Awareness of Research Ethics in Public Health Graduate Students

Purpose : The aim of this study is to identify the level of awareness, self-efficacy, and knowledge of research ethics in public health graduate students.
Methods : A descriptive survey design was applied. A total of 204 public health graduate students were recruited from public health schools in Korea. Data collection instruments were developed based on the core instructional areas of Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) from the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) at the research team’s institution. Participants completed a self-reported questionnaire consisting of questions on research ethics. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics using PASW Statistics 18.0 Window program.
Results : Participants (mean±SD) in this study were master’s (77.5%) and doctoral (22.5%) level students. Only 25.5% of participants had taken a course of research ethics, and 26.5% of participants had experience conducting research as principle investigators. The level of awareness (mean score 2.90 out of 5) and self-efficacy for good research practice (3.14 out of 5) showed moderate. The level of knowledge regarding research ethics was low (10.59 out of 16). The area of lowest awareness was ‘protection of intellectual property and patents,’ followed by ‘justifying authorship’; the area of least knowledge was ‘writing research articles,’ followed by ‘criteria for authorship’. Statistically significant correlations were found between awareness, self-efficacy, and knowledge in research ethics (p<0.050).
Conclusion : These results support the conclusion that educational programs for knowledge of research ethics for graduate public health students are needed in to help them conduct ethically proper research.