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Integrity in Postgraduate Research: The Student Voice

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Abstract

There is a limited understanding of the student perspective of integrity in postgraduate research. This is of concern given that ‘research trainees’ may have a vulnerable position in formal investigations of research misconduct. This paper analyses qualitative data drawn from an Australian online academic integrity survey in a mixed methods research study. This analysis complements the quantitative survey data analysed earlier and sought to explore factors contributing to postgraduate research students’ satisfaction with policy and process, the ways institutions can support students’ understandings and practice, suggestions for improving breach processes, and students’ concerns. We found that integrity training and modelling of ethical behaviour by staff were key factors contributing to students’ satisfaction. Students would have liked more ‘hands-on’ integrity training, accompanied by consistent and transparent enforcement of policy. Respondents expressed concern about the credibility of research output and educational standards. We call for recommendations from the extensive literature on academic integrity policy and practice to be extended to the postgraduate research sphere.

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Notes

  1. In Australia, students undertaking research as part of a graduate degree program (such as Masters by Research, Doctor of Philosophy) are referred to variously as Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students, or postgraduate research students. We have chosen to use the latter term as this most clearly describes this cohort for an international audience.

  2. Some may argue that postgraduate research students may not have equated the term ‘academic integrity’ with ‘research integrity’. However, the qualitative data provided by this group of students clearly suggests that the definition of academic integrity provided in the original survey—“Academic integrity is about mastering the art of scholarship. Scholarship involves researching, understanding and building upon the work of others and requires that you give credit where it is due and acknowledge the contributions of others to your own intellectual efforts” (University of Tasmania 2010)— encompasses research integrity. This is a view that the authors share.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to gratefully acknowledge the assistance provided by project team members in collecting the academic integrity survey data: Julianne East, Margaret Green, Colin James, Ursula McGowan, Lee Partridge, Ruth Walker and Margaret Wallace. Support for this project/activity has been provided by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. The views in this project do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching.

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  1. University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

    Saadia Mahmud & Tracey Bretag

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  1. Saadia Mahmud
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Correspondence to Saadia Mahmud.

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Mahmud, S., Bretag, T. Integrity in Postgraduate Research: The Student Voice. Sci Eng Ethics 21, 1657–1672 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-014-9616-y

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