New Graduate Students' Baseline Knowledge of RCR

描述(由申请人提供)：教育机构在培养学生在其职业生涯中进行道德实践方面发挥着至关重要的作用。然而，越来越明显的是，学生进入生物医学研究生课程时，具有科学实践方面的经验和观点，这形成了他们对负责任研究行为(RCR)教学的接受。因此，深入了解研究生对RCR概念和标准的了解，对于成功设计和实施研究诚信培训计划至关重要。 这项研究的长期目标是通过精心设计和良好实施的RCR课程来刺激和加强生物医学专业学生在研究生教育和后续职业生涯中的道德行为。这项研究的目的是评估四个学术健康科学中心的应届研究生对RCR的基线知识和理解，并确定这些学生是如何获得这些知识的。需要检验的假设是，应届研究生对科学研究的道德标准有广泛的不同认识，在应用方面的经验水平也有很大差异。对这一假设的检验将通过：1)对RCR的核心概念和标准进行客观测试，以区分不同的教育和经验水平；2)对四个学术健康科学中心的研究生进行这一测试；3)对同一队列进行调查，以确定他们的知识来源，了解RCR的核心概念和标准，以及对其价值的看法；以及4)评估该队列成员在知识和理解方面的差异，涉及性别和他们接受本科科学教育的国家。 这项研究的结果将有助于负责RCR教育的教师和项目主任通过确定学生最有可能误解或不了解科学完整性基本概念的领域，来关注他们的教学目标并改进他们的方法。考试本身也将很容易适应对特定学生群体和其他准备接受RCR教学的学生的评估。

DESCRIPTION (provided by the applicant): Educational institutions play a vital role in preparing students to practice ethically throughout their Professional careers. It is increasingly evident, however, that students enter biomedical science graduate programs with experience in and perspectives on scientific practice that shape their acceptance of instruction on the responsible conduct of research (RCR). Thus insight into what entering graduate students know about the concepts and standards of RCR is crucial to the successful design and implementation of training programs in research integrity. The long-range goal of this research is to stimulate and reinforce ethical behavior among biomedical science students during their graduate education and subsequent careers through well-designed and well- implemented RCR courses. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the baseline knowledge and understanding of RCR among incoming graduate students at four academic health science centers, and to identify how these students gained that knowledge. The hypothesis to be tested is that new graduate students have widely variable knowledge of the ethical standards of scientific research and widely variable levels of experience in their application. This hypothesis will be tested through: 1) the development of an objective test on the core concepts and standards of RCR that can distinguish among a variety of levels of education and experience; 2) the administration of this test to a cohort of entering graduate students in four academic health science centers; 3) a survey of this same cohort to identify the sources of their knowledge and understanding of the core concepts and standards of RCR and perceptions of their value; and 4) assessment of the variability in knowledge and understanding among this cohort's members in relation to gender and the country in which they received their undergraduate science education. The results of this research will help faculty and program directors charged with RCR education focus their teaching objectives and refine their methods by identifying areas in which students are most likely to misunderstand or be ignorant of essential concepts in scientific integrity. The test itself will also be readily adaptable to the evaluation of specific groups of students and others preparing for RCR instruction.