Periodic Reporting for period 2 - INTEGRITY (INTEGRITY: empowering students through evidence-based, scaffolded learning of Responsible Conduct in Research (RCR))
Reporting period: 2020-04-01 to 2022-06-30
High ethical standards in research build trust that society has in science. Trust in science is not a given and is also not easy to achieve; it requires efforts from academics to show that they are trustworthy. Academics on their turn need to be able to trust on the work of other academics, which requires high standards that respect transparency, honesty and accountability. New generations of researchers as well as early career researchers need to become acquainted with these high standards and learn how to conduct research in a responsible manner. To that purpose the INTEGRITY project has taken the need for high quality standards and appealing educational tools in the field of research integrity to heart and has focused on the development of evidence-based tools for a variety of target groups. Responsible conduct of research requires that students (as potential future researchers) and researchers need to be aware of, reflect upon and handle (act upon) integrity issues that they will encounter in research practices. Any educational tools that will be developed needs to account for the dynamics in research practices, as the recent pandemic has shown vividly with regards to the impact it had on (the quality of ) research conducted. Therefore, the project took a capacity building approach towards training responsible conduct of research, by focusing on the question how students and researchers can be empowered in their own research environments. INTEGRITY has taken an innovative approach towards student training in research integrity in three different ways. First, the project has taken the concept of empowerment as a core philosophy in designing and developing educational tools for upper-level high school students, undergraduate students and PhD students and developed a competency profile that aims to offer a standard to other educational developers in the field of research integrity education. Secondly, the project has developed educational tools in an evidence-based manner, taking as a necessary starting point the knowledge, skills and expertise of each of the target groups. The result is that we were able to scaffold the teaching materials to the needs of each of the target groups and for various disciplines within the academy. Furthermore, these courses have been tested and evaluated in an evidence-based manner. This way, the project contributes to the ongoing discussion on the impact of RCR trainings in the academic community. Thirdly, the project has been innovative in developing appealing educational tools that are attractive to use and that makes use of recently available teaching technologies, like online courses, web-based narratives and easy-to-use tools for high school students.
INTEGRITY has been able to achieve the following objectives, namely to
1. develop an evidence-based analysis of student needs, blind-spots, and expectations regarding research integrity across 10 European countries.
2. map, categorizes and analyses current teachings in research integrity to better detect and mitigate blind spots in teaching, and to help build tailor-made curricula for students in the whole range of research areas and in three levels of studies.
3. develop a teaching philosophy on RCR that takes capacity building of students as its main aim, using three core values (Transparency, Honesty and Responsibility) and incorporating the ‘QRP’ approach and FFP topics.
4. develop, tests and disseminates innovative tools in an evidence-based, co-creative process, and designs and tests experimental nudges to prompt effectiveness.
5. design, tests and disseminates complementary tools for key influencers (teachers, senior researchers) to catalyse their roles as teachers, mentor and coaches.
INTEGRITY has been able to achieve the following objectives, namely to
1. develop an evidence-based analysis of student needs, blind-spots, and expectations regarding research integrity across 10 European countries.
2. map, categorizes and analyses current teachings in research integrity to better detect and mitigate blind spots in teaching, and to help build tailor-made curricula for students in the whole range of research areas and in three levels of studies.
3. develop a teaching philosophy on RCR that takes capacity building of students as its main aim, using three core values (Transparency, Honesty and Responsibility) and incorporating the ‘QRP’ approach and FFP topics.
4. develop, tests and disseminates innovative tools in an evidence-based, co-creative process, and designs and tests experimental nudges to prompt effectiveness.
5. design, tests and disseminates complementary tools for key influencers (teachers, senior researchers) to catalyse their roles as teachers, mentor and coaches.
In this second and final reporting period, INTEGRITY has been able to achieve the objectives for the project. Showcasing 10 educational tools for high school students, a simulation game for undergraduate students, three thematic online courses for PhD students, a massive open online course for PhD students and an online module for supervisors, INTEGRITY has been able to fill the need for appealing and empowering tools. Also, an engaging online European Student Convention was organized to share the designed tools with three target groups of students, namely upper-level high school students in 8 European countries, undergraduate students in all partner countries and PhD students. It helped to consolidate the designed tools and to further develop these for broader dissemination. For mid-career and senior researchers, an online course on responsible supervision was built and for all those interested in integrity issues, Diner Pensants were organized twice online and 3 times on location. The project results are disseminated via the project website, via the Embassy of Good Science, via Coursera, via the UU-life long learning platform. Tool have already been embedded in classes at UCPH, VU, UU, UD, and will be embedded in other universities as well (as the Free University of Amsterdam). At UCPH, hundreds of students have been using the undergraduate tool already, and at UU, the online courses for PhD candidates are now mandatory for 2nd and 3d year PhD students. At UU, during the project, a full-blown 4-year trajectory for PhD students became mandatory for all PhD's at the UU.
Integrity has been able to have impact beyond the immediate project results. A few examples are highlighted below:
*Other organisations are picking up the tools designed by the INTEGRITY community. Two examples: the IREX group organised a meeting on educational tools for RI recently, showcasing INTEGRITY as an example of good practice. A toolkit is available for all who are interested in using the tools and the project website offers the tools for free, or indicates how to get access to tools.
*The MOOC on responsible conduct of research was in April 2022 in the top ten of most visited online courses in the COURSERA environment and to date, 153 participants took the course. Also, *AmsterdamUniversity Medical Centers will adjust the PhD course (with an outreach of 3,000 PhD's in total in the organisation) in order to include INTEGRITY materials as well.
*The Diner pensant idea is also attractive to other partners: Universiteit Twente in Enschede (NL) has already organised an event, and within AmsterdamUMC they want to offer departments within the clinic the dinner event in the fall of 2022.
*The coordinator of Path2INTEGRITY and INTEGRITY have jointly decided to create a European Teacher and Education network on responsible conduct of research, which will be launched in November 2022. It will invite other projects that developed trainings on RCR to join and share good practices, and stimulate research on tools and training in the near future.
* the high school tools will continue to be used in Ireland, as collaboration with several high school networks is continued. The high school tools were also showcased in Capetown, South Africa, in June 2022.
*Other organisations are picking up the tools designed by the INTEGRITY community. Two examples: the IREX group organised a meeting on educational tools for RI recently, showcasing INTEGRITY as an example of good practice. A toolkit is available for all who are interested in using the tools and the project website offers the tools for free, or indicates how to get access to tools.
*The MOOC on responsible conduct of research was in April 2022 in the top ten of most visited online courses in the COURSERA environment and to date, 153 participants took the course. Also, *AmsterdamUniversity Medical Centers will adjust the PhD course (with an outreach of 3,000 PhD's in total in the organisation) in order to include INTEGRITY materials as well.
*The Diner pensant idea is also attractive to other partners: Universiteit Twente in Enschede (NL) has already organised an event, and within AmsterdamUMC they want to offer departments within the clinic the dinner event in the fall of 2022.
*The coordinator of Path2INTEGRITY and INTEGRITY have jointly decided to create a European Teacher and Education network on responsible conduct of research, which will be launched in November 2022. It will invite other projects that developed trainings on RCR to join and share good practices, and stimulate research on tools and training in the near future.
* the high school tools will continue to be used in Ireland, as collaboration with several high school networks is continued. The high school tools were also showcased in Capetown, South Africa, in June 2022.