New research ethics course for social science PhD students

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2009-05-28
CRB offers a 4 credit course for PhD students at the social science faculty at Uppsala University.

All researchers need to be able to address the ethical questions that arise in their research. Recent Swedish legislation demands ethical review of research that involves the handling of personal and sensitive information, in addition to research that might be harmful to the research subject. Furthermore, the research process includes collection of data, subsequent storing of data, collaborations and publications that all hold potential for several ethical conflicts.

We now offer a 4 credit course for PhD students at the social science faculty at Uppsala University. The curriculum spans from the learning experiments performed by Stanley Milgram to culture studies. It addresses questions on how to deal with sensitive and personal information, good research practice, the researcher as expert, collaborations and how to deal with the fact that research has an influence on its subjects.

The course allows the student’s to reflect on the ethical dilemmas brought to the fore by their own research. They will discuss their own PhD projects and learn how to write an application to a research ethics committee. The course will be offered in Swedish, but might be offered in English at a later date. The course starts on October 21 and is held on Wednesday afternoons for six weeks.

PhD students at the faculties of medicine, pharmacy, science and technology at Uppsala University already have research ethics as a compulsory part of the PhD student curriculum.