Shaping research integrity among research postgraduates via a discipline-specific approach to research ethics education

Abstract

To go in line with the significant development of research integrity education for postgraduate students around the globe and to uphold the advocacy of responsible conduct of research across the university campus, all research postgraduates (RPgs) of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) must comply with the HKU Policy on Research Integrity. Besides the fulfilment of general ethics requirements as stipulated by the Policy (e.g., seeking ethical approval before data collection, submitting the full dataset by the time of thesis submission), all RPgs are required to attend two compulsory courses related to the realm of research integrity before the confirmation of their candidature. Both courses intend to train them to become technically and analytically competent as well as sensitive to the ethical, legal, social, and environmental implications of their research. The proposed presentation is to report on these two courses, Thesis Writing and Research Ethics, which are complementary to the intensive formal and informal teaching and mentorship that comes from effective supervision of research and/or research collaboration. evaluate their own and others’ research practices in terms of potential risks and benefits. A number of measures have been adopted to strengthen the two compulsory courses so as to establish a closer connection between the courses and the research disciplines of the postgraduates. Those measures target at the course nature/structure, the design of course materials and activities, the involvement of faculty teachers, faculty deans and the University Librarian, and the use of an internet-based plagiarism detection service and a research ethics and compliance training programme. The presentation will elaborate on these measures adopted so far, as well as their effectiveness, and highlight the challenges in running courses on research integrity in a discipline-specific manner. Ways to tackle these challenges will also be discussed during the presentation.