Exploring Scientific Ethics Requirements for U.S. Undergraduate Students in Physics

In the scientific professions, ethics address interpersonal topics (e.g., equity and inclusion; workplace conduct) as well as topics surrounding scientific conduct (e.g., preventing data falsification). The APS Ethics Committee was established in 2018 in order to address these issues within the American physics community. Additionally, the APS adopted a robust written stance on scientific ethics in 2019 with Statement 19.1, Guidelines on Ethics. As professional scientific bodies work towards creating a more ethics-conscious community, one might wonder whether U.S. colleges are preparing STEM students to join such a community. At Eastern Michigan University, PHY 406: Ethical Issues in Physics is required for a B. S. in Physics. We examined whether this is a common requirement of Bachelor degrees in Physics among 10 institutions in each of four categories: large private, large public, small private, and small public. Searching each course catalog for physics courses using keywords "ethics," "research conduct," etc. yielded few results: when available, these courses tend to be electives–not requirements. We repeated this process for Biology and Chemistry B.S. degrees. Our data suggest that when scientific ethics courses are offered, they tend to be offered only to Biology or Chemistry students; when they are offered to Physics students, such courses are not required for graduation.