Case Study 1 You are a social science PhD student and as part of your research you are using data from the Growing up in Ireland Longitudinal Study. You have been troubled for some time by the possibility that a fellow PhD student, who is using the same data, has manipulated it in his publications. You have just discovered what you believe to be incontrovertible evidence that some of his published data had in fact been fabricated. What do you do? What would you do if your PhD supervisor is the person manipulating the data?

Case Study 2 You have received a prestigious Scholarship, which will pay you a stipend and fess to allow you to study for a PhD in Law. The scholarship is for 2 years. You have misgivings about committing to 3 years of study, but your potential supervisor insists she will be able to find sufficient resources to support you in your 3 rd year. Despite receiving good feedback at your review at the end of the 1 st year, you find that as the end of the 2 nd year approaches you supervisor is becoming more distant. Finally she tells you she is not able to continue as your supervisor as your research is not in her area and suggests you find another. What do you do? Discuss the behaviour of the supervisor. Is it ethical?

Case Study 3 You are a PhD student in Computer Science. Your supervisor has developed a computer programme to analyse big data and has created a start-up company to sell the programme. As a final year PhD student who has frequently used the programme to analyse your data, you often end up answering the phone and troubleshooting the software for the start-up company, in addition to your research. You are beginning to feel overwhelmed by the demands on your time, but do not feel you can appear unwilling to help. You have not had any feedback on your research from your supervisor for some time and he shows no sign of giving it to you any time soon. You feel quite frustrated and think you should be finishing your thesis, not helping to run a business. You receive no pay for this work. What do you do? Identify the ethical issues involved.

Case Study 4 A Professor you met at a conference, who is the editor of the leading journal in your field, has ed you to ask if you would referee a journal paper as he has had great difficulty in finding suitably qualified referee. Feeling very honoured you agree, especially as at the conference you had discussed the possibility of a post- doctorate position at the professor’s group. You know a position is a possibility, if you are finished your PhD within 3 months. On receiving it, you scan the paper and think the results therein, if correct, will delay your own research by 6 months, if published. What do you do? Identify the ethical issues involved.

Case Study 5 You are in your final year of your PhD studies and are currently writing up your thesis. You wish to submit your thesis in 6 months so that you do not have to pay any more fees and you wish to apply for a post- doctorate position which will be available then. Your supervisor has not returned any of your thesis drafts for the past 3 months. Last academic year you gave tutorials for the courses given by your supervisor, who cannot find anyone to do the tutorials this year. You suspect your supervisor is delaying you finishing so that the tutorials are given this year. What do you do? Identify the ethical issues involved.

Case Study 6 You are a PhD student in Pharmacy and your Supervisor has asked you, along with your fellow PhD students under his supervision to contribute ideas for an application for funding to the Wellcome Trust. As the only female present at the brain storming session, you hold back initially from pushing your ideas, but by the end, yours form the core of the research proposal. Your supervisor asks your fellow PhD student, John, to be Co-PI with him, and to take the lead in coordinating preparation of the proposal. It is a real advantage to be a PI early in one’s career. By offering one of his PhDs the opportunity to be Co-PI and work with him on preparing the grant, your supervisor is helping launch John’s career. The issue is, why didn’t your supervisor offer this opportunity to you, since the core idea in the proposal was yours? What should you do? What should John do? Identify the ethical issues involved.

Case Study 7 Your PhD research project is to examine how some children are able to fend off the deleterious consequences associated with stressful environments and adverse circumstances, while others are not. Assessments will be conducted through individual interviews of approximately one to two hours in length of sixth class school children. You have approached many schools unsuccessfully for permission to carry out the research and at one stage it looked like you would need to change your thesis topic. Finally a school principal agrees to allow you to undertake the study in her school. When you ask for advice on how to approach parents for their permission, the principal says that it is not necessary, as the school supports the study. Discuss how you should proceed and what problems you may encounter.

Case Study 8 You have finished your Ph.D. working on a novel light sensor that has aspects that are directly patentable and solve a major problem in manufacturing industry. You arrive at your new job and discover that the work done as a student, which is in the patent process, will solve the problem at your new company. If you reveal what you know to your new employer you will be an immediate hero, but will compromise the patent process at UCC. What are the relevant ethical considerations in this dilemma?

Case Study 9 You are in your first year of your two year MPhil programme in Sociology. You have a first class honours undergraduate degree and you won a scholarship for your research Masters based on the quality of your research proposal. You are now six months in and don’t seem to be making too much headway. Your supervisor keeps telling you it will take some time but each week you just seem to be drifting. You are doing lots of reading but struggle to get anything down on paper. In addition you are feeling really lonely and you haven’t really met any other research students in your School. You are starting to feel like doing a research programme might not be the right option for you. What do you do?

Case Study 10 At a School PhD seminar you realise that a fellow PhD student is doing work that compliments your research. Both of you decide to submit a Journal paper comparing the two methods. Following the successful publication of the paper you discover that some of the sections written by your co-author have been plagiarised. What do you do? Identify the ethical issues involved.

Case Study 11 You have signed up for a three year PhD in Therapies and are studying full-time as well as holding down a demanding part-time job. You are balancing work, study and have two young children, one of whom was recently diagnosed with asthma and has had to take a lot of time off school. You are really interested in your PhD topic but have missed some of the deadlines set by your supervisor and haven’t been in touch with him for over a month as you don’t want to meet until you have some work to show. What do you do?

Case Study 12 You find a novel solution to an important problem posed by your supervisor; however, your supervisor sees this as an opportunity for him to get published, downplays the significance of the results, collates a paper and submits it before you are any the wiser (the paper acknowledges a discussion with you, but does not include you as an author). You are absolutely clear that this idea was yours, and feel suitably put out. You approach your advisor and make a complaint, but he empathizes with you and tells you to be a bit quicker with the write-up next time. He tells you, “That’s just the way of the world.” You decide not to leave it there, and approach the head of the department (going up one link in the management chain). You make your complaint to him, and he asks you for evidence, but you can’t provide any because you didn’t keep a dated notebook: all of your notes are in several ring binders, some at home and some in your desk at work. You start feeling a bit silly, and the head advises you to drop the matter. Should you drop the issue? Are there long-term consequences for anyone to not dropping the issue? Identify the ethical issues involved.