Dottorato in JOINT INTERNATIONAL DOCTORATE IN SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS,
CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION

This class introduces students to the foundational principles of conducting responsible research involving human participants, with a parallel focus on the practices of Open Science. The course is divided into two complementary modules. The first module covers ethical, legal, and procedural standards for the protection of human subjects, including informed consent, privacy and data management, research with vulnerable populations (e.g., children, prisoners, students), and navigating institutional review boards. Through interactive case studies such as the Stanford Prison Experiment and scenario-based discussions, students critically examine real-world ethical dilemmas in research design and execution.

The second module focuses on Open Research practices, emphasizing transparency, reproducibility, and data sharing. Key topics include pre-registration of studies, anonymization of datasets, licensing and usage rights, and the publication of open materials and software. Students gain hands-on experience in pre-registering a study, anonymizing data, and evaluating consent form language for data sharing. By integrating ethical responsibility with open research methods, the course prepares students to conduct human-centered studies that are both ethically sound and openly accessible, in line with evolving standards in global research communities.