Graduate Students’ Knowledge of Research Ethics across Disciplines of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examines the level of knowledge, familiarity and application of research ethics among disciplines/sections of graduate students at the University of Ibadan. The investigation was precipitated by the concern over ethical shortcomings in research with increasingly digital and Artificial Intelligence-driven research. The study was stimulated by the findings from previous studies, which demonstrated that ethics education enhanced ethical research behaviour only, without considering cross-disciplinary ethics knowledge, as obtained within the University of Ibadan. In order to guide the study, Rest’s Four-Component Model of Ethical Decision-Making was adopted, and an ex-post facto design using a mixed-methods approach was employed. A multistage sampling method was used to select a sample of 390 postgraduate students and ten participants for interviews. Data analysis was carried out both quantitatively by using descriptive statistical methods and qualitatively by using the thematic analysis technique. The findings revealed that the overall level of research ethics knowledge was high (weighted mean=3.61). The scores for familiarity were highest for plagiarism (3.85), authorship (3.75), data fabrication (3.69), confidentiality (3.68) and peer review (3.67). In conclusion, graduate students exhibited very solid but uneven competencies in research ethics on critical dimensions. Hence, compulsory ethics training should be instituted in the University Senate and the Postgraduate School, and the weaker ethics competencies should be strengthened in the long term, in institutions according to the disciplines.