The Ethics

Hello and welcome to our page. Here you can get updated for all the latest activities of the Ethics team. Stay tuned!

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Hey all! Today we submitted our final report to Premium were we include all of our findings. After 6 months of hard work, meeting with professors and students, we managed to conclude our report and make our recommendations for the platform. We all agreed that research integrity and scientific ethics should be included in every faculty of Maastricht University and should be taught in a more interactive way, for instance, through lectures and debates. This will help students to become ethical young professionals that can adhere to the relevant research standards of their field of studies.

Apart from completing our project, these 6 months were a great experience for us as well. We had a lot of good times and working on this project was a pleasure for all of us. 

Special thanks go of course to our mentor Jascha and our coaches, Juanita and Ellen who were always there for us. We would also like to thank Premium for this experience and especially Fabianne who helped us a lot with the organization of our focus groups.

But our project does not end here. Our final step will be on the 21st June where we are going to present our findings to the UM Platform of Research Ethics and Integrity.

Lastly, we would like to thank you guys for all the likes and support in Tumblr and for reading our page regularly. We wish you all good luck and we are going to see you on Wednesday.

That’s it for now and as always, stay tuned for more updates of the Ethics.

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Ethics Quote of the day from our Foucault: “ Knowledge linked to power, not only assumes the authority of ‘the truth’ but has the power to make itself true. All knowledge, once applied in the real world, has effects, and in that sense at least, ‘becomes true.’ Knowledge, once used to regulate the conduct of others, entails constraint, regulation and the disciplining of practice. Thus, ‘there is no power relation without the correlative constitution of a field of knowledge, nor any knowledge that does not presuppose and constitute at the same time, power relations. ”

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Bring back science and philosophy as natural philosophy – Nicholas Maxwell | Aeon Essays

The great split between science and philosophy must be repaired. Only then can we answer the urgent, fundamental problems

The deadline for submitting our reports is rapidly approaching and we are working hard! However, we still have time to check for interesting Articles that are relevant for our project. This one is one of our favorites! Go check it out and tell us your opinion.

Once more, stay tuned for more updates of the Ethics.

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Here we are finalizing our report and try to think for the best recommendations for the UM Platform for Research Integrity and Ethics. Look at this teamwork! Working aways together even when we are in distance.

Stay tuned for more updates of the Ethics.

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Hello everyone! Today we had a lovely lunch with our mentor and coaches while enjoying the sun. We updated them for our progress and for our next steps, how our report will look like and talked about what we learned through the project. Our conclusion was that the university should raise awareness and make students more credible like Hulk. We are still working on how this will be done but don’t worry. As soon as our recommendations will be ready you will be the first to know about it.

Enjoy the sun and the last weeks of Premium and as always stay tuned for more updates of the Ethics.

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Today we had one of our very last meetings. Even if not everyone is in Maastricht, we still find a way to connect and work with each other. We are currently finalizing our report and setting many deadlines for it. We hope our report is done and ready for our client in no time. 

Right now we are writing about the current state of affairs at every faculty. Once again, the faculties are really de-centralized but we are working on a coherent recommendation.

That’s it for now. One love and stay tuned for more updates of the Ethics team.

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Even if we are busy writing and working on our report, we took some time this Sunday for a team-bonding dinner. As you can see we were all extremely happy with the all-you-can-eat tapas! We had an amazing evening eating and discussing about our project but also our future plans! 

We hope everyone else is also enjoying the last month of premium as we do! Good luck all with your reports and stay tuned for more updates of the Ethics team! One love

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What a better way to start the new month than a focus group? That’s right we had our second focus group on the 2nd of May! 8 lovely participants joined us for a discussion on Research Integrity and Ethics while enjoying some cake and coffee. The participants were all UM students from different disciplines and backgrounds. Each of them had his/her own interpretation on what Reseach Integrity and Ethics entail and we can see once again how fragmented this field is for every different faculty. Apart from that, they provide us with really useful recommendations on how to implement Research Integrity and Ethics which we will incorporate to our report.

