Ethics in Population and Clinical Health Research

1 unit

This course will expose population and clinical health researchers to some of the ethical issues, challenges, and situations encountered in their research, with a focus on devising solutions. It will also familiarize them with principles of responsible conduct of research and available ethics and compliance resources. Case studies from the media will supplement discussion on topics such as informed consent and human subjects research, responsible conduct of research and allegations of misconduct, research with vulnerable populations, data management and presentation, publications and peer review, collaboration and sharing data, societal impact of research, and mentee-mentor relationships. Students who attend eight course sessions will fulfil the National Institutes of Health requirements for training in responsible conduct of research. This class is a seminar that will be held in person. This class is not based on lectures. Instead, it is based on discussion, and thus relies on full participation from all students. Students must come to each session prepared to be active and thoughtful participants. This requires thoughtful and careful reading of assigned course materials prior to each class session. Additionally, the class covers timely research ethics issues in the media, to demonstrate how common ethical concerns arise and the multi-level factors that lead to ethical issues (e.g., system, organization, lab, individual). Students will be responsible for identifying these issues and discussing them in class.