چیستیِ ژن، کنکاشی تاریخی، زیست‌شناختی، معرفت‌شناختی، و فلسفی

امروزه کمتر شکی در این هست که ایده ی ژن موضوع محوری سازمان دهنده ی زیست شناسی قرن بیستم بوده است. با این حال، روشن است که دانش ژنتیک هیچ گاه تعریف کلی پذیرفته شده ای از مفهوم ژن ارائه نکرده است. درعوض، پژوهش های بیش از یکصد سال اخیر در حوزه ی ژنتیک منجر به ارائه ی مفاهیم متفاوتی از ژن شده، که گاه مکمل هم بوده و گاه هم با هم در تناقض اند. برخی فلاسفه و دانشمندان تلاش کرده اند تا با فروکاست انواع متفاوت مفاهیم ژن، چه به صورت عمودی به یک واحد بنیادی و چه به صورت افقی با جمع کردن آن ها تحت یک واژه ی کلّی، راهکاری برای برون رفت از این وضعیت ارائه کنند. دیگرانی هم راهکارهای کثرت گرایانه تری را دنبال کرده اند. در نتیجه، ژن به یک موضوع داغ در فلسفه ی علم بدل شده که پیرامون اش پرسش های فروکاست، پیدایش، یا فراآیی مفاهیم و نظریه ها (همراه با هستی های شناختی مورد ارجاع شان) مورد بحث های پرشور قرار می گیرند. امّا، تاکنون، تلاش ها برای رسیدن به اجماعی درباره ی این پرسش ها به جایی نرسیده است. امروزه، با تکمیل توالی ژنوم انسان و شروع آنچه که عصر پساژنگان (postgenomic) خوانده می شود، ژنتیک دوباره در حال از سر گذراندن یک تغییر مفهومی است. لذا، مفهوم ژن که از دل یک قرن پژوهش های ژنتیکی به دست آمده، یک مفهوم درتنش بوده و هست.

Gene (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2015)

Quality is assessed on the basis of adequate evidence, while best results of the research are accomplished through scientific knowledge. Information contained in a scientific work must always be based on scientific evidence. Guidelines for genuine scientific research should be designed based on real results. Dynamic research and use correct methods of scientific work must originate from everyday practice and the fundamentals of the research. The original work should have the proper data sources with clearly defined research goals, methods of operation which are acceptable for questions included in the study. When selecting the methods it is necessary to obtain the consent of the patients/respondents to provide data for execution of the project or so called informed consent. Only by the own efforts can be reached true results, from which can be drawn conclusions and which finally can give a valid scholarly commentary. Text may be copied from other sources, either in whole or in part and marked as a result of the other studies. For high-quality scientific work necessary are expertise and relevant scientific literature, mostly taken from publications that are stored in biomedical databases. These are scientific, professional and review articles, case reports of disease in physician practices, but the knowledge can also be acquired on scientific and expert lectures by renowned scientists. Form of text publications must meet standards on writing a paper. If the article has already been published in a scientific journal, the same article cannot be published in any other journal with a few minor adjustments, or without specifying the parts of the first article which is used in another article. Copyright infringement occurs when the author of a new article, with or without mention -ing the author, uses a substantial portion of previously published articles, including past contributions in the first article. With the permission of the publisher and the author, another journal can re-publish the article already published. In that case, that is not plagiarism, because the journal states that the article was re-published with the permission of the journal in which the article is primarily released. The original can be only one, and the copy is a copy, and plagiarism is stolen copy. The aim of combating plagiarism is to improve the quality, to achieve satisfactory results and to compare the results of their own research, rather than copying the data from the results of other people’s research. Copy leads to incorrect results. Nowadays the problem of plagiarism has become huge, or widespread and present in almost all spheres of human activity, particularly in science.Scientific institutions and universities should have a center for surveillance, security, promotion and development of quality research. Establishment of rules and respect the rules of good practice are the obligations of each research institutions, universities and every individual researchers, regardless of which area of science is being investigated. There are misunderstandings and doubts about the criteria and standards for when and how to declare someone a plagiarist. European and World Association of Science Editors (EASE and WAME), and COPE - Committee on Publishing Ethics work-ing on the precise definition of that institution or that the scientific committee may sanction when someone is proven plagiarism and familiarize the authors with the types of sanctions. The practice is to inform the editors about discovered plagiarism and articles are withdrawn from the database, while the authors are put on the so-called black list. So far this is the only way of preventing plagiarism, because there are no other sanctions.