APPE RISESM Releases its Call for Proposals The 2025 APPE RISESM Pre-Conference Symposium invites abstracts describing recent research or activities of interest to the research ethics/integrity community. The theme is "New Frontiers of Research Ethics and Integrity" and it will be held on February 20, 2025 in Norfolk, Virginia as part of the 34th Annual APPE International Conference.
Part of What Makes Us Human (the 2025 APPE conference theme) is the urge to push boundaries and explore the unknown. In the 21st century, this drive is perhaps most evident in the research enterprise, which continually pushes the frontier of human understanding of the world. New technologies, new methodologies, and new fields of study bring both promise and peril for the research community and demand attention from scholars and educators of research integrity.
Submissions addressing any aspect of research integrity are welcome. Topic areas of special interest for this call include: - New technologies in research and their implications for ethics and integrity, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), synthetic data, and immersive technologies;
- New fields of research, such as nutrigenomics and cognitive economics, new engagements with ethics and integrity in established fields of research; and
- New intersections of research integrity and other disciplines/fields/methodologies, such as critical theory, metascience, science policy, and science communication.
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Attend the Ethics Bowl Summer Workshop Current and prospective Ethics Bowl coaches and team members, as well as regional hosts, are encouraged to attend the Ethics Bowl Summer Workshop on July 26 and 27 (12 to 4 p.m., ET). This free, virtual event will feature sessions on topics designed for all types of Ethics Bowlers--coaches, regional hosts, students, newcomers, and veterans. It will also include a mock Ethics Bowl round and breakout discussions. The agenda includes sessions on how to use Ethics Bowl in the classroom, coaching, regional organizing, rules updates, and Ethics Bowl beyond the classroom.
If you are new to Ethics Bowl, we encourage you to watch the "ABCs of the Ethics Bowl" videos, and join us for a Q&A before the workshop begins. Learn more. |
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Teaching Ethics: Volume 23, Number 2
 The latest issue of Teaching Ethics, the journal of the Society for Ethics Across the Curriculum (SEAC), focuses on RCR Education and was guest edited by APPE Board Chair, Dena Plemmons. This special edition features the work of APPE RISESM members who are leading researchers/scholars in this arena.
"APPE’s support of this crucial initiative plays a vital role in promoting and disseminating effective RCR education," said Elaine Englehardt, president of SEAC. "APPE RISE’s impressive focus on developing and implementing best practices in RCR education, while continuing the mission of the original RCRE Consortium, is commendable. This special edition, detailing such important work, is invaluable."
APPE members receive access to current and archived copies of Teaching Ethics, thanks to a partnership with SEAC. For instructions on how to access that benefit, visit the Info Hub and click on Forum. On the right hand side, you'll see a topic called Teaching Ethics which explains how members can access the journal for free. |
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Other News and Updates New Board Members and Ex Officio Board MembersThe new leadership for the APPE Board of Directors officially transitioned on July 1, 2024. We thank outgoing board members Ken Goodman and Elisabeth Hildt for their contributions, and welcome Vivian Altiery de Jesus, Liza Dawson, and Mohammad Hosseini to the board. Julie Pedroni and Jun Fudano were also re-elected to serve their final terms. All will serve a four-year term, except Liza Dawson, who was randomly selected to fill the partial term of Elizabeth Coit, who resigned from her position earlier this year. New Ex-Officio Board Members Sally Moore and Elisa Reverman have each begun a two-year term. These positions are designed to welcome grad students and early career professionals to the board in a non-voting capacity. We thank Lukas Chandler and Vivian Altiery de Jesus for serving in the Ex-Officio role that concluded on June 30, 2024. See our full list of board members.  Help Us Choose Our Next Book Club Meeting TimeThe Ethically Curious Book Club will be reading Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, for its next read. APPE Member Deni Elliott will moderate two one-hour discussions about the book this fall. If you haven't joined the Bookclub officially, you'll need to sign up and join us on Bookclubs.com to participate in the poll. Members can login and respond to their preferred dates and times. Please note your preferences by the end of the month so that we can announce the dates and times in August. APPE Receives Indiana Humanities GrantWe are excited to announce that APPE has been awarded a $3,000 grant from Indiana Humanities, which is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant will support a one-time pilot event of Deliber8, an ethical training program modeled on the Ethics Bowl format, and designed for business, nonprofit, and government leaders. This pilot event will be held at the Prindle Institute for Ethics on Monday, October 7. Learn more. 34th Annual APPE International Conference Information: |
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APPE Member Spotlight  Name: Robert Boyd Skipper, PhD Title/Organization: Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, St. Mary's University, San Antonio, Texas APPE Member since: 2001 Earlier this year, you received the APPE Virtue and Service Award for your dedication and longtime service to the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl. How long have you been involved with the Ethics Bowl and what roles have you served in?In 1999 or 2000, Anne Schubert, in the office next to mine, dragooned me into judging in an ethics-bowl practice for Texas teams going to Cincinnati in spring. The next year, she made me the assistant director of that practice event, and when she left the university the following year I was in charge. It was about that time when I started attending APPE meetings as ethics bowl coach and presenter. So, over the years, I've served as coach, judge, moderator, case writer, regional director, and local coordinator (when the IEB was held in San Antonio). I joined the case-writing committee in 2007, became chair of that committee in 2016, and have been in that position ever since.
