Module 4, Session 1: Ethics in Research

[Abosede]

#2986

Edited post

@ Wil, you have touched on very fundamental structures which I think influence prevailing perspectives and approaches to ethics in research.

In response to point 3, my opinion is that some postgraduate students will continue to approach Ethics Committee Boards as another ‘bureaucratic hurdle’ standing in the way of research if the application of certain national and institutional policies are not reconsidered. For example in South Africa, there is a goal to increase doctoral output to 5000 per year by 2030 (National Planning Commission 2011)
https://www.gov.za/documents/national-development-plan-2030-our-future-make-it-work

While it is of utmost importance to accord ethical considerations in research the priority it deserves, negative cognitive structures (e.g. the rat race culture) constructed by the application of such policies need to be redressed through dialogue, role-modelling and sense-making, to allow for robust sense-giving of ethical considerations (including plagiarism policies, over-estimation of research outcomes/under-estimation of ethical issues in research proposals etc.) in research.

[Sukh]

#2988

@Will. I read your comment on Turnitin with interest that you consider it repressive. In my opinion I see it as a formative tool using which students (and supervisors) can use to pick up issues that they might not be aware of. Secondly, I think plagiarism is not always intentional and sometimes when taking notes and writing, one brings in other people’s writing with without realising. Turnitin provides a way to look at your writing with a different set of eyes.

[Wil Hout]

#2990

Dear participants,

Today’s entries to the forum again brought up a number of interesting issues. Let me just respond to a few:

@ Boyaci: your point that pre-research guidance on ethical issues seems rare touches on an important point. Shouldn’t there be more attention to ethical issues to guide students who come to research more or less as novices? Or should we let them discover the right answers themselves? I wouldn’t think so, and would argue there is an important role to play for graduate schools and wider institutions to transfer ethical notions to students.

@ Abosede: I think you make an important point about the negative cognitive structures related to ethical boards. They are often seen as naysayers rather than bodies that represent particular values that need to be upheld — hence my query about the “bureaucratic hurdles”.

@ Sukh: your comment about the possible formative use of plagiarism software is interesting, although it is not my impression that tools such as Turn It In are usually applied in this way. It may be useful if you would explain how TII could be usefully applied in a formative way, and how the formative and repressive use would relate to each other. This may possibly lead to further discussion on this issue.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by Wil Hout.

[Shonisani]

#2995

The specific ethical issues that are particularly pertinent in my field are relating to research with children addressed in the documentation reviewed include consent, protection of child participants, information, confidentiality and anonymity, and financial inducements

Suggestions on how to nurture ethical responsibility in our students should be emphases. Student must nurture ethical responsibility by respecting the rights of children. It is important to recognise and respect the individual qualities and potential of each child and that they are active citizens participating in different communities.Interactions and relationship between children and families with children should be appreciated. it is crucial to nurture all children and their families with special needs and disabilities have access to appropriate support services. Ensure that each child’s culture, language, ethnicity, and family structure are acknowledged and valued. The vulnerability of children and their dependence on adults should be recognised. Treat children as the global citizens with shared responsibilities to the environment and humanity. Consider safetiness and healthy environments which foster children’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical development which respect their contributions to communities and their dignity.

Deliberations about processes for obtaining ethical clearance in my institution student should follow the research ethics protocol application. Any project in which humans are the subject of research requires completion the form and submission, for approval, to the appropriate School Research Ethics Committee which shall recommend the application to the University Research Ethics Committee. The application must be typed and attach proof of registration (If applicable), registration of the Project or approved research proposal y the School Higher Degree Committee, abstract including tools such as questionnaire, consent Form and finally recommendations with all relevant signatures for the approval.

[Charles O]

#2996

Ethical issues that are particularly pertinent in your field – plagiarism and data falsification. use of someone’s work as own is common or without acknowledging the source of the information. In Agric, if field experiments fail, a student might b tempted to “cook” data on parameters being collected.

