Application deadline

PhD students apply by registering for class in Studentweb by February 1th.

Other applicants apply in Søknadsweb by application deadline December 1th. Application code 9301.

Type of course

Admission requirements

Target group: PhD students in humanities and social sciences.

Admission requirement is being a PhD student or participant at the UiT Associate Professors Programme (Førstelektorprogrammet).

PhD students from other universities must upload a document from their home institution stating that there are registered PhD students.

There are a maximum of 35 seats, these will be prioritized after target group and category 1-3 after paragraph §10 in the Regulations for the degree of PhD at the University of Tromsø.

Course content

The course gives an introduction to the ethical guidelines for humanities and social science and important topics in research ethics relevant to these academic fields. Relevant topics are research integrity (fabrication, falsification and plagiarism), informed consent, handling of information about the informants, research on people not being able to consent to taking part in research, research on indigenous people and minorities, the relationship between research ethics and judicial issues, as well as the philosophic background for research ethics.

Furthermore, the course will provide information about formal rules and administrative systems related to research ethics, such as Datatilsynet [The Data Inspectorate] and its underlying bodies, the national committees for research ethics in Norway.

Objectives of the course

Language of instruction and examination

Teaching methods

Lectures and seminar

Day 1 and day 2 consists of approximated 10 hours of lecture and seminar. Day 3 consists of a mandatory presentation by the participants.

Day 1 is common for all students and the lectures focuses on general ethical problems.

Day 2 consist of both common lectures and different workshops that focuses on different research ethical questions. The students will be able to choose the workshop according to their interests and the subject that are most relevant to their research project and their academic fields. The subjects for workshop discussions will be announced in advance.

Day 3 is organized as a seminar where the participants must orally present their project and ethical problems relevant to the project for about 20 minutes each participant, including discussion.

Assessment

The course yields 3 credits when participation, oral presentation and paper (approx. 5 pages, 12 points, Times New Roman, line spacing 1.5) has been approved.

The paper must raise and critically discuss one or more of the topics that the course has dealt with. If possible the topics must be related to the students' own research project.

The terms of assessment for examination: pass/fail.

It is not possible to take the exam in a semester without lectures/teaching.

Recommended reading/syllabus