INVESTIGATION OF ETHICAL PRACTICES IN RESEARCH AT POST-GRADUATE LEVEL

Abstract

The study was aimed to explore the research ethical issues practiced by post-graduate students in Lahore universities. The M.Phil and P.hD students of public and private universities of Lahore were considered the population of this study. 300 students were selected randomly from 6 public and private universities including 150  from public and 150 from private universities.The questionnaire was constructed on the base of ethical framework of APA 6^Th edition having  five main aspects of ethical research (i) respect for person, (ii) beneficence, (iii) justice, (iv) confidentiality and (v) plagiarism. Survey design was used for data collection. Before data collecting, formal permission was taken. Data analysis involved statistical computations for means, percentages, independent t-test. It was found that overall participants have practice about research ethics. However the students of public universities have practice more research ethics as compared to private universities students practices and public universities students followed more strictly  APA research ethical practices as compared to the private universities students.  It was recommended that private universities students should be trained to use ethical practices. Both agreed that these five major ethical aspects of research were much valid for ethically safe research.