A Vignette-based Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate the Impact of Supervisor's Role on Research Practices of Doctoral Students

Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris

Status: Unknown

Conditions: The Study Focus on no Specific Condition

Treatments: Other: Vignette with emphasis on supervisor's opinion

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04263506

ISB-014

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study aims to evaluate the influence of supervisors on PhD students' research practice (i.e., an environment where there is a lack of opposition to detrimental research practice from the supervisor)

Full description

PhD students are the next generation of researchers and will present the field in the future. However, several environmental factors might influence their research practice. In this study, we will evaluate the influence of supervisors on PhD students' research practice (an environment where there is a lack of opposition to detrimental research practice from the supervisor).

Objective: To evaluate the influence of supervisors on PhD students' research practice

Design: A randomized controlled trial

1. Intervention: Participants will be shown two case vignettes describing dilemma situations in research reported with and without the role of the supervisor.
2. Participants: The participants will be PhD students in all biomedical disciplines.
3. Sample size will be 300 participants
4. Primary outcome: In each vignette, participants will have to indicate which solution they prefer on a semantic differential scale, rated from - 5 to -1 (preference for solution A) and from 1 to 5 (preference for solution B). Participants will be forced to make a choice between the 2 solutions. The primary outcome will be the mean preference score.
5. This study is approved by ethics review regulations by INSERM (CEEI-IRB): IRB00003888

Enrollment: 300 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• PhD students in biomedical sciences

Exclusion criteria

• NA

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

300 participants in 2 patient groups

Vignette with supervisor's opinion

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in this arm will receive vignettes with an additional sentence describing supervisor's opinion (i.e. supervisor does not oppose to detrimental research practice)

Treatment:

Other: Vignette with emphasis on supervisor's opinion

Vignette without supervisor's opinion

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants in this arm will receive vignettes without an additional sentence describing supervisor's opinion.

Treatment:

Other: Vignette with emphasis on supervisor's opinion