Making your data and writing useful and ethical

This week we explore how to share research responsibly: pairing FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) with CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics). We connect these ideas to ethical persuasive writing, statistical honesty, and the differences between scientific, creative, and encyclopedic writing. The slides give more detail, as well as references.

Key Topics

• FAIR principles — why each principle matters:
  • Findable: so others (and your future self) can actually discover the work.
  • Accessible: so once found, the work can be retrieved safely and clearly.
  • Interoperable: so work can combine with other work across tools and languages.
  • Reusable: so the community can build on it—thanks to documentation and licensing.
• Open licences and the Open Definition; when and when not to use open licences.
• CARE principles
  • Collective Benefit: Who gains from sharing this data?
  • Authority to Control: Who decides how it can be used?
  • Responsibility: Are researchers accountable to those represented?
  • Ethics: How can openness coexist with respect and consent?
• Case study: Archive of Our Own (AO3) as a FAIR+CARE success in a creative community.
• Ethical persuasive writing — how to argue fairly without manipulating evidence.
• How (not) to lie with statistics — avoiding cherry-picking, truncated axes, and hidden uncertainty.
• When results surprise you — honest reporting, alternative explanations, and learning from unexpected findings (applies to found data as well as your own).
• Writing styles — Scientific, Creative, Encyclopedic and how audience/purpose shape tone.

In-Class Activity

Students will audit one or more of their sources for FAIR/CARE issues (findability, access, interoperability, reuse; benefit, control, responsibility, ethics) and share observations from last week’s annotated bibliography.

Why this matters

• FAIR practice makes research verifiable and sustainable.
• CARE ensures openness does not harm people or communities.
• Sound governance upstream prevents misleading communication downstream.

Assignments

• Discussed: Annotated bibliography (≥5 sources with comments).
• Due next week: First draft of your paper (follow scientific writing conventions; cite sources you have actually read and understood).