Research Skills and Responsible Scholarship
To define the expectations for doctoral research skills prior to the comprehensive examination for graduate students admitted after Fall 2011.
Doctoral students admitted after Fall 2011.
All doctoral students must meet the Research Skills requirement before proceeding to comprehensive exams. The requirement must include at least two (2) components:
- Every doctoral student is required to have training in responsible scholarship pertinent to the field of research.
- Every doctoral student is required to obtain research skills pertinent to the doctoral level of research in their field(s).
Procedure
For both of these requirements, it is the responsibility of the department to report when the student completed the requirement and how the requirement was met via the Progress to Degree form. Meeting this requirement is determined by the program/department according to the department’s approved research skills requirement plan.
All doctoral programs must have a research skills requirement plan approved by the school/College and the Office of Graduate Studies.
As outlined in USRR 2.2.7.6, no course graded CR or NC can count toward the satisfaction of the requirements for a graduate degree. This prohibition includes any courses taken to meet the Research Skills and Responsible Scholarship requirement.
Please see the Grading policy for more information.
Graduate Studies
213 Strong Hall
1450 Jayhawk Boulevard
Lawrence, KS 66045
785-864-8040
graduate@ku.edu
It is the purview of the department or program to determine the necessary topics in training doctoral students in the areas of responsible scholarship. Such topics may include:
- Protection of human subjects
- Welfare of laboratory animals
- Conflicts of interest
- Data management
- Mentor/student responsibilities
- Collaborative research
- Authorship, publication, plagiarism, copyright
- Peer review
- Professional practices
- Maintenance of confidentiality
- Appropriate research conduct and research misconduct
It is also the purview of the department or program to determine the research skills necessary to perform doctoral level research. Research skills may include:
- Knowledge of a language(s) significant to the field
- Research methodology
- Methods of qualitative and quantitative data analysis
- Computer programming necessary for the field
- Laboratory skills and techniques necessary for the discipline
These lists serve as guides; additional appropriate topics may exist.
07/27/2023: Approved by updated to Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, updated policy formatting, fixed broken links. added purpose.
10/20/2014: Policy formatting cleanup (e.g., bolding, spacing).
12/06/2012: This policy was updated. Effective for incoming doctoral students starting fall 2011.
