All research, whether it is carried out by Bachelor students or tenured professors, should be carried out with scientific integrity. The core principles of scientific integrity are honesty, trustworthiness, transparency, independence and societal responsibility (from the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity: NWO, 2018).
This guide - with videos, exercises and handouts - includes the following modules on how to use information responsibly and conduct your own research with integrity:
- How to avoid plagiarism: Plagiarism is the use of another author's ideas, words, images, music or other work without disclosing the source. You can avoid this by using quotes, summarizing, or paraphrasing and referencing correctly.
- Is a reference necessary when... To avoid plagiarism in your assignment or thesis, you need to supply references when you include quotes and paraphrased text from another source. How does this work? Do you have to supply references for everything you use?
- Paraphrasing: How do you borrow from a source without plagiarizing? It takes some effort to learn to paraphrase by re-formulating an original text in your own words
- Tips against plagiarism and dishonesty: Having an effective routine of proper note-taking and keeping a bibliography can prevent accidental plagiarism. Turnitin can also be used as a tool by students and researchers to identify problematic references in their work.
- Responsible use of data: How can you document and secure your data, from surveys to sound recordings, during your research? And how do you protect your research subjects? You should be aware of the need to separate identifying characteristics of respondents early on in the data collection and include privacy considerations in the research design. This module includes a template for an informed consent form
