Syllabus - PhD Course Work

COURSE–II: RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION ETHICS

Unit-1: Introduction

• Philosophy and Ethics
•  Introduction to Philosophy: Definition, nature and score, concept, branches.
• Ethics: Definition, moral philosophy, nature or more judgements and reactions 

• 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

Unit-2: Publication Ethics

• Publication ethics: Definition, introduction and importance
• Best practices/standards setting initiatives and guidelines: COPE, WAME, etc.
• Conflict of Interest
• Publication misconduct: Definition, concept, problems that lead to unethical behaviour and vice versa, types
• Violation of publication ethics, authorship and contributorship
• Identification of Publication misconduct, complaints and appeals
• Predatory Publishers and Journals

Unit-3: 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 (JSR), SNIP, SIr, IPP, Cite Score
• Metrics: h-index, g-index, i10 index, altmetrics

Unit-4: Practice

• Open Access Publications and Initiatives: SHERPA/RoMEO online resources to check publisher copyright & self archiving policies
• Software tool to identify predatory publications developed by SPPU
  • Journal finder/journal suggestion tools viz Jane, Elsevier Journal Finder, Springer Journal Suggested, etc.

• Publication Misconduct
• Goup Discussion: Subject specific ethical issues, FFP, authorship

Conflict of Interest

• Complaints and appeals: Examples and Fraud from India and abroad
• Software Tools (2hrs): Use of Plagiarism software like Turnitin, DrillBrit and Open source software tools.