Welcome to the webpage of the Basic Training 'Responsible Research'!

 Whether you have years of experience or just recently startedinto conducting research, everyone can name an example of a dilemma where you ask yourself, "What is the right thing to do? Option A, option B, or are there perhaps alternatives?" Especially within applied research at UASs you often collaborate with a range of stakeholders, each with their own interests. This can lead to tricky situations: do you pursue values about strong research quality , or do you give priority to the output for the stakeholder (or client) in order to maintain funding?

Fabricating data, deleting or altering data, or plagiarism are well-known examples of research misconduct. But how do you deal with situations that are less clear, or are in a gray zone? When are you doing the right thing? Is there such a thing as a good researcher? What knowledge and skills should a good researcher have? Before being able to discuss those questions, it is important to have a clear understanding of the concept and scope of research integrity.

The basic training contributes to the awareness of research integrity, the scope of this topic and the importance of taking care of it. In addition, the training aims to activate you and provide you with tools to recognize and discuss research integrity in your work.

Learning Outcomes

After following the Basic training 'Responsible Research’ the participant is able to:

1. Illustrate the scope of research integrity (RI) with examples of violations and good practices of RI within UASs, and explain the importance of RI for research, researchers and society.

2. Identify risk factors and protective factors at UASs in case studies and in their own research.

3. Translate the concept of RI into values of good research at UASs and a moral compass.

 4. Identify responsibilities for RI of involved stakeholders in research at UASs and select examples of ways to foster RI among these stakeholders.

5. Reflect on their own skills and responsibilities for RI and come up with appropriate actions and involving relevant facilities.

Structure and content of the basic training

The basic training consists of three meetings of 3 hours each. The preparation for each meeting consists of assignments that the participant includes in a digital portfolio (approximately two hours per meeting). After the third meeting the participant complete their portfolio (about one hour). 

Each meeting focuses on a theme:

  • Meeting 1: Basic knowledge
  • Meeting 2: Attitude & responsibilities
  • Meeting 3: Research climate & traslating values into actions

Text from this issue is available under the license CC-BY-SA 4.0. 

Berentsen, S.M.J., Blom, F., & Van der Sande, R. (2021). Basistraining Verantwoord Onderzoek. Handleiding voor cursisten (Handleiding). Nijmegen: Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen.