Ethics and Scientific Integrity for Doctoral Students

On January 1, 2022, the new Doctorate Ordinance together with the implementing regulations of the Rector came into force. In the implementing regulations – in line with the promotion of scientific integrity and good scientific practice required by the Federal Council as well as the ETH Board – it was stipulated that doctoral students at ETH Zurich should acquire at least 1 ECTS credit in the area of ethics and good scientific practice (cf. Section 10.2). To enable doctoral students to fulfill this requirement, the development of a two-part ethics course for doctoral students was initiated by the Rector (cf. Innovedum project No. 2769). In this context, the present follow-up project aimed at developing the second, discipline-specific part of this ethics course together with selected departments. Overall, the course addresses ethical challenges that may arise during the doctorate and beyond. In the second part (the main subject of the present project) students deepen the knowledge acquired in the first part of the course in an interactive learning environment. Thus, the second part of the course provides students with the opportunity to practice and reinforce the skills acquired in independent study (first part on Moodle) with peers and experts in their own field of research. The overall learning goal can be summarized as follows: After completing the course students can address skillfully challenges in the area of ethics and good scientific practice. The course therefore not only strengthens ethical sensitivity, but also critical thinking skills as well as ethical decision-making skills, e.g., regarding one’s own role as a researcher and the areas of responsibility associated with this role. This has a positive effect on both the research activity experienced and the overall quality of research, both subject to scientific integrity and good scientific practice.

Together with 5 volunteer departments and doctoral schools (D-USYS, D-ERDW, D-BSSE, D-BAUG, MaP Doctoral School), the form and content of the discipline-specific, second part of the course (henceforth workshops) were defined and discussed. Here, attention was paid to a balance between sufficient similarity across disciplines (to ensure consistency with the first part of the course) and necessary variance (to address subject-specific topics and problems). In the context of a flipped classroom (blended learning), the focus of the workshops is on an interactive and problem-oriented learning environment. This offers doctoral students the opportunity to deepen their knowledge on the topics of scientific integrity and good scientific practice independently, critically, and application-oriented together with other doctoral students. Despite some discipline-specific differences, all workshops have in common that they take place in blocks (one full day or two half-days) and that various interactive elements are implemented to provide the students with a learning experience that is as varied and practical as possible (e.g., independent solving of case studies in small groups, group discussion, gamification in the form of role plays and the dilemma game). In the spirit of the flipped classroom, the doctoral students themselves become experts and thus not only deepen their knowledge acquired in the first part of the course, but also practice taking responsibility and formulating ethically valuable solutions by critically discussing and reflecting on examples and problems experienced by the doctoral students. The courses are offered and conducted once a semester or once a year by the departments themselves. All departments were closely accompanied and supported by the project team in the development and implementation of the workshops.

All project goals were achieved.
The strategic goal (the promotion of scientific integrity and good scientific practice) as well as the overall goal (expansion of the course offering for doctoral students in scientific integrity and good scientific practice) were taken into account respectively achieved in that a course for doctoral students was developed and also successfully implemented.
The main goal of the present project, namely the development, implementation, and evaluation of the second, interactive course part, was also achieved. In total (spring semester 2022 and autumn semester 2022) 279 students took part in the course.
9 discipline-specific workshops are offered in spring semester 2023 (D-USYS, D-ERDW, D-BAUG, D-CHAB, D-BIOL, D-PHYS, MaP Doctoral School, interdisciplinary workshop). Additionally, the MIM Doctoral School offers a workshop that can be optimally combined with the first part of the course. All workshops as well as the first part of the course (online course on Moodle) were evaluated during after spring semester 2022 and autumn semester 2022 (student evaluation). Based on the evaluation, the course was revised and will be further developed.
One deviation in particular can be noted, namely an interdisciplinary workshop is offered by the research ethics team that is open to all disciplines. From the students› point of view, this deviation is also a benefit: the interdisciplinarity was explicitly rated as a positive factor in the evaluation.
A positive impact on student learning is certainly the successful implementation of the flipped classroom: the format allows students to acquire knowledge at their own pace and at self-selected time slots. This form of learning complements particularly well with dense schedules and with waiting times in the lab or similar, without being a purely online event (i.e. students have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge in an interactive learning environment together with their peers, despite independent learning). In addition, this format enables an active exchange among peers (who do not necessarily work in the same laboratory/are active in the same research group), which is often not the case, especially at the doctoral level. An exchange among peers activates already existing resources and sharpens the view for ethical problems as well as proven assistance. All these effects can be extracted from the evaluation.
Additionally, the interaction of the project team with the departments can be considered as a success. Awareness for the necessity of ethics training is slowly picking up and departments are keen to provide the best teaching environment for their doctoral students.
The course was specifically designed to be implemented in different contexts and for larger numbers of students. A well-functioning exchange between departments and teachers (i.e., community building and maintenance of a culture of scientific integrity) as well as targeted support for teachers is key here. The research ethics team will be happy to provide this support beyond the end of the Innovedum project, and it intends to continually expand the course offerings together with the departments.