Aims
This course introduces PhD students from the humanities to a range of basic concepts, principles, and norms concerning Responsible Conduct of Research. By stimulating reflection, awareness, and discussion of academic integrity and good scientific conduct, the course contributes to the students’ ability to conduct research in accordance with scholarly and societal rules, principles, and guidelines, as well as current practices at the University of Southern Denmark.

The course addresses scholarly, ethical, and legal aspects of the research process, including: research planning; data management (covering also information sources); key elements of scholar publishing, authoring and authorship.

Facilitating students’ reflections on methodological and ethical questions and requirements in their research, as well as their understanding of wider issues pertaining to research integrity, the course is designed to scaffold the academic socialisation that takes place in the various research groups, research centres, departments, and PhD schools.

Course description
The course consists of four modules:
• Module 1: Academia and Responsible Conduct of Research
• Module 2: Laws and regulations
• Module 3: Research data management
• Module 4: Publication, authorship, and peer reviewing
The form of the four modules varies:
• Module 1: Introductory lectures with group assignments
• Module 2: E-based module (app. 1-2 hours work load)
• Module 3: E-based module (app. 1-2 hours work load)
• Module 4: Introductory lecture with group assignments
For each module there is approximately two hours of preparation and/or follow-up. All four modules must be completed.

* PhD students that work with very sensitive data may follow a more comprehensive version of this module, offered by the PhD School at the Faculty of Health Sciences. To determine which version of the module to attend, contact your supervisor, the head of your PhD school, or contact the RCR course coordinator from the library Lone Bredahl Jensen (lbredahl@bib.sdu.dk).

** PhD students that work with large amounts of quantitative data may follow a more comprehensive version of this module, offered by the PhD school at for instance the Faculty of Health Sciences or at the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences. To determine which version of the module to attend, contact your supervisor, the head of your PhD school, or contact the RCR course coordinator from the library Lone Bredahl Jensen (lbredahl@bib.sdu.dk).

Module 1: Academia and Responsible Conduct of Research

Learning objectives

Knowledge and understanding
• The students have a basic understanding of the dynamics that guide the academic field, including an understanding of the function of explicit statements of research integrity principles
• The students have an advanced understanding of the principles of responsible conduct of research
Skills
• The students can distinguish between responsible and irresponsible conduct of research
• The students can account for their own research projects in terms of the principles of Responsible Conduct of Research

Competences
• The students can actively integrate the principles of Responsible Conduct of Research into their own research practice, and disseminate these principles as peers, supervisors and teachers.
Content
• Responsible Conduct of Research
• Why RCR in the humanities? Fields, interests, agents, and dynamics
• Research misconduct, academic carelessness, and temptations for cheating – active and passive forms of misconduct
• Research ethics
• Conflicts of interest
• Individual and collaborative research

Readings
• Singapore Statement on Research Integrity (https://www.wcrif.org/documents/327-singapore-statement-a4size/file)
• The Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science. The Danish Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. November 2014. (https://ufm.dk/publikationer/2014/the-danish-code-of-conduct-for-research-integrity)
•Israel, Mark (2016). Research Ethics and Integrity for Social Scientists. Beyond Regulatory Compliance. 2^nd ed. SAGE. Chapter 1-2. (http://methods.sagepub.com.proxy1-bib.sdu.dk:2048/book/research-ethics-and-integrity-for-social-scientists-2e)

 Assessment 

To earn course credits, each participant are required to submit:
• Before module: ½ page description of the participant’s PhD project, for group feedback. On course day 1, participants will be asked to give comments to group members’ project descriptions.
• After module: one page essay where the participant briefly discusses how the PhD project relates to the principles of Responsible Conduct of Research. The essay must take the course outcomes into consideration.

Teachers
Caroline Schaffalitzky de Muckadell
Lone Bredahl Jensen

Module 2: Laws and regulations

Learning objectives

Knowledge and understanding
• The students have a basic understanding of the legal regulation of research in Denmark
• The students have a basic understanding of copyright legislation in Denmark
Skills
• The students can identify works protected by copyright
• The students can reflect on issues with research data according to property rights
• The students can distinguish citation and fair use from plagiarism
• The students are aware of the contentious issues regarding the principles of authorship
• The students are aware the rules for printing, copying and scanning works to the teaching assignments

Competences
• The students can relate ethical and legal issues to the individual research field.
• The students can understand, reflect on and assess relevant aspects of ethical and legal issues concerning their research and teaching assignments.
Content
• Research & copyright
• Who owns the research (research data & property rights)
• Plagiarism, source references and good citation practice
• Teaching & copyright
Form
This module is an online learning module that can be accessed via Blackboard in the RCR-HUM Course. The module will be open after the day of teaching Module 1.

