critical, post-qualitative, and artistic turns in nursing research, aiming to transcend positivist limitations and foster a plurality of perspectives and research as praxis. Implications emphasize the need for nursing researchers to expand methodological horizons, incorporating visual and artistic methods to enrich understanding and representation of health experiences, moving beyond positivist norms towards a more inclusive and ethically sound research paradigm.

Life in Suspension with Death: Biocultural Ontologies, Perceptual Cues, and Biomarkers for the Tibetan Tukdam Postmortem Meditative State.

This article presents two cases from a collaborative study among Tibetan monastic populations in India on the postdeath meditative state called tukdam (thugs dam). Entered by advanced Tibetan Buddhist practitioners through a variety of different practices, this state provides an ontological frame that is investigated by two distinct intellectual traditions-the Tibetan Buddhist and medical tradition on one hand and the Euroamerican biomedical and scientific tradition on the other-using their respective means of inquiry. Through the investigation, the traditions enact two paradigms of the body at the time of death alongside attendant conceptualizations of what constitutes life itself. This work examines when epistemologies of these two traditions might converge, under what ontological contexts, and through which correlated indicators of evidence. In doing so, this work explores how these two intellectual traditions might answer how the time course and characteristics of physiological changes during the postmortem period might exhibit variation across individuals. Centrally, this piece presents an epistemological inquiry delineating the types of valid evidence that constitute exceptional processes post-clinical death and their potential ontological implications.

Occupational therapy's oversight: How science veiled our humanity.

BACKGROUND: Occupational therapy's connection to positivist science predates the profession's formal beginning, with important contributing knowledge sources coming from mathematics, physics, psychology, and systems theory. While these sources of objective knowledge provide a rational, defendable position for practice, they can only explain a portion of what it means to exist as an occupational being. AIMS/OBJECTIVES: This article aims to reveal some of the history of science within occupational therapy and reveal the subjective, ontological nature of doing everyday activities that the profession's preoccupation with positivist science has obscured. METHODS: This research used a history of ideas methodology to uncover how occupational therapy perceived people and how practice was conceptualised and conducted between 1800 and 1980s, as depicted in writing of the time. CONCLUSION: Analysis showed that, through history, people were increasingly categorised and delimited. Practice also became systematically controlled, moving occupational therapy into a theoretical, scientific, and abstract realm. SIGNIFICANCE: The emphasis placed on objectivity diminishes the attention given to human ways of practicing, where the subjective experience is central to our thinking.

Measuring the self and measuring the world.

I evaluate Tanesini's attempt to provide a social approach to intellectual vices. I do this in three steps. First, I explain what I mean by a 'social approach'. Tanesini offers three senses in which her account is social, and I explain each of these before honing in on the one in which I am most interested. Second, I address the extent to which her approach to the causes of intellectual vices can be said to be a social approach. My assessment here will be broadly positive, though I highlight some points where I think more explicit details could be given. Third, I discuss whether Tanesini's approach to responding to intellectual vices is a social one. Here I decide that her approach is not social, and that she doesn't intend it to be. Finally, in the last section, I offer some remarks about what these conclusions mean, and what further work I hope they could provoke.

The social epistemology of eating disorders: How our gaps in understanding challenge patient care.

In this article, I argue that various epistemic challenges associated with eating disorders (EDs) can negatively affect the care of already marginalized patient groups with various EDs. I will first outline deficiencies in our understanding of EDs-in research, healthcare settings, and beyond. I will then illustrate with examples cases where discriminatory misconceptions about what EDs are, the presentation and treatment of EDs, and who gets EDs, instantiate obstacles for the treatment of various ED patient groups.

Healthy Mistrust: Medical Black Box Algorithms, Epistemic Authority, and Preemptionism.

In the ethics of algorithms, a specifically epistemological analysis is rarely undertaken in order to gain a critique (or a defense) of the handling of or trust in medical black box algorithms (BBAs). This article aims to begin to fill this research gap. Specifically, the thesis is examined according to which such algorithms are regarded as epistemic authorities (EAs) and that the results of a medical algorithm must completely replace other convictions that patients have (preemptionism). If this were true, it would be a reason to distrust medical BBAs. First, the author describes what EAs are and why BBAs can be considered EAs. Then, preemptionism will be outlined and criticized as an answer to the question of how to deal with an EA. The discussion leads to some requirements for dealing with a BBA as an EA.