Research Ethics and Research Integrity

Timetable

Thursdays 16:45 (4:45 p.m.) room 215, Building 89C, 2nd Floor (Dept. of Philosophy), Campus Ogrody, Poznań

Module aim (aims)

Students shall be introduced research freedom, research integrity, elements of publication ethics (including authorship, AI contribution, paper mills); Students develop a research-related ethical competence, e.g., providing a research statement and an ethical self-assessment (statement) in all types of research area and projects, applying for an approval of a relevant Ethics Committee.  

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Students shall be able to edit a training research project acording to their interest as for ex. bachelor thesis including an interview with human participants (lengtg: approximately 4 pages; this task takes ca. 25 hours = 1 ECTS) according to guidelines provided by the Teacher; deadline for submission of the training project: 5th week (first deadline) or 6th week (second deadline). Edition of an individual ethical statement referring exactly to that project follows due to 10th week (first deadline) or 11th week (second deadline) (this task takes ca. 25 hours = 1 ECTS); reading materials and documents in English (this task takes ca. 25 hours = 1 ECTS); preparation for final presentation and discussion (this task takes ca. 25 hours = 1 ECTS). 

Syllabus

Week 1: Research freedom; challenges and regulations now and then  

 

Week 2: The history of science (across disciplines, colonial appropriation, malpractices)

 

Week 3: Pre-disciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, crossdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity, post-disciplinarity; specialization and departementalisation of knowledge and research

 

Week 4: Preparing an individual training research project (instruction; construction; methodological statement) 

 

Week 5: International ethical guidelines & good practices for those conducting research with human participants (biomedical and non-biomedical), on human tissues and cells; in multinormative contexts, e.g., indinenous, sacral, politically demanding; on natural environment, etc. (research integrity I) 

 

Week 6: National guidelines (Student kindly asked to provide brief information about the Ethics Committee and ethical guidelines from their domestic contexts/home university sites and bring it to class on this day) (research integrity II)

 

Week 7: Discussing training research projects submitted by Students to identify ethical issues 

 

Week 8: 'Tailoring' an individual Ethical Statement (training statement) suitable for each individual project (instruction)

 

Week 9: Data categories, access, protection & data statement 

 

Week 10: Research on social media 

 

Week 11: Applying for an approval (step by step) of a relevant Ethics Committee/Ethical Board

 

Week 12: Authorship, plagiarism, ghost writing, paper mills. 

 

Week 13: Generative AI in studies and research.

 

Week 14: Glossary of research ethics; Q & A 

 

Week 15: Mini-conference for the whole group (self-presentation by each participant about their training project, ethical statement, further prospects, discussion)  

Reading list

Nowak Ewa, Mazur Paweł, "Research Freedom and Access to Knowledge..." (2024); Iphofen Ron (ed.), Finding Common Ground: Consensus in Research Ethics Across the Social Sciences, Emerald Publishing Limited, 2017; Emmerich Nathan (ed.), Virtue Ethics in the Conduct and Governance of Social Science Research, Emerald Publishing Limited, 2018; Dodd Savannah (ed.), Ethics and Integrity in Visual Research Methods, Emerald Publishing Limited, 2017; Woolfield Kandy (ed.), The Ethics of Online Research, Emerald Publishing Limited, 2017; George Lili, Tauri Julian (ed.), Indigenous Research Ethics: Claiming Research Sovereignty Beyond Deficit and the Colonial Legacy, Emerald Publishing Limited, 2020; Pimple Kenneth (ed.), Research Ethics, Ashgate, 2008; 3 x R principle in research on animals; excerpts and documents selected and updated according to the fields of study/research disciplines represented by participants, e.g.:

– the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity ALLEA – Revised Edition 2023 

– Clinical and Laboratory Good Practice