Questions for the course "Scientific Methods" with the topics: Research ethics (lecture 4).
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What are research ethics?
Set of ethics that govern how scientific research is performed at research institutions and how is is disseminated
What is a typical and historical practice of research, that is now considered unethical?
Torture or inhumane treatment of research subjects
Milgram experiment of 1961
Principles of research integrity
Honesty
Transparency
Accountability
In the principle of research integrity, what does honesty mean?
Ensuring trustworthiness of research
Requires accurate reporting
What areas are honesty important in?
Presenting, intereting research results
Making claims based on findings
Review research
Acknowledging the work of others (Gift & Ghost authorship)
In the principle of research integrity, what does transarency mean?
Ensures credibility of research
Requires openness
What areas are transparency important in?
Planning research
Applied research methods
Results and conclusions
Conflict of interest
In the principle of research integrity, what does accountability mean?
Ensure all parties involved in the research should be accountable
Researchers need to accept responsibility
What areas are accountability important in?
Accuracy and reliability of results
Adherence to regulations and guidelines
Taking appropriate action in case of misconduct
What regulation are researchers at SDU bound by?
SDU's Review Ethics Committee
The Danish Code of Conduct for Research Integrity
What are typical types of scientific frauds?
Fabrication
Falsification
Plagiarism
Fake peer review
What does scientific fraud, regarding fabrication, mean?
Making up data or results and recording or reporting them
"Filling out" remaining experiment runs
Claims made on incomplete data or assumed results
What does scientific fraud, regarding falsification, mean?
Changing research results (data)
Omitting research results (data)
Manipulation of research materials, equipment, or processes
What does scientific fraud, regarding plagiarism, mean?
Using or representing the work of others as your own work
Citing or using not yet published work
Citing or using not publicly available work
Forgetting to cite
Is using or representing the work of others as your own work, constitutes plagiarism if it is done unintentionally?
Yes
Is the following plagiarism? if so, why?
Original source (Nickerson, 1999):
"In order to communicate effectively with other people, one must have a reasonably accurate idea of what they do and do not know that is pertinent to the communication. Treating people as though they have knowledge that theydo not have can result in miscommunication and perhaps embarrassment."
The work to be reviewed (author, unknown):
"Effective communication depends on a generally accurate knowledge of what the audience knows. If a speaker assumes too much knowledge about the subject, the audience will either misunderstandor be bewildered."
Yes, as paraphrasing still needs to be cited
What are typical types of self-plagiarism?
Using a dataset from a previous study, without making the reader aware
Submitting work for publication, containing conclusions or passages that have been published before, without citing the original source
Publishing similar or identical work in multiple publications / journals
Is the following plagiarism? if so, why?
Article 1 (Krashen, S., 2012):
"Sometimes we have to write long papers, but most of the time, it is unnecessary: the papers often contain long introductions more suitable for doctoral dissertations or review “state of the art” papers apparently designed to provide evidence that the author is well-read."
Article 2 (Krashen, S., 2013):
"Sometimes we have to write long papers to treat a topic adequately, but much of the time, it’s unnecessary: Papers often contain long introductions more suitable for doctoral dissertations, apparently intended to provide evidence that the author is well-read..."
Yes, this is self-plagiarism
Yes, as article 1 is not cited in article 2
Is it allowed to use graphs, charts, figures or images?
Yes, but they must be cited in the caption
Yes, however tables should not be duplicate, it should be a recreation of the data
No, if they are not cited
What is the responsibilities as a researcher?
You must not inflict harm
Do not cause physical or psychological pain
Maintain privacy and confidentiality
Be cautious where data are stored in regards to privacy
You must not deceive
Honest to the participants
Honest to the audience
No laws are broken
In which order, should authorship be given in this case?
"Jamal is a graduate student working under the supervision of professor, Dr. Kerry. Dr. Kerry is conducting research on software security and has collected data from various software systems. Jamal uses Dr. Kerry’s data to investigate a research question he formulated independently, focusing on software vulnerability analysis rather than general software security. His question is his own idea, but is still based on his understanding of software security gained through Dr. Kerry. Jamal’s friend, Darcie, helped Jamal design a specialized software tool for vulnerability detection, but did not contribute in any other way to the research. When writing up his results, Dr. Kerry helped Jamal write the methods section of his manuscript and reviewed his final results and conclusions, as well as the final draft of the entire manuscript"
Ref: University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics. "A Guide to Research Ethics." (2003)
Jamal, Dr. Kerry, Darcie
What is the ethical concercs in the following case?
Students are conducting a study on user behavior in a mobile app. They want to collect user data, including personal information and usage patterns, without explicitly informing the users.
Lack of informed consent
Privacy violation
How would you address the ethical concerns in the following case?
Students are conducting a study on user behavior in a mobile app. They want to collect user data, including personal information and usage patterns, without explicitly informing the users.
Obtain informed consent from users
Inform users about the data collection and usage
Allow users to opt out of data collection
Anonymize the data
Which of the following are examples of plagiarism?
a. quoting a sentence verbatim and citing the author with page number
b. copying and changing a few words in a paragraph without citing the author
c. borrowing an idea from another author and citing them
d. paraphrasing your own previous work with a citation of yourself
b
In the following case, is there any plagiarism and why?
Belinda is publishing her first article that builds on the research of a similar project she did three years prior with her colleague, Isaiah. In Belinda’scurrent article she has placed a graph from the article she and Isaiah co-authored about their previous research. Isaiah created the original graph.
Ref: University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics. "A Guide to Research Ethics." (2003)
Yes, this is plagiarism
Yes, as the graphs have been previously published
Yes, as the idea originated with another entity
What is the ethical concercs in the following case?
Students are conducting a user study to evaluate a new software application. They intentionally select participants who are likely to give positive feedback to validate theirhypothesis.
Bias in participant selection
Manipulation of results
How would you address the ethical concerns in the following case?
Students are conducting a user study to evaluate a new software application. They intentionally select participants who are likely to give positive feedback to validate theirhypothesis.
Random sampling
Objective reporting of results
What is the main ethical concercs in the following case?
A game development student, Alex, is conducting research on player engagement in online multiplayer games. At the same time, Alex's professor, Dr. Harris, serves as a paid consultant for a major gaming company that develops and publishes online multiplayer games.
Conflict of interest
What ethical concerns whould need to be adressed in the following case?
A game development student, Alex, is conducting research on player engagement in online multiplayer games. At the same time, Alex's professor, Dr. Harris, serves as a paid consultant for a major gaming company that develops and publishes online multiplayer games.
Bias in research guidance
Falsification
How would you address the ethical concerns in the following case?
A game development student, Alex, is conducting research on player engagement in online multiplayer games. At the same time, Alex's professor, Dr. Harris, serves as a paid consultant for a major gaming company that develops and publishes online multiplayer games.
Full disclosure
Seek independent review
Separation of roles
Prioritize ethical considerations
What should be done in this case?
Marcus and Clay are game developers collaborating on a research project focused on user feedback for a new mobile game they've created. Clay is responsible for conducting user interviews to gather valuable insights on gameplay and user experiences. One day, Marcus learns that while Clay is interviewing research participants, if he does not elicit an answer, he invents one and passes it off as truthful data collection. Marcus questions Clay and he denies the allegation.
Marcus is obligated to report Clay's activity to the person in charge of the research project
Marcus must continue to go up the chain until with reporting, until action is taken and the behavior stops