The development of a four-tier test to evaluate training in responsible conduct of research

Abstract

Although higher education institutions across Europe and beyond are paying more and more attention to research integrity (RI) and responsible conduct of research (RCR) training, there are few studies and little evidence on what works and what does not work in these training sessions. One way to overcome this challenge is to evaluate such training with standardised instruments. Experts and trainers have used qualitative approaches to evaluate their training's successes, but it is difficult to compare their results with others. Sometimes they conduct standardised tests drawn from ethics education or other related fields, but these tests do not assess core themes of research integrity as outlined in the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (ECoC, 2017). At present, there is a lack of available standardised instruments designed to specifically evaluate success in this training. This article presents a pre-validated instrument for this purpose. The P2I questionnaire is a four-tier test based on the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. In it, testees choose a practice in line with research integrity to address an issue, justify their choice, and describe how confident they are with their answers. The development of the P2I questionnaire is outlined in three steps. First we describe the status quo and gaps in evaluating training success, then we illustrate how we designed the P2I questionnaire using practices and justifications in line (and not in line) with research integrity.  In the third step, this P2I questionnaire is pre-validated and revised. This questionnaire is a first attempt to engage in a discourse on standardised research integrity instruments and is one step towards an evidence-based improvement of training sessions.