DS: MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) - Academic Integrity & Ethics in Practice
Topic outline
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In your doctoral study, most of you will complete an actual research project – your doctoral thesis. An important part of competence of any scientist and scholar are their research integrity and knowledge of research ethics. Such concepts may sound a little dry to you. Understanding the rules of good research practice, however, is critical for successful completion of your study and for your future career – not only in academic environment. Many of the skills and attitudes you are going to practice in this course will prepare you for success beyond academia.
More specifically, you will learn about:
1) Why is researcher’s integrity so important and what is research ethics
2) Ethical frameworks and how they help with decision making
3) Tools to enhance the transparency of your research and to avoid some threads to its quality
4) Informed consent and protection of human participants in research
5) Supervision and mentoring in academic environment
6) Collaborating with others in research teams
7) Some ethical challenges in contemporary research environment
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In previous learning units, we discussed problems of contemporary scientific research as reproducibility crisis and loss of public confidence. Sometimes such problems are caused by purposeful misconduct (e.g. data fabrication or falsification). But even when irreproducible or poor-quality research results from negligence, inattention or non-reporting all important information, it still has serious consequences for science and society. To enhance the quality of research, scientific community created guidelines and standards for reviewing previous research, reporting used methods, analyzing data etc. In this learning unit, you will get to know some general and disciplinary standards that might inspire you when writing your master thesis. You will also reflect on your possible bias.
After going through this unit, you are able to:
- explain the importance of systematic and transparent research processes,
- apply some criteria of quality to literature review and empirical research within your master's thesis,
- understand different types of bias and conflicts of interests a avoid them in your research,
- write a short subjectivity (reflexivity) statement.
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