Question

Ethical writing and scholarship is based on an implicit contract between the author and readers, whereby readers assume that what they read is accurate, has been written by the author, and has:

Answer 1

I believe the answer is: Not been disseminated before unless noted otherwise.

This ethical perception exist to held the writers accountable for the validity of things that they wrote. Since it is an ethical standard, technically the writers would not face legal punishment as long as they made a dissemination when the things they wrote are proven to be wrong.