996012 Good Scientific Practice (WS) (SoSe 2023)

Hair-raising cases of scientific misconduct—e.g., unethical experiments, fabrication of data, and extensive plagiarism—receive a fair bit of media attention. However, not only such cases, but also less spectacular, probably more common forms of scientific misconduct undermine the necessary trust of scientists in each other, as well as society’s trust in science (where “science” includes all academic disciplines).

For this reason, the German Research Foundation (DFG) has come up with recommendations for the safeguarding of good scientific practice. The workshop is based on these recommendations and addresses topics such as:

Local, national and international rules and regulations of good scientific practice
Ethical issues of research design: Are all research question and methods permissible?
Handling data (e.g., from surveys): Dos, don’ts, caveats
Handling the work of others: Plagiarism, ghost-writing, self-plagiarism
Publishing and authorship: Predatory publishing, criteria of authorship
The relationship of supervisors and supervisees
Conflicts of interest in academic research
Institutional handling of scientific misconduct

After a general introduction to the idea of good scientific practice, we will work on concrete topics such as these.

A better understanding of good scientific practice will help you to avoid accidental misconduct, to recognise questionable behaviour of others and to deal with it appropriately. It will also improve your research and, since good scientific practice is increasingly enforced by the institutions of science, your chances for future research funding.

Methods

The workshop will be conducted in attendance. We will address and use different methods to approach issues of good scientific practice, e.g., case discussions, moral dilemmas, ethical decision-making. Since you should engage with the topic actively, an emphasis of the workshop will be on discussion, group work and exercises.

Requirements

The workshop does not presuppose any prior instruction in good scientific practice.

Two weeks before the workshop, particpiants will receive some tasks for preparation (about 1 hour of work), which must be completed until one week before the workshop.

Please register for the workshop here: https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/(en)/verwaltung/dezernat-p-o/pe-wissenschaft/fortbildung/pe/anmeldung/index.xml