Chrisland VC, Prof. Babalola Tasks Students on Upholding Research Integrity 

The Vice-Chancellor of Chrisland University, Prof. Chinedum Peace Babalola has tasked final year students of the Institution to uphold good academic research practices and eschew research fraud. 

She made this charge while addressing 400 level students of the University at the two-day impactful project writing and analysis organized by Chrisland University Centre for Research and Statistics.

According to Prof. Babalola, research ethics, standards and integrity plays a vital role in scientific research and scholarship noting that research integrity guides student’s career and reputation.

The Vice-Chancellor charged them to be intentional about their project writing this year and put in their best to do it well, noting that the whole work would carry their name. She reminded them that the quality of their works is important as they would be assessed by their supervisor, department and external supervisor. The Vice-Chancellor urged them to uphold ethical standards of research and eschew research fraud.

Prof. Babalola commended two final year students of the Institution, Miss Olamide Olubiyo (Department of Political Science) and Mr. Daniel West (Department of International Relations) for delivering exceptional paper presentations during the Annual CAMASS Conference held on 19th April, 2023.

The Vice-Chancellor revealed that the workshop was organized to help students gain practical knowledge of carrying out research.

Also, the Head of Department of Public Health, Prof. Delana Adelekan discussed extensively on identifying misconduct in research. According to him, research misconduct is the violation of the standards of scholarly conduct and ethical behaviour in the publication of professional scientific research including incorrectly attributing authorship, gift authorship, manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or omitting data, graphs, images or results.

Prof. Adelekan explained further that lack of training on the best practices, poor awareness and ethical guidelines to be followed as researchers are reasons responsible for research misconduct.

He revealed that research misconduct could lead to dismissal of a researcher from a faculty, rejection of research grants, blacklisting, and stripping of academic achievements.

Speaking on problem-solving research, the Head of Department, Medical Laboratory Science, Prof. Augustine Onyeaghala defined problem-solving research as a research that entails using systematic approach and critical thinking in identifying and resolving issues across various domains.

He underscored identification of a problem, data collection, data analysis, evaluating results, implementing solution, monitoring outcomes as key elements in problem-solving research.

Prof. Onyeaghala highlighted Brain, SWOT Analysis, Root cause analysis, Literature Review, data collection tools, gap analysis as tools for implementation a problem-solving research.

In her address on students’ mentorship, the Dean of College of Basic Medical Sciences, Prof. Prisca Adejumo stated that mentorship is a developmental relationship, adding that relationship is a key element in mentorship.

Speaking on how to make one’s supervisor a mentor, she stated that a student must be the driver, and recognize that there is a virtue in the Supervisor which should be tapped. 

She underscored one-on-one mentoring, e-mentoring, group mentoring, team mentoring, staff mentoring and combined mentoring as types of mentoring.

The Dean further explained that commitment from parties; relationship responsibility and effective communication are mutual principles that guide mentoring.

To guide students with practical knowledge, several hands-on trainings on research writing were demonstrated including how to construct a purposeful questionnaire facilitated by the Acting Head of Department, Business Administration, Dr. Ayodotun Ibidunni.

Participants were also given a practical knowledge on analyzing primary data using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for beginners, including EVIEWS package for quantitative data analysis, and this session was facilitated by the Acting Director, Chrisland University Centre for Research and Statistics, Dr. Solomon Okunade.

In his closing remarks, the Registrar, Mr. Samuel Omotoso explained that research is cyclical, adding that a research conclusion must corroborate or debunk the assumptions of existing literatures.

He highlighted concepts, hypothesis, law, school of thought, paradigm shift, and results as basic elements a researcher must understand while embarking on a research.

Mr. Omotoso however urged the students to avoid plagiarism by citing sources and using paraphrasing appropriately.