Suggestions on how to nurture ethical responsibility in our students, or – teach students on ethical research. that the consequences are highly significant in cases of unethical behaviour during research. share of case studies of previous unethical situations that led to termination of degree certificates and career. Provide students with online platforms / applications where they can check cases of plagiarism in their research work or proposals before submission. Rigorously check on unethical data collection 1st start with yourself as a supervisor. Ask Yousef if you are ethical.

Deliberations about processes for obtaining ethical clearance at your institution.
Most Kenyan universities have installed ant-plagiarism app where each students proposal is 1st analyzed for acceptable level of plagiarism. At UoN, ifaa research proposal has more than 15% plagiarism, it is rejected. PhD students are not allowed to proceed with full registration until their research proposal contains less than 15/5 plagiarism

[Charles O]

#2998

Kenyan PG students especially PhD must attach anti-plagiarism report to their proposals for submission for decision making by graduate school

[Nwabisa]

#3005

In my department (Economics), the issue of plagiarism is emphasised right from the first years. It is regarded as a serious offence. Essay submissions should be accompanied by a Turnitin report even though it is not a plagiarism detection tool, but only picks up matching text. The essay is not regarded as good if there is too much matching text.

At Honours level, we run workshops about various aspects of research and ethics is one of the aspects covered. Ethical clearance application can also be done online. The importance of ethical clearance is covered in-depth in those workshops. Ethical clearance is usually required depending on the nature of the research. In my institution, the ethics committee meets once a month to review applications.

[Yakub]

#3014

The Ethics presentation module confirms a very important fact: Scientific inquiry in research calls for ethical considerations. In Kenya, as in most countries worldwide, ethical approach to research is taken seriously. The Kenyan scenario has NACOSTI, an ethics approving institution, to consider all research intentions whether human, environment or animal manifestations. NACOSTI has also devolved this mandate to Universities who eventually have Ethics Review Committees to provide approval certifications before data collection. Ethics in research enhances reliability and validity of any research process and surely protects and respects all forms of participants. Falsehood and dishonesty in data interpretation and presentation will beat the logic of sound scientific philosophy.

The concept of ethics should be inculcated in the PG students to enable them understand that things like plagiarism are unethical. With the easy access to information online, there are higher chances of unethical engagements in the academia. Concerted efforts are hence required to nurture the ethical culture.

[Sioux McKenna]

#3015

Dear CPC colleagues,
We’re holding another of our online seminars today if any of you would like to join, you’re most welcome.
Sioux

Thursday 28 May 4pm to 5:30pm (South African time)

Dr Mlamuli Hlatshwayo, Faculty of Education, UKZN

Dismantling epistemic violence: Explicating the decolonial struggles in higher education transformation

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcucumvqTgrE9CMKxoTpe0flC_1s1Rajri2
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

[Wil Hout]

#3023

Thanks to participants for sharing their thoughts in this forum. I would like to single out two responses for further reflection.

@ Charles O.: You indicate the need to teach students on issues of research ethics. I fully agree with the principle. The key question here is: How? How can we inculcate a critical attitude in students, without making ethical review into something that has to be done for the supervisory bodies?

@ Nwabisa and Charles O.: You both talk about the need to include results from similarity or matching tools. That is fine, but how do we avoid that students treat Turn It In or other software as just another trick they need to apply? How do we guarantee that they do not treat any threshold (whether 15% or else) as something they will need to work around (for instance, by paraphrasing some of the literal, unacknowledged texts they were using before). Do we then consider the work appropriate if the tools indicate similarity of 14.999% or less? More fundamentally, how do we work with students to prevent rather than remedy copying of texts?

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by Wil Hout.

