What is social responsibility? The perspective of the researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico

Social responsibility is one of the most important traces of scientific ethics. Its main implications are related to the usage and generation of new knowledge and its consequences. According to  the Declaration on Science and the Use of Scientific Knowledge (UNESCO, 1999), the practice of scientific research must consider the well being of human kind, this includes to fight against poverty, to respect  human dignity and human rights,  to ensure environmental development and to assume our responsibility towards present and future generations. The Declaration also entails the commitment to certain standards of quality and scientific integrity that researchers must respect when generating knowledge and socializing new generations of professionals. Therefore, it is important to investigate how researchers put into practice the aforementioned principles in their day to day labor.

This paper presents the results obtained from interviews made to researchers from the Institute of Biotechnology and the Center for Energy Research, both from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). We asked researchers their point of view about the relation between responsibility, society and the principles that should lead education of new scientists. One of the most important results was the definition of responsibility given by our interviewees. They held that “being responsible” means to give back society what it is invested in research and the education of human resources. Talking about the values that underlie scientific ethics, the interviewees highlighted different aspects such as: autonomy, responsibility, respectfulness, honesty, creativity, accuracy to scientific labor and capacity for collaborative work. Finally, it should be noted that here we are presenting some partial result of a broader research carried out as part of our participation in a Doctoral Program.