Sir

Using someone else's ideas is regular commercial practice. If these ideas are not patent-protected, so much the better. Ian Taylor

As a physicist working in industry, I read the Commentary article “Scientists behaving badly”, by Brian C. Martinson and colleagues (Nature 435, 737–738; 2005), with interest. The results are largely from scientists in academia. In my experience, some of the behaviours listed as “unacceptable” will seem quite normal to scientists working in industry.

Specifically, using someone else's ideas (misbehaviour no. 5) is regular commercial practice. Virtually all successful businesses are on the lookout for new ideas that can be applied within their own company for the purpose of gaining competitive advantage. If these ideas are not patent-protected, so much the better! Many companies employ scientists specifically to look for such opportunities.

Similarly, publishing the same data in multiple places (misbehaviour no. 11) is not considered ethically dubious if there is no link between the number of publications and promotion prospects, which is generally the case in industry. It could be argued that publishing identical information at geographically dispersed conferences or journals is an aid to scientific communication. It is up to conference organizers and journal referees to police this behaviour if they do not like it.

Finally, withholding details of methodologies (misbehaviour no. 13) presents no ethical dilemma to scientists working in industry. When proprietary tests are developed to give competitive advantage, the results from such tests may be published, but the company should not be expected to divulge the underlying details.