Guest Post: An AuthorAID-Funded Workshop Including Ethics Instruction (Part 1)

[This post is from Prof. Amam Zonaed Siddiki, Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (CVASU), Bangladesh. Because the post is long, I’m running half of it this week and half next week. Thanks for this post! —Barbara]

Last year when I saw that an AuthorAID grant recipient (Dr. Haseeb Md. Irfanullah) had arranged a research-communication workshop in Bangladesh for young plant scientists, I was keen to invite him to my university to hold a similar event for my colleagues and postgraduate students. As the director of research and extension at my university, I am responsible for organizing such events.

Fortunately, Dr. Haseeb was available, and he volunteered for the event, which was attended by more than 30 young faculty members from 5 universities in Bangladesh. The attendees were so enthusiastic that they paid the registration fees themselves. Also, I found some sponsors, and my university provided the venue and amenities free of cost.

This was the beginning, and I started getting many requests from young academicians and postgraduate students from my own university and other institutions to have a similar event. I was inspired by these requests and later applied for an AuthorAID workshop grant. I thank the AuthorAID team, who awarded me a workshop grant in 2013.

I was happy to organize the new event. This time, publication ethics was included in the workshop title along with research communication. This was because I thought it would be relevant for researchers in Bangladesh to learn about such ethical considerations, which are almost unknown to many of them. Although people like me who received higher degrees in the United Kingdom are aware of ethical considerations in communicating science, such awareness is not common in Bangladesh.

Then I started communicating with my contacts at different universities. I asked each to select a couple of suitable participants who could attend the workshop and then share the content with colleagues. Soon I found more than 40 enthusiasts; we chose 30 to attend the 3-day workshop.

The workshop was postponed because of an unexpected political situation in Bangladesh. Ultimately, the workshop, “Research Communication and Ethics in Bangladesh Perspective”, was held on 18–20 February 2014.

[For more about the workshop, please see next week’s post.]