RESEARCH
Research and Publication Ethics Course 2021
Duration: 08 September to 16 October, Registration extended upto: 11.09.2021, 5pm.
Research and publication ethics course
About the course
Research and Publication Ethics (RPE) is a two credit course approved by University Grants Commission (UGC) for awareness about publication ethics and publication misconducts (https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/9836633_Research-and-Publication-Ethics.pdf) and it is mandatory for research scholars of University of Calicut who have started their course work on 2020 onwards. (http://www.universityofcalicut.info/dor/index.php/component/k2/item/download/516_235866df1b61adfeef28115eb2e165ce). Mahatma Gandhi University also made it compulsory for all Ph.D. students for their course work programme from 2019 admission onwards as Course IV (https://www.mgu.ac.in/uploads/2020/03/rpe.pdf).
Department of Library and Information Studies and Research Council of St Thomas College in association with Directorate of Research, University of Calicut are offering RPE online, to those who are interested, including those who are studying, working or doing research outside the College. The course content, credits etc. are all as prescribed in the UGC guidelines. The course will commence from 8th September 2021. The tentative date of completion of course is 16th October 2021.
Course fee
The course content will be available to the learners on payment of enrolment fee of Rs 500. If they want to be certified (which is not mandatory), they have to pay examination fee of Rs 500 (in addition to enrolment fee of Rs 500), pass an examination and St Thomas College will issue the certificate.
Those interested are requested to pay the fees via NEFT to the following account.
Account Name: St Thomas College
Account Number: 023102575361190001
Bank: CSB Bank
Branch: Thrissur
IFSC: CSBK0000094
The fee transaction should be done only by NEFT. UTR number should be specified in the last question of the registration form. NO OTHER MODE OF PAYMENTS (like quick transfer, IMPS etc) IS ACCEPTABLE Please do not deposit the fee directly to the College Account.
Note: Fee once remitted will not be refunded.
Course registration
After payment of the course enrolment fee (and examination fee, if applicable) please fill the details in the form available at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSclSKKwYPOsgHJKJhLj3RVvA9ZkFlPU1WQGpQrooWA6edDm_g/viewform
If you face any difficulty or have any queries regarding the registration of course, please email to stctlib@gmail.com.
Last Date of registration extended due to 11.09.2021, 5pm. No further extension will be given. Late admission participants should view the past videos.
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:
The video sessions will be at 2.30 pm on weekdays. Soon after the completion of video session, assessment will be posted for each video session which will be active for 24 hours. Only those participants who complete all the assessment in the stipulated time will be allowed to attend the final examination.
Attendance – 75 % for online lectures
Assessments – All assessments have to be completed in stipulated time (There will be internal assessment through the response/submitting feedback form every day)
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