Teaching phronesis in a research integrity course

More and more research institutions are implementing courses in research integrity (RI). Recent studies indicate that teachers of RI courses are increasingly adopting a phronetic approach to their teaching, where the focus is on nurturing values and practical wisdom-what Aristotle called phronesis. When adopting a phronetic approach, it is important to understand what phronesis in relation to RI entails and how and to what extent an RI course can contribute to the development of research phronesis. This paper contains a practice-based discussion of the realistic aims of RI courses and a first step towards a specification of the skill set necessary for developing research phronesis drawing on experiences from the PhD courses on Responsible Conduct of Research at the University of Copenhagen. We discuss the limited extent to which research phronesis can be taught in short courses and examine the broader implications of this for the role of RI courses in the training of good researchers.

Automated summary

More and more research institutions are implementing courses in research integrity, with teachers adopting a phronetic approach to teaching, focusing on nurturing values and practical wisdom. This paper discusses the realistic aims of RI courses and the skill set necessary for developing research phronesis, drawing on experiences from PhD courses. The limited extent to which research phronesis can be taught in short courses and the broader implications for the role of RI courses in training good researchers are also examined.