Legal and Ethical Aspects of Research

In the wake of recent scandals in some European and American Universities, academic misconduct is now high on the agenda.

The course will create awareness towards academic integrity by presenting the legal and ethical issues in research and publication; thus it will focus noteworthy on truthfulness, plagiarism, non- discrimination and specific legal issues like copyright and personal data protection.

Teaching method

The course will combine lecturing, group work and case studies. As legal and ethical questions substantially overlap and are blurred at the same time, the course consist of co-teaching (and cross-dialogue) between two professors one of ethics, and one of law.

Content

After a short introduction devoted to freedom of research in open democratic societies, the first workshop deals with a case of plagiarism and ethical misconduct. We look at a published case and the consequences not only for the person who committed plagiarism, but also for the university in general and the consequences of plagiarism on the other researchers in that particular department.

The discussed case prepares for the next topic dealing with the legal framework of copyright.

We will then discuss whistleblowing in academia providing different settings and strategies how do deal with misconduct in an organization once discovered without adverse effects for the whistleblower and the organization in general.

The following topic will discuss access to information and open data in a Swiss and European law perspective.

Furthermore we discuss how to protect privacy in conducting research (data protection, anonymisation etc.). This unit includes a group work on a case that lead to a controversial decision of the European Human Rights Court.

On the basis of the legal framework and the awareness of the ethical challenges to engage in misconduct the core of the course is the development of a specific Code of Ethics, based on the 8-step program of the Academy of Management and its “The Ethics of Research and Publishing” material. Students not only learn how to  engage in research in accordance with the law and in appropriate conduct, but also strategies on how “thin” to “slice the salami” with regard to data samples and research questions in order to learn how to get the maximum out of the research without getting into trouble. The code also discusses the sometimes problematic relation between conference proceedings and journal publications, as well as the question of how to determine an appropriate authorship of lead- and co-authors without creating hierarchical and sometimes imbalanced constellations.

The course ends with a discussion and counseling of specific challenges raised by the PhD students in group discussions or if required in confidential settings in order to offer advise not only on a theoretical level but also on a case-specific and personal level.