Many thanks once again to the Premium coordinators and especially to Fabienne for all the help in organizing the focus groups.

For more updates of the Ethics team, stay tuned!

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Hey guys! Today we had a really constructive meeting regarding our report. We agreed on the structure of the report, what to include and what we are going to do with all of our findings such as the questionnaires, our focus groups and our meetings with the bachelor coordinators. As you can see our planning process works slowly but really good. We hope yours is going equally well! Good luck with everything and stay tuned for more updates of the Ethics team! One love!

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Our 1st successful focus group

On Wednesday we had our very first focus group. We gathered with 2 research Master students, one Ph.D. students and one professor who is the Director of Ph.Ds in Liege. Our discussion focused on Research Ethics and Integrity, the problems that the field faces at a University level and on recommendations regarding the solution of the problems. It was a lovely discussion with plenty of cake and coffee. We really learned a lot from the students and the professor and we will use all of their input in the report that we are preparing for our client.  Many thanks to EdLab for letting us use its facilities for our focus groups and making this evening really great!

Our next focus groups will take place next week on Wednesday and Friday. For more updates of the Ethics team stay tune and enjoy your Easter Break!

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Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge

Stephen Hawking

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Today we had our team dynamics meeting. Our coaches, Juanita and Ellen organized 3 really fun activities for us. We had to name each member of the team as part of a human body and name also their qualities, we talked about cultural differences and how we identify ourselves using the Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, and we played a card game where we end up creating our own “team ethics” story.  Even though our team as a person has 3 legs (and no main body) we had a lot of fun and learn more about each other. 

After our team dynamics, we had our regular team meeting where we start organizing our focus group. We proudly announce that we will have our very first focus group on the 17th April at 18.00 where we will talk with the attendees about research integrity and ethics at a university level.

Sounds fun also for you? If yes, worry NO more. You can also attend the focus group on that date or on the 24th of April at 18.30. Just send an email to [email protected]

And don’t forget: stay tuned for more updates of the Ethics Team and more fun pictures 

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Even though it is exam week for some of us, our team is working hard! Yesterday members of our team attended the lecture “Research Ethics and Integrity” by Professor Klaas Sijtsma from Tilburg University. Apart from gaining a better understanding of  “Research Ethics and Integrity” and their impact, we expanded also our network by raising awareness for our project and inviting more participants to our focus groups.  

In case you are interested but you forgot o register to one of our focus groups, don’t worry you still have time. Use the link that you can find in our previous post. 

Stay tuned for more updates and good luck with the upcoming exams!

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Hello guys! As some of you know from our mid-term presentation, we are going to organize focus groups to get a better insight on the teaching of Research Integrity and Ethics at a university level. On the 15th and 17th of Apri we will organize two focus groups one for research master students and one for Ph.D. candidates. In case you are a research master student that has free time on the 15th April between 18.00-19.00 and you would like to help us while enjoying a nice free afternoon coffee and cake fill the link:

https://forms.gle/EmDmtqBcMJ1UCFGQ9

Stay tuned for more updates

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Last night we had our mid-term presentation. We discussed our progress but also our upcoming goals. We hoped you all enjoyed it! Congratulations to the teams for their presentations and work and to premium for organizing such a wonderful night!

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Today we analyzed our next step: focus groups! We will try to arrange some meetings with both Master and Ph.D. students to discuss about Research Integrity and Ethics. In case you are following a research master and you are willing to contribute to our project, contact us. We will provide free coffee and cake! Stay tuned!

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Scientific Misconduct: Tip of an Iceberg or the Elephant in the Room?

For our project, we conducted research in various journal to learn more about research integrity and ethics. Dr. Luther from the Department of Orthodontics, Leeds University, stated in his  Article “Scientific Misconduct: Tip of an Iceberg or the Elephant in the Room?”: 

Competitive research and educational environments put a pressure on authors, funders, and institutions to publish. Electronic methods are becoming more and more available to modify data and images. However, preventing scientific misconduct would require new systems, education, awareness, and enforcement.

Stay tuned to learn more about our project!