The Conference keynote
9.30 - 10.20
We are delighted that Bruce Macfarlane has agreed to give the keynote address at the conference. Bruce is Professor of Higher Education at the University of Portsmouth (UK), where he is also Head of Academic Development. He has just published Researching with Integrity: The Ethics of Academic Enquiry (for an outline, see below). His previous books include Teaching with Integrity and The Academic Citizen, and he is a Vice Chair of the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE).
Keynote abstract
Ensuring that research is 'ethical' is a responsibility for both universities and individual researchers alike. Understanding of these responsibilities has been shaped by research scandals that have focused attention on the abuse and misuse of human subjects. This has, in turn, resulted in public research organisations, such as universities, adopting principles largely derived from bioethics and often expressed through codes of practice. The lecture will outline the limitations of this principle-based approach and suggest an alternative derived from 'virtue' ethics. Here, it will be argued that researchers need to develop excellences of character (or ‘virtues’) such as courage, sincerity and humility and seek to avoid 'vices' such as boastfulness, partiality and cowardice. Thinking about research ethics in this alternative way is a means of strengthening understanding of a broader range of ethical issues that connect more closely with the character of the researcher across different academic disciplines.
Book
Researching with Integrity: The Ethics of Academic Enquiry
(Bruce Macfarlane, 2009, Routledge, ISBN: 978-0-415-42904-7)
Publishers’ outline
"There is increased emphasis internationally on ethically sound research, and on good training for research supervisors. Researching with Integrity aims to identify what and how research can be undertaken ethically and with ‘virtue’ from initial conception of ideas through to dissemination. It outlines the context in which academics engage in research, considering the impact of discipline and institutional culture, the influence of government audit of research ‘quality’, the role of government and quangos, professional organisations and business sponsors, and examines the effects of the increasing power and influence of funding bodies, university ethics committees and codes of practice. Based on the notion of ‘virtue’ ethics, this book proposes an alternative approach to research, which focuses not only on ethical rules and protocol to avoid unethical research, but encourages academic, professional and character development and allows for the exercise of personal judgement."
Themes considered include:
- Increased competitiveness between academics and concentration of funding in fewer universities
- Increasingly bureaucratic approval of processes focused on the treatment of human and animals in research
- Meeting the expectations of research sponsors
- ‘Taboo’ research topics and methods
- Exposing findings to the scrutiny of peers, taking credit for the work of others and self-citation
- Bullying of junior researchers and plagiarism
- Power and influence of institutional, discipline-based and professional organisations
Illustrated throughout with short narratives detailing ethical issues and dilemmas from international academic researchers representing different disciplines, research cultures and national contexts, this books proposes an alternative approach to research which provides all research professionals with the intellectual tools they need to cope with complex research.”