Today, more than ever before, the importance of conducting responsible research is vital. New mass media technologies, allowing for the rapid distribution of news, enable researchers across the world to publicize their latest discoveries to a vast audience. The problem arises when inconclusive research is disseminated, with results that are exaggerated, misinterpreted or even fabricated. We, as...

I. The emergence of the Internet has in many ways facilitated the work of journalists. Informations have become more accessible. It is possible to distribute information and stories with minimal delays in time. New platforms of publication have come about. At the same time, however, journalism as a profession is threatened. The internet has lowered the bar of entry to publishing information and...

In my choice of launching the column with an article on predictive genetic testing, I was inspired by my work in the fi eld of Huntington’s disease. It often led me to think of how I would behave and what decisions I would choose if I were at risk of this fatal disease. The topic also seemed appropriate because of the debate on preimplantation genetic diagnosis at the German Parliament (Bundest...

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While the horror of the Nazi medical experiments has been unanimously acknowledged, debate continues over whether results of those experiments which are scientifically sound should be used and cited in publications and, by extension, over whether any ethically-suspect research should be cited or published. The author consulted persons in such diverse disciplines as medical journalism, Holocaus...

In this paper, we propose a novel text categorization method using trendtracking technique. The method classies texts by tracking the transition of information in them. Therefore, it can deal especially well with texts whose content transits gradually with the passage of time, such as Internet news articles, newspaper articles, or web pages which are often updated. Experimental results show tha...

The proper selection of an agent architecture must take into account the fact that agents inhabit different types of environments. How well an agent can behave depends on the nature of the environment, since some environments are more complex than others. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the treatment of environments’ characteristics can be used to guide selection among agent archite...