[Kefa S]

#3031

Ethical issues in educational research, just like in any other field of research, is a crucial item. Research participants are often minors, especially when dealing with studies primary, kindergarten and secondary schools! In my experience as a supervisor, so far, compliance to the ethical conduct of research has been smooth! I have, on one occasion, come across a case of non-adherence to confidentiality – in a research report a student failed to conceal the name of a participant! Although the subject of confidentiality has been understood varyingly, especially with regard to failure to conceal names of institutions where researches are conducted, I still find it inappropriate that names of institutions are not concealed!
Postgraduate researchers, in my context, I believe, will still need to be engaged on the subject of research ethics! The fact that fieldwork is carried out largely by students, on their own, may become a context to encourage ‘mischief’! Although accompanying students on fieldwork would be most ideal, the challenge of costs (research budget) has compelled supervisors to rely on ‘trust’.
The procedures for ethical clearance, as we move into the future, at my institution will also need more improvements. So far we are yet to centralise the ethical clearance. This has made the process not to be appreciably standardised for all students! In short, there is still some work to be done!

[Kefa S]

#3032

Ethical issues in educational research, just like in any other field of research, is a crucial item. Research participants are often minors, especially when dealing with studies primary, kindergarten and secondary schools! In my experience as a supervisor, so far, compliance to the ethical conduct of research has been smooth! I have, on one occasion, come across a case of non-adherence to confidentiality – in a research report a student failed to conceal the name of a participant! Although the subject of confidentiality has been understood varyingly, especially with regard to failure to conceal names of institutions where researches are conducted, I still find it inappropriate that names of institutions are not concealed!
Postgraduate researchers, in my context, I believe, will still need to be engaged on the subject of research ethics! The fact that fieldwork is carried out largely by students, on their own, may become a context to encourage ‘mischief’! Although accompanying students on fieldwork would be most ideal, the challenge of costs (research budget) has compelled supervisors to rely on ‘trust’.
The procedures for ethical clearance, as we move into the future, at my institution will also need more improvements. So far we are yet to centralise the ethical clearance. This has made the process not to be appreciably standardised for all students! In short, there is still some work to be done!

[Kefa S]

#3033

Ethical issues in educational research, just like in any other field of research, is a crucial item. Research participants are often minors, especially when dealing with studies primary, kindergarten and secondary schools! In my experience as a supervisor, so far, compliance to the ethical conduct of research has been smooth! I have, on one occasion, come across a case of non-adherence to confidentiality – in a research report a student failed to conceal the name of a participant! Although the subject of confidentiality has been understood varyingly, especially with regard to failure to conceal names of institutions where researches are conducted, I still find it inappropriate that names of institutions are not concealed!
Postgraduate researchers, in my context, I believe, will still need to be engaged on the subject of research ethics! The fact that fieldwork is carried out largely by students, on they’re own, may become a context to encourage ‘mischief’! Although accompanying students on fieldwork would be most ideal, the challenge of costs (research budget) has compelled supervisors to rely on ‘trust’.
The procedures for ethical clearance, as we move into the future, at my institution will also need more improvements. So far we are yet to centralise the ethical clearance. This has made the process not to be appreciably standardised for all students! In short, they’re is still some work to be done!

[Wil Hout]

#3058

The comment by Kefa S on the requirement of anonymity of institutions, especially when vulnerable groups are involved as the subject of research, is very relevant. It is very important to engage with this issue.

[Damiannah Kieti]

#3061

From my discipline, research involves different stakeholders groups, which bring with them several ethical aspects for consideration. Such groups include the government, research participants, the scientific community, sponsors or clients, local communities/host communities among others. To society and the government, some of the ethical responsibilities/concerns include human rights, protection of rights of organizations participating in research, government requirements for undertaking research among others. Ethical considerations with regard to research participants include but not limited to: physical harm, psychological harm, legal harm, informed consent, confidentiality and voluntary participation. For researchers/students, ethical considerations relate to research misconduct such as fraud and fabrication, plagiarism, abuse of power of position, bias and use of inappropriate methodology.
Some of the ways of fostering ethical responsibilities in our students include; ensuring that students understand ethical issues in research, particularly, those applicable to their discipline; providing guidance on key relevant ethical codes; the roles of different bodies/authorities; procedures for acquiring ethical clearance, use of ant-plagiarism software, encouraging students to take personal responsibilities of their action, just to mention a few.
Again, creating conducive environment that allows ethical practices to prevail is important.

[Author]

Posts