Research and Publication Ethics (RPE) is a two-credit course approved by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for awareness of publication ethics and publication misconduct and it is mandatory for research scholars of most universities in India.
St Thomas College (Autonomous), Thrissur, is offering RPE online, to those who are interested, including those outside the College.
Closing date of application: 18.05.2023
Account Name: St Thomas College
Account Number: 023102575361190002
Bank: CSB Bank
Branch: Thrissur
IFSC: CSBK0000094
The fee transaction should be done only by NEFT. UTR number should be specified in the response to last question of this form. NO OTHER MODE OF PAYMENTS IS ACCEPTABLE (Quick transfer, IMPS etc are NOT to be done, as transaction id will not be generated). Please DO NOT deposit the fee directly to the College account.
You will receive the acknowledgement of payment and other details regarding the course within 10 days of registration.
Course content will be delivered through Google Classroom.
Please provide the following information as accurate as possible. This information will be used for generating your certificate.
Please click submit only after reviewing your responses and do the submission only once.
Team RPE
Department of Library and Information Studies and Research and Development Cell,
St Thomas College (Autonomous),
Thrissur – 1
Overview of the course
This course has total 6 units focusing on basics of philosophy of science and ethics, research integrity, publication ethics. Sessions are designed to identify research misconduct and predatory publications. Indexing and citation databases, open access publications, research metrics (citations, h-index, impact factor, etc.) and plagiarism tools are introduced in this course.
Pedagogy:
Interactive video sessions, group discussions through online platforms, and practical sessions. Students have to attend online lectures, watch offline videos, read online resources and complete assignments.
Evaluation:
Those students who want to be issued with a certificate of St Thomas College are required to satisfy the following:
Final examination – 50 % marks is required for a pass
Course Structure:
The course comprised of six modules listed in table below. Each module has 4-5 units.
| Modules | Unit Title | Teaching Hours |
| Theory | ||
| RPE 01 | Philosophy and Ethics | 5 |
| RPE 02 | Scientific Conduct | 5 |
| RPE 03 | Publication Ethics | 8 |
| Practice | ||
| RPE 04 | Open Access Publishing | 5 |
| RPE 05 | Publication Misconduct | 5 |
| RPE 06 | Database and Research Metrics | 8 |
| Total | 36 | |
Syllabus in detail: Theory
RPE 01: Philosophy and Ethics
- Introduction to Philosophy: definition, nature and scope, concept, branches
- Ethics: Definition, moral philosophy, nature of moral judgments and reactions.
RPE 02: Scientific Conduct
- Ethics with respect to science and research
- Intellectual honesty and research integrity
- Scientific misconducts: Falsification, Fabrication and Plagiarism (FFP)
- Redundant publications: duplicate and overlapping publications, salami slicing
- Selective reporting and misrepresentation of data
RPE 03: Publication Ethics
- Publication ethics: definition, introduction and importance
- Best practices/standards setting initiatives and guidelines: COPE, WAME etc.
- Conflicts of interest
- Publication misconduct: Definition, concept, problems that lead to unethical behavior and vice versa, types
- Violation of publication ethics, authorship and contributorship
- Identification of publication misconduct, complaints and appeals
- Predatory publishers and journals
Practice
RPE 04: Open Access Publishing
- Open access publications and initiatives
- SHERPA/RoMEO online resource to check publisher copyright & self-archiving policies
- Software tool to identify predatory publications developed by SPPU: UGC-CARE list of journals
- Journal finder/journal suggestion tools viz. JANE, Elsevier Journal Finder, Springer Journal Suggester, etc.
RPE05: Publication Misconduct
- Group discussions
- Subject specific ethical issues, FFP, authorship
- Conflicts of interest
- Complaints and appeals: examples and fraud from India and abroad
Software tools
Use of reference management software like Mendeley, Zotero etc. and anti-plagiarism software like Turnitin, Urkund
RPE 06: Databases and research metrics
- Databases
- Indexing databases
- Citation databases: Web of Science, Scopus etc.
- Research Metrics
- Impact factor of journal as per Journal Citation Report, SNIP, SJR, IPP, Cite Score
- Metrics: h-index, g-index, i-10 index, altmetrics
Contact:
Mr. Sanjo Jose (Course Coordinator)
Librarian, St Thomas College (Autonomous), Thrissur, e-mail: stctlib@gmail.com
Dr Chacko V M, Coordinator & Dean of Research
HoD & Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics, St Thomas College (Autonomous), Thrissur, e-mail: chackovm@gmail.com