About Us
The Ethics for Authors web site was created in the Fall of 2011 by a team of scholars who collaborate in researching ethical authorship and teaching best practices in academic writing. They all work in different capacities at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and include:
Julia S. Austin (Ph.D., University of Alabama) is Director of Educational Services for the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Graduate School. She holds a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition, an M.A.—TESOL, and an M.A. in English. Dr. Austin founded and currently directs the Graduate School’s Professional Development Program, which offers more than 25 for-credit elective courses in critical skills for researchers, including grant writing, training for teaching assistants, and scientific ethics. She publishes and presents nationally on teacher and professional development as well as scholarly integrity; she is also a principal investigator on several U.S. Department of Education grants.
Tracey Baker (Ph.D., Purdue University) is Associate Professor of English for the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She specializes in Rhetoric and Composition, with particular emphasis on developmental writing and pedagogy. She has co-authored Writing and Synthesis: A Multicultural Approach (HarperCollins, 1993), and her articles have appeared in Journal of Business and Technical Communication, The Writing Center Journal, The Writing Lab Newsletter, Journal of Advanced Composition, Journal of Basic Writing, and TETYC. She is also an editorial reviewer for JAC: A. Journal of Composition Theory and Journal of Business and Technical Communication. Dr. Baker presents and writes nationally on a variety of rhetoric and composition topics, including authorship issues related to academic integrity.
Jeffrey A. Engler (Ph.D. University of Wisconsin) is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics as well as Associate Dean of the Graduate School for the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). An award-winning virologist, Dr. Engler currently serves as an administrator for graduate programming, recruiting top students and facilitating successful mentorship and scholarship. A former editor at the journal Gene, where he served for more than 20 years, he is also a specialist in academic editing, review, and publishing, and has served on more than 100 dissertation committees. Among other grants that he manages, he serves as a principle investigator for UAB’s Project for Scholarly Integrity (PSI) for the Council of Graduate Schools.
Jennifer L. Greer (MAE, University of Alabama at Birmingham) is an Academic Writing Instructor at the Graduate School at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Ms. Greer holds a BA in Journalism and an MA in Education with a specialty in English as a Second Language. She worked as a newspaper and magazine journalist for 20 years, authoring instructional books, articles, and essays. Prior to joining UAB, Ms. Greer served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica, where she was a co-recipient of the John F. Kennedy Award for Volunteers in Inter-America. She presents nationally on scholarly integrity and is working on her Ph.D. in Education, researching ethics for authors in the context of leadership and administration.
Special thanks to Lee M. Smith, Anna C. Lloyd, Thomas J. Harris, Lori Naramore and Kellie Carter at UAB for making this web site possible.