RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION ETHICS (RPE)

Paper Code: 
GEO 145
Credits: 
2
Contact Hours: 
30.00
Max. Marks: 
100.00
Objective: 

Course Outcomes (COs)

Learning and teaching strategies

Assessment strategies

On completion of this course, the students will be able to:

 

CO1: To get introduced with the philosophy and ethics of research and publication.  

 

CO2: To learn about scientific conduct of research and publication.

 

CO3: To get familiarized with the publication ethics

 

CO4: To learn about open access publishing.

 

CO5: To learn about database and research metrics.  

 

 

Approach in teaching:

Discussion,

Demonstration, Action Research, Field Trip.

 

 

Learning activities for the students:

Field               activities,

Simulation,

Presentation,     Giving tasks.

 

 

Class test, Semester end examinations, Observations of practical skills, Presentation, Field work reports,

seminar/ presentations    and

viva voce

 

 

6.00
Unit I: 

Philosophy and Ethics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
  • Introduction to philosophy: definition; nature & scope; concept; branches
  • Ethics: definition; moral philosophy; nature of moral judgements & reactions

 

6.00
Unit II: 

Scientific Conduct

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
  • Ethics with respect to science & research, group discussion on subject specific ethical issues
  • Intellectual honesty & research integrity
  • Scientific misconducts: falsification, fabrication, & plagiarism (FPP), group discussion on subject specific FPP issues
  • Redundant publications: duplicate & overlapping publications, salami slicing
  • Selective reporting & misrepresentation of data

 

 

6.00
Unit III: 

Publication Ethics

  • Publication ethics: definition, introduction & importance
  • Best practices/standard setting initiative & guidelines: COPE, WAME etc
  • Conflicts of interest, group discussions on conflicts of interest
  • Publication misconducts: definition, concept, problems that lead to unethical behaviour & vice versa, types
  • Violation of publication ethics, authorship & contributor-ship, group discussion on subject specific authorship issues 
  • Identification of publication misconduct, complaints & appeals, group discussion on examples and fraud from India & abroad
  • Predatory Publishers & journals

 

6.00
Unit IV: 

Open Access Publishing

  • Open access publications & initiatives SHERPA/RoMEO online resource to check publisher copyright & self-archiving policies
  • Journal finder/journal suggestion tools viz. JANE, Elsevier Journal Finder, Springer Journal Suggester etc.
  • Software tools developed by SPPU to identify predatory publications
  • Software tools: use of plagiarism software like Turnitin, Urkund, and other open source software tools

 

6.00
Unit V: 

Databases & Research Metrics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Indexing databases
  • Citation databases: Web of Science, Scopus, etc.
  • Impact Factor of journal as per Journal Citation Report, SNIP, SJR, IPP, Cite Score
  • Metrics: h-index, g index, i10 index, altmetrics

 

 

Academic Year: 
2022-2023