After three of us put together a paper to list the principles of applied ecology (Hone, Drake, and Krebs 2015), I thought that perhaps we might have an additional set of general behavioural principles for ecologists. We might think of using these seven principles as a broad template for the work we do in science.

1. Do good science and avoid opinions that are not based on facts and reliable studies. Do not cite bad science even if it is published in Science.
2. Appreciate and support your colleagues.
3. Because you disagree with another scientist it is not acceptable to be rude, and it is preferable to decide what experiment can solve the disagreement.
4. Adulterating your data to remove values that do not fit your hypothesis is not acceptable.
5. Alternative facts have no place in science. A Professor should not profess nonsense. Nonsense should be the sole prerogative of politicians.
6. Help your fellow scientists whenever possible, and do not envy those whose papers get published in Science or Nature. Your contribution to science cannot be measured by your h-index.
7. We have only one Earth. We should give up dreaming about moving to Mars and take care of our home here.

Many of these principles can be grouped under the umbrella of ‘scientific integrity’, and there is an extensive discussion in the literature about integrity (Edwards and Roy 2017, Horbach and Halffman 2017). Edwards and Roy (2017, pg. 53) in a (dis-) service to aspiring young academics quote a method for increasing an individual’s h-index without committing outright fraud. Horbach and Halffman (2017) point out that scientists and policymakers adopt different approaches to research integrity. Scientists discuss ‘integrity’ with a positive view of ‘good scientific practice’ that has an ethical focus, while policy people discuss ‘integrity’ with a negative view of ‘misconduct’ that has a legal focus.

The immediate problem with scientific integrity in the USA involves the current President and his preoccupation with defining ‘alternative facts’ (Goldman et al. 2017). But the problem is also a more general one, as illustrated by the long discussion carried out by conservation biologists who asked whether or not a scientist can also be an advocate for a particular policy (Garrard et al. 2016, Carroll et al. 2017).

The bottom line for ecologists and environmental scientists is important, and a serious discussion of scientific integrity should be part of every graduate seminar class. Scientific journals should become more open to challenges to papers that use faulty data, and maintaining high standards must remain number one on the list for all of us.

Carroll, C., Hartl, B., Goldman, G.T., Rohlf, D.J., and Treves, A. 2017. Defending the scientific integrity of conservation-policy processes. Conservation Biology 31(5): 967-975. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12958.

Edwards, M.A., and Roy, S. 2017. Academic research in the 21st century: Maintaining scientific integrity in a climate of perverse incentives and hypercompetition. Environmental Engineering Science 34(1): 51-61. doi: 10.1089/ees.2016.0223.correx.

Garrard, G.E., Fidler, F., Wintle, B.C., Chee, Y.E., and Bekessy, S.A. 2016. Beyond advocacy: Making space for conservation scientists in public debate. Conservation Letters 9(3): 208-212. doi: 10.1111/conl.12193.

Goldman, G.T., Berman, E., Halpern, M., Johnson, C. & Kothari, Y. (2017) Ensuring scientific integrity in the Age of Trump. Science, 355, 696-698. doi: 10.1126/science.aam5733

Hone, J., A. Drake, and C. J. Krebs. 2015. Prescriptive and empirical principles of applied ecology. Environmental Reviews 23:170-176. doi: 10.1139/er-2014-0076

Horbach, S.P.J.M., and Halffman, W. 2017. Promoting virtue or punishing fraud: Mapping contrasts in the language of ‘scientific integrity’. Science and Engineering Ethics 23(6): 1461-1485. doi: 10.1007/s11948-016-9858-y.