Ethics in the supervisory relationship: supervisors' and doctoral students' dilemmas in the natural and behavioural sciences

Abstract

This study explored the perceptions of ethical issues in supervision among doctoral students and supervisors. The nature of ethical issues identified by doctoral students (n = 28) and their supervisors (n = 14) is explored and the degree of fit and misfit between their perceptions in two cases representing the natural and behavioural sciences is analysed. Supervisors and students identified different ethical issues, which suggest that there are aspects in the supervisory relationship about which there is no shared understanding. There were also differences between the ethical issues emphasised in the natural sciences from those emphasised in the behavioural sciences, suggesting differences between the domains.

Keywords:

• supervision
• ethics
• doctoral supervision
• doctoral advising
• doctoral practices

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr Jenni Keskinen for her contribution in the data collection and the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback on an earlier version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The research has received support from the University of Helsinki [grant numbers 2106008 and 7630108] to the second author for research on doctoral training and by the Academy of Finland [grant number 252813] to the first author for research on academic integrity.