Assessment
To earn course credits, each participant must follow and complete the online module. The module contains various learning objects (reading materials and videos) integrated with ongoing tasks that train and challenge understanding, reflection, and awareness about legal issues related to scientific work. As part of the module, participants are required to complete a multiple choice test on issues of law, authorship, plagiarism, and copyright in relation to their own PhD project.

Web facilitators
Jens Dam
Kirstin Remvig

Module 3: Research data management

Research data in the context of the humanities could be derived or compiled resulting from processing or combining 'raw' data (e.g., text and data mining, compiled databases), and/or they could also be reference or canonical meaning a static or organic conglomeration or collection of datasets, probably published and curated (e.g., collection of letters, archive of historical images).

Learning objectives

Knowledge and understanding
• The students have a basic knowledge about the relevant laws, policies, and codes of conduct regarding research data
• The students have a basic understanding of the diverse nature of research data in the humanities
• The students have a basic understanding of the ethical dimensions of research data in the humanities and the rationale behind them
Skills
• The students can write a data management plan
• The students can identify and locate relevant information and guidance in the context of their own project
Competences
• The students can reflect on issues pertaining to research ethics within empirical research in the humanities
• The students can create data management plans for future research projects
• The students can navigate between the demands and expectations of the research community, peers, supervisors, research funders, governments, and the public

Content
• Expectations of research and researchers from funders, institutions and society
• Rules and regulations regarding research data
• The Data Life Cycle
• Research data management - handling and keeping research data
• Sharing and preserving research data
• Types of misconduct regarding research data

Readings
• Corti, Louise (2014). Managing and Sharing Research Data: A Guide to Good Practice. 1st edition. Chapter 3. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
• SDU Guidelines

Form
This module is an online learning module that can be accessed via Blackboard in the RCR-HUM Course. The module will be open after the day of teaching Module 1.

Assessment
To earn course credits, each participant must follow and complete the online module. The module contains various learning objects (reading materials and videos) integrated with ongoing tasks that train and challenge understanding, reflection and awareness about issues pertaining to data management.

After the module, participants are required to produce a data management plan for their project OR – in case no empirical research data are collected (interviews, survey, participant observation etc.) – write a one page essay in relation to own PhD project. The essay should reflect on the nature of data in the participant’s own project, and discuss possible ethical considerations in relation the nature of and rights to the data.

Web facilitators
Evgenios Vlachos

Module 4: Publication, authorship, and peer reviewing

Learning objectives

Knowledge and understanding
• The students have a basic understanding of the publication process from submission to published research.
• The students are familiar with norms and conventions in different publication processes and formats.
• The students have a basic understanding of key elements of scholarly publishing, authoring, and reviewing, including publication strategies.
• The students are familiar with research registration, bibliometrics/impact factors, Open Access publishing, and dissemination of published work.
Skills
• The students can discover both intended and unintended research misconduct in publication processes and formats.
• The students can identify publication channels relevant for their own project.
Competences
• The students can apply their awareness of both regular research misconduct and unintended rule-breaking in order to avoid misconduct themselves, and in order to guide and advise others on avoiding misconduct.
• The students can engage in scholarly publication practices, both as author, reviewer, and supervisor.
Content
An introduction to key elements in scholarly publication, understood as the practices whereby members of the scientific community produce and disseminate professional academic knowledge to advance their disciplines. Being part of such communities entails – apart from research integrity and ethics – also disciplinary learnedness and authorship, i.e. the procurement, assessment, and knowledge of scholarly information and information resources; the dissemination, quality control, and authoring involved in scholarly communication; and contributing to the canonical knowledge base through research documentation. The module focuses on the publication process, including intended and unintended misconduct and strategic considerations.

Readings
• COPE website (https://publicationethics.org/)
• ICMJE’s “Vancouver Protocol” (http://www.icmje.org/)
• EASE’s guidelines and toolkits (http://www.ease.org.uk/)

Assessment
After the module, participants are required to submit a one-page publication strategy. Subsidiarily, students can write a one-page essay concerning any experience the student may have had with publication. The essay must take the course outcomes into consideration.

Teacher
Sune Vork Steffensen 
Lone Bredahl Jensen