You recently wrapped up the case writing retreat for the national case writer team, which was held at the Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University. What is the process of putting together the case set? This most recent retreat was really rewarding and productive, thanks to APPE and the Prindle Institute. We typically gather case ideas for many months in advance and keep that collection on a Google spreadsheet for all the committee members to use. The listing for each idea includes, among other things, its topic (business, medicine, movies, etc.) and its ethical category (free speech, research integrity, confidentiality, etc.) We usually compile about about fifty of these case ideas. Everyone votes on those cases they feel strongly about, either positively or negatively. (Don't vote if it's a "meh.") On the first day of the case-writing retreat we convene as a team and go through the votes, selecting the most popular ones for further development. If there are fewer than seventeen, we start digging into the not-so-popular case ideas. After settling on a good balance of topics and ethical categories, each writer says which of the cases they themselves would like to develop. After that point, it's a few days of writing, critiquing, rewriting, and editing. We meet as a group each day for collective input on all those cases for which the writer wants help or input. At the end of the retreat, I have a set of seventeen cases that are in pretty good shape. I massage them over the next few months before submitting the finished set. Each author must approve any changes I make to their draft.
The team expanded this year and includes several Ethics Bowl alum. What are the skills or backgrounds needed to join the team? We are really open to anyone who wants to make the kind of serious commitment involved: writing, editing, working with others, taking criticism well, and spending a dedicated four or five days during the summer at the retreat, either in person or virtually. Our latest members have all had experience with preparing cases for competition, and most of them have worked on student newspapers. We seek a wide variety of life experiences and interests among our writers. Professional training in ethics is not a requirement, but good writing is. A passionate interest in some oddball topic is a big help.
Tell us about The Decade Project.I'm working my way through a list of about 600 works of great literature. Each week, I read one of these masterpieces, reflect on it, do a little research, and write a reflective essay about it. These essays are not meant to be book reports, literary criticism, or reviews. They are simply my own thoughts about the work. I come at each one naïvely, that is, I don't read about it first; I let the work speak to me without prejudgment. The reflections tend to be between 1,200 and 1,800 words. Anyone interested in subscribing to these weekly reflections, please sign up at http://robertboydskipper.substack.com I love discussing literature with other thoughtful readers. |
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Ethics in the News: - The Assignment: Build AI Tools for Journalists – And Make Ethics Job One (Poynter)
- AI Chatbots Seem as Ethical as a New York Times Advice Columnist (Scientific American)
Jobs & Events Have you seen our job and event emails? Limited free access to post jobs and events of interest in the weekly email (as well as in the Info Hub) is a benefit of membership. If you're a member and would like to submit something for consideration, just login to the Member portal, go to Job & Event Postings and click "add." Non-members can access the jobs and events by creating a login but must pay a fee to list positions and events. Reach out to contact@appe-ethics.org for more info.
We Want to Hear From You! To be featured as a member spotlight or if you have news to share, including books published, send us an email at membernews@appe-ethics.org. |
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Ethics Bowl Case to Consider Overendowed: 2024 APPE IEB® National Case Set As one case in this year's national case set begins, "Institutions such as universities, museums, hospitals, and charitable foundations love their endowments."
It explains the benefit of such endowments: "A big endowment can provide financial stability, limit the need for external funding, and help keep the institution running for generations to come."
But it asks--How big is too big? Read the full case set here (#12), then discuss the questions it raises with your colleagues and friends. |
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