Ethics and health research
Ph.D. -course
- ECTS credits
- 7
- Teaching semesters
- Autumn, Spring
- Course code
- MEDMET901
- Number of semesters
- 1
- Resources
- Schedule
Course description
Course content
The main objective of the course is to familiarize candidates with relevant aspects of medical and health related research. The course provides insight into the research process and tools for how to reflect over a scientific project in terms of how it relates to truth and fairness and whether the expected outcome will improve societal development. More concretely, the course facilitates reflection and actionable knowledge of justified use of scientific methods, researcher ethics, legal regulations, accepted norms for scientific conduct and critical assessment of the sustainability of research processes and outcomes. The course is the compulsory curriculum of the PhD education and comprises research ethics, philosophy of science and innovation. The candidates will also get training in communicating and disseminating research findings. In addition, examples of research infrastructure at the Medical Faculty are also presented.
Doctoral training is a strategic focus for the University of Bergen, and the goal of MEDMET901 is to provide a high-quality basic course for candidates enrolled at the Medical Faculty. To facilitate development of competencies within cross- and multidisciplinary research, the course is organised around groupwork in which participants are exposed to perspectives and research assumptions from different fields and collaboration on discipline-transcending issues of science, ethics and sustainability is required.
Throughout the course, the candidates are presented with exercises and tools to help them discuss premises for research-based knowledge production, to develop respect for other disciplines and to stimulate independent, critical thinking skills to assess academic work.
Preparations
¿ The course participants will prepare their PhD-project pitch (max 6 minutes) presented in form of a Power Point presentation
¿ Reading the mandatory literature
Learning outcomes
Knowledge
After completing the course, the candidate can:
- recognize the fundamental elements in the theories of science
- explain elements of researcher integrity
- explain principles for good research practice
- explain the concept of sustainability
- explain the concept of innovation
Skills
After completing the course, the candidate has tools to:
- comprehend and critically evaluate new knowledge, methods, interpretations and different kinds of evidence/documentation
- analyse and assess research projects in terms of whether the outcome is true (i.e. according to justified methods, is fair (i.e. perspectives of stakeholders are included in meaningful ways), and is wise (i.e. potential implications of the research are contributing to an overall societal good) in terms of sustainability
- conduct to the forefront of research and hold international research standards
- conceive research ideas, plan and implement research projects
- develop the established knowledge with critical thinking and insight in his/her own and adjacent research fields
- critically evaluate dissemination of scientific findings, in speech (oral presentations) and writing (posters, manuscripts)
Competencies After completing the course, the candidate has tools for:
- relate his/her own research with researcher integrity
- cooperate in multi-disciplinary research projects
- communicate research and through recognized national and international channels
- describe different aspects of innovation
- critically reflect on research projects in terms of sustainability
Study period
Autumn (week 46-47) and Spring (week 10-11)
This is followed by a home exam to be delivered within 4 weeks
Language of instruction
English
Course registration and deadlines
For the students and PhD candidates attached to the University of Bergen, online registration on Studentweb by the deadlines 1 February/ 1 September is required.
Pre-requirements
Recommended Previous Knowledge
Part of training component
Form of assessment
The course examination includes an individual written assignment (essay/paper of 2500-3000 words, excluding references) to be submitted within 4 weeks after the course.
The home exam must be evaluated as passed. The exam has five components:
i) During the two first weeks of the home exam, the course participants write their answer according to the given assignment.
ii) They identify, read and refer at least 5 papers with relevance for the assignment in addition to the mandatory literature.
iii) During the third week, all of the course participants will then carry out a peer review of an exam paper submitted by one of the other course participants
iv) In the fourth week, each course participant receives a peer reviewed report from another course participant and based on the comments received, they revise their original drafts on the basis of the feedback provided
After 4 weeks, within the specified deadline , the course participant submits the original draft, the received peer review report, a separate reference list of minimum 5 articles they have identified with an account for the research strategy they used to identify them (MeSH, database(s), inclusion and exclusion criteria for selecting papers), read and referred, and their revised exam answer (4 elements) .
The assignments will be subjected to electronic plagiarism control.
v) A multiple-choice questionaire test of the mandatory readings in the course (can be taken before or during the course as many times as necessary to pass)
Grading scale
pass/not pass
60 hours (80% obligatory), including active group work
Course overlap
Who may participate
Supplementary course information
The course consists of lectures, video modules and group work, presentations and discussions. There is a major emphasis on group work. The course duration is two weeks, with mandatory lectures and group work between 9am and 4pm, Mon-Fri. Additional 4-week period is provided to complete the home exam assignment, so overall duration of the course is 6 weeks. All or parts of the course may be delivered digitally. Please see course schedule in Mitt UiB.
Students are expected to use Mitt UiB to access all relevant course information, literature references and hand-outs, provided by the lecturers.
Academic responsible
Professor Kristine Bærøe
Course location
Faculty of Medicine, University of Bergen
Information:
Students are expected to use Mitt UiB to find all relevant course information, literature suggestions and hand-outs, provided by the lecturers.
Reading list
Book (Chapter 1-4, 122 pages):
Laake P, Benestad HB, Olsen BR. Research methodology in the medical and biological sciences. Academic Press; 2007, 2008
Papers (53 pages):
- Banerjee AT, Bandara S, Senga J, González-Domínguez N, Pai M. Are we training our students to be white saviours in global health? The Lancet. 2023;402(10401):520-1.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)01629-X/fulltext
- Gaventa, John. "Finding the spaces for change: a power analysis." IDS bulletin 37.6 (2006): 23-33.
https://www.powercube.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/finding_spaces_for_change.pdf
- Mensah J. Sustainable development: Meaning, history, principles, pillars, and implications for human action: Literature review. Cogent social sciences. 2019;5(1):1653531.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311886.2019.1653531
- Pimple, Kenneth D. "Six domains of research ethics: A heuristic framework for the responsible conduct of research." Science and engineering ethics 8 (2002): 191-205.
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11948-002-0018-1.pdf
- Wardrope A Health justice in the Anthropocene: medical ethics and the Land Ethic
Journal of Medical Ethics 2020;46:791-796. https://jme.bmj.com/content/46/12/791
Video modules
A collection of videos/video notes of relevant talks or lectures