Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)

What does this mean?  All trainees, fellows, participants, and scholars receiving support through any individual or institutional NIH training, career development award, research education grant, and dissertation research grant must receive instruction in responsible conduct of research.  
 
How can I describe my training? The CCTS has developed a sample document for Principles of Scientific Integrity (GRD 717), taught by Dr. Jeff Engler.  The sample includes the five instructional components mandated by the NIH notice instructions.   To meet the NIH requirement in RCR, trainees will need to take advantage of multiple training methods and not just one course. A review of unacceptable will prevent your grant from being awarded, regardless of its imact score. 
 
Additional opportunities for training:
The Office of Postdoctoral Education has established a 2 hour scholarly integrity workshop required of all beginning postdoctoral fellows.

The Ethics for Authors website is for research writers who want to follow best practices while incorporating prior source work and writing for publication.  Includes E-tools, presentations, information on citing and referencing as well as research writing. 

The Center for Ethics and Values in the Sciences has developed training modules appropriate for self-directed or small group learning.
What about faculty? Do they need RCR training?  Training faculty and sponsors/mentors should refresh their RCR training at least once every four years.  This may occur as training program faculty serve as course directors, speakers, lecturers and/or discussion leaders for RCR curriculum.  RCR video.png

Material developed by the Center for Ethics and Values in the Sciences in conjunction with the CCTS and Dr. Jeff Engler, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs is appropriate for faculty-led classroom presentation, laboratory meetings and discussion.  The training modules contain a presentation overview of the topic, a written Case Study, a Video Case Study, a Decision Tree Video, Useful Links for further information on the topic, and a Bibliography for recommended additional resources.
The UAB CCTS is supported through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program, grant UL1 TR000165.The CTSA program is led by the NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). The content of this website is solely the responsibility of UAB and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.