RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION ETHICS (RPE) (COMPULSORY)

Paper Code: 
FSD 145
Credits: 
04
Contact Hours: 
60.00
Max. Marks: 
100.00
Objective: 
  • Examine the philosophy and ethics of research
  • Conduct research in a trustworthy and scientific manner
  • Present research findings in ethical manner
  • Identify good quality journals
  • Develop skills to use databases and research metrics  
  • Contribute effectively in course specific interaction

 

12.00
Unit I: 
Philosophy and Ethics
  1. Introduction to philosophy: definition; nature & scope; concept; branches
  2. Ethics: definition; moral philosophy; nature of moral judgements & reactions

 

6.00
Unit II: 
Scientific Conduct
  1. Ethics with respect to science & research, group discussion on subject specific ethical issues
  2. Intellectual honesty & research integrity
  3. Scientific misconducts: falsification, fabrication, & plagiarism (FPP), group discussion on subject specific FPP issues
  4. Redundant publications: duplicate & overlapping publications, salami slicing
  5. Selective reporting & misrepresentation of data

 

7.00
Unit III: 
Publication Ethics
  1. Publication ethics: definition, introduction & importance
  2. Best practices/standard setting initiative & guidelines: COPE, WAME etc
  3. Conflicts of interest, group discussions on conflicts of interest
  4. Publication misconducts: definition, concept, problems that lead to unethical behaviour & vice versa, types
  5. Violation of publication ethics, authorship & contributor-ship, group discussion on subject specific authorship issues 
  6. Identification of publication misconduct, complaints & appeals, group discussion on examples and fraud from India & abroad
  7. Predatory Publishers & journals

 

7.00
Unit IV: 
Open Access Publishing
  1. Open access publications & initiatives SHERPA/RoMEO online resource to check publisher copyright & self-archiving policies
  2. Journal finder/journal suggestion tools viz. JANE, Elsevier Journal Finder, Springer Journal Suggester etc.
  3. Software tools developed by SPPU to identify predatory publications
  4. Software tools: use of plagiarism software like Turnitin, Urkund, and other open source software tools

 

6.00
Unit V: 
Databases & Research Metrics Databases
  1. Indexing databases                                                                          03 Hrs
  2. Citation databases: Web of Science, Scopus, etc.

Research Metrics                                                                                    03 Hrs

  1. Impact Factor of journal as per Journal Citation Report, SNIP, SJR, IPP, Cite Score
  2. Metrics: h-index, g index, i10 index, altmetrics

 

Essential Readings: 
  • References Bird, A. (2006).  Philosophy of Science.  Routledge. 
  • Mac Intyre, Alasdair (1967) A Short History of Ethics. 
  • London, P. Chaddah, (2018) Ethics in Competitive Research: Do not get scooped;  do not get plagiarized, ISBN: 978 9387480865
  • National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and Institute of Medicine.  (2009). 
  • On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research: Third Edition.  National Academies Press. 
  • Resnik, D. B. (2011).  What is ethics in research & why is it important. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 1–10.  Retrieved from https://www.nichs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/index.cfm
  • Beall, J. (2012).  Predatory publishers are corrupting open access.  Nature, 489 (7415), 179–179.  https://doi.org/10.1038/489179a
  • Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Ethics in Science Education, Research and Governance (2019).  ISBN: 978-81-939482-1-7.  

 

References: 

 

Academic Year: 
2024-25
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