EESE: Maryland Initiative on Research Ethics

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

This award is made through the Ethics Education in Science and Engineering solicitation (NSF 06-524). The project will develop a set of ethics courses and workshops that focus on graduate-student education, but also provide training on research integrity for postdoctoral associates and for new assistant professors that will enable these individuals to be better "role models" in research ethics for their graduate students. These courses will be developed first within the colleges of the Principal Investigators at the University of Maryland, College Park, using the extensive experience of the Principal Investigators in such courses. In the second year of the grant, the courses will be extended to the other science and engineering colleges and departments on the College Park campus. In the third year, the courses will be made available across the State of Maryland in the University System of Maryland. The courses will engage graduate students in actively solving real-world research-integrity problems, and the influence of the courses will be extended by training postdoctoral associates as ethics teachers. These trained teachers will later disperse across this country and abroad. The course for graduate students, Research Ethics, will include an introduction to the philosophy of ethics and value systems, and an introduction to the philosophy of science and how science is structured. Then it will discuss the issues that arise in trying to do "good Science" and to avoid bias in research, and the cross-checks against error and bias. Other topics will include animal subjects, human subjects, attribution and authorship, mentoring, intellectual property, and under-represented groups. A second course, Advanced Research Ethics, will be developed for postdoctoral associates and for graduate students who wish to obtain the Graduate Certificate in Research Ethics that will also be developed. This course will develop the course topics more deeply and will cover the pedagogy of ethics training. A new Research Ethics Workshop will be developed as a 4- to 6-hour one-day workshop for untenured faculty members in science and engineering, to introduce them to ethical concerns and to prepare them to mentor their own students on research integrity. Intellectual merit: The project will engage graduate students and postdoctoral research associates in the analysis of the serious and complex ethical issues that face all scientists and engineers in the course of their careers. Broader impacts: The project will produce (1) graduate students who know how to address ethical issues; (2) postdoctoral research associates who not only understand these issues, but know how to teach on these issues and can expand the impact of the project across Maryland, the United States, and beyond; (3) new faculty members who appreciate the importance of research integrity and can apply it in the training of their own students; and (4) extension of the courses developed at College Park to other campuses in Maryland.