Background

The professional code that is presented here traces its origins to an Educational Policies Board (EPB) project (initiated under the leadership for former chair Jo Sprague).  Since then, the EPB, the Research Board, the Publications Board, and the Interboard Committee have continued it as a project and contributed to its present form.  The project has received considerable staffing assistance from the National Office, most notably form Bill Eadie.

The impetus for the development of the code was two fold.   The National Office had previous reported that it received calls form members asking for guidance on issues related to professional conduct.  In the absence of an approved code, the National Office was not able to respond to the requests.  Second, the leadership of NCA expressed the opinion that the development of such a code was a basic responsibility of a professional association.

The process employed to develop the code has involved several steps.  First, individual codes were developed separately be each of the three boards that constitute the Interboard Committee.  The National Office combined those three sections into a single document that contained considerable overlap and some gaps in content.

Next, the National Office staff  reviewed the existing literature on ethics, professional codes, and codes published by other academic associations.  The NCA draft was modified when necessary to incorporate ideas found in this literature.  It should be noted that the draft NCA code borrows heavily from the one published by the American Sociological Association (with permission form ASA).  In all cases, the additions drawn from the literature and from other associations were reviewed by the three boards and were modified when necessary to reflect issues related to the communication discipline.

Simultaneous with the review of published material from other associations was the conduct of focus groups of NCA members during the 1997 convention.  Members were asked to comment upon the need for a code and for specific issues that should be addressed. This input was also used to draft the NCA code and was reviewed by the three boards. Next, the draft code was reviewed by members of the Communication Ethics Commission at their summer conference at Gull Lake.  Individual members of that group also consulted directly on the drafting of the code.  The Summer Conference to develop a Credo on Communication Ethics was a result of the involvement of the commission in the professional code project.   Finally, a draft of the code was published on the NCA WWW site and members were asked to make comments and suggested changes.  Those changes were incorporated into a new draft which was then submitted to the three boards for review.  The AC reviewed the Code and suggested further changes in wording prior to submitting the code to the Legislative Council for their consideration.

The code

The National Communication Association believes that responsible behavior is a hallmark of professionalism in communication. We believe that responsible behavior is guided by values such as:

integrity

fairness

professional and social responsibility

equality of opportunity

confidentiality

honesty and openness

respect for self and others

freedom and safety

The guidelines that follow offer means by which these values can be made manifest in our teaching, research, publications, and professional relationships with colleagues, students, members of the community, and in society as a whole.

This code and its guidelines are intended to remind those in the discipline of accepted standards of professional conduct, and they serve at least three broad functions:

        to highlight professional responsibilities and issues relevant to members of the communication discipline;

        to stimulate personal reflection as well as public discussion of the professional implications of our disciplinary goals and practices; and

        to set forth behaviors that are appropriate for communication professionals.

Teaching

 Our primary responsibilities as communication teachers rest in being knowledgeable, communicating what we know in a fair and accurate manner, acting as role models for students, and establishing relationships with students that enhance learning and encourage students to behave responsibly.

Integrity

Most important is the area of academic integrity. As teachers, we maintain high standards of academic integrity by:

Teaching only those courses for which we have academic preparation, and/or appropriate support and supervision when relevant; that is, preparation in the subject matter area and knowledge of current thinking and research related to the course material.

Encouraging students to become engaged in learning, to think critically about the material they encounter, whether through readings, web searches, lectures, or other means of acquiring information, to reflect on what they learn and, when appropriate, to disagree with what is presented; and to participate as/when appropriate with faculty and other students in research projects and activities.

Acknowledging scholarly debates where they exist and helping students understand the nature of scholarly controversy,  while giving due consideration to the premise that not all ideas are inherently equal or worthy of support and acceptance.

Engaging in classroom practices only to the extent that one is qualified to do so.  In designing classroom activity, communication teachers avoid putting students at psychological or emotional risk.

Using with care exercises or assignments that may conflict with the closely-held values of students.

Communication teachers display personal integrity in the classroom by their own use of responsible behaviors and by refusing to encourage or tolerate irresponsible behavior.

Fairness, freedom and safety

 As communication teachers, we strive to treat all students fairly; we model fairness in the classroom and require that students value fairness by insisting on respectful and civil expression when discussing differing viewpoints. We encourage listening to others and presenting ideas as accurately as possible, given constraints on information and judgment, while acknowledging differences in points of view and personal biases. We provide, and encourage students to provide, constructive feedback to others in the class while acknowledging the value of opposing arguments and evidence. We try to foster freedom of expression and a safe classroom environment in which students communicate candidly and thrive intellectually.

Respect for self and others

We respect and honor the responsible presentation of  ideological and culturally-based differences in communication styles in and outside the classroom. That respect calls for encouraging students to communicate in multiple ways, depending on what is most appropriate and effective for given contexts and communication goals. We strive to treat all students with respect while recognizing how our personal pre-dispositions or biases may influence our interactions with students.

Confidentiality, honesty and openness

We demonstrate respect for students by acts of confidentiality, keeping grades and other personal information about students as private as possible given cultural and legal conventions governing such matters. In educational and professional matters we are honest and open: we present course objectives and requirements fully and communicate clear criteria for grading and evaluating student achievement. We present ourselves honestly and openly to students and others as professional circumstances warrant, in particular through accurately describing our professional credentials, qualifications, and knowledge.

Equality of opportunity

We endeavor to assess student learning using methods and instruments that give students a fair opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. We make every effort to accommodate the needs of students with learning disabilities. We assess students’ work based on the quality of content, and on the argument made for the interpretation offered.

Research and Creative Activity

 Communication research and creative activity takes many forms, but there are principles that apply to a communication researcher, no matter what form of research is utilized. The ethics of social scientific research has received attention from other scholarly societies, because those studies rely most heavily on the interaction between researcher and person(s) being researched. This document will be accessible through NCA’s website (www.natcom.org). The website will contain links to organizations whose guidelines provide additional detail with respect to research protocols. Researchers are encouraged to review guidelines from professional associations as relevant to their research and creative activity interests.

Some principles of particular relevance to the research practices of communication researchers need to be articulated, however.

Integrity

The goal is to generate knowledge about communicative phenomena in which both the scholarly community and the public can have a high level of confidence.

Confidentiality

Researchers and those engaged in creative activity should uphold the confidentiality and autonomy of participants as set forth in informed consent documents sanctioned by an institution’s “use of human subjects” protocols.

Professional responsibility

Professional responsibility requires that communication researchers know and comply with the legal and institutional guidelines covering their work. They do not use the work of others as their own, plagiarizing others’ ideas or language or appropriating the work of others for which one serves as a reviewer. Criticism of another’s language, ideas, or logic is a legitimate part of scholarly research, but communication researchers avoid ad hominem attacks. Avoiding personal attack does not mean that critics or reviewers refrain from commenting directly and honestly on the work of others, however. Communication researchers share credit appropriately and recognize the contributions of others to the finished work. They also decide through mutual consultation whether authors should be added or deleted from the finished product.

Honesty and openness

Responsibility to others entails honesty and openness. Thus, communication researchers:

Obtain informed consent to conduct the research, where appropriate to do so.

·       Avoid deception as part of the research process, unless the use of deception has been approved in advance by an appropriate review body.

·       Provide adequate citations when available and relevant in research reports to support theoretical claims and to justify research procedures.

·       Disclose results of the research, regardless of whether those results support the researcher’s expectations or hypotheses.

·       Do not falsify data or publish misleading interpretations of events or of results.

·       Report all financial support for the research and any financial relationship that the researcher has with the persons or entities being researched, so that readers may judge the potential influence of financial support on the research results.