Expanding responsible conduct of research instruction across the university.

During the past two decades, serious intellectual effort by governmental agencies, research institutions, professional societies, and educators has promoted education in the responsible conduct of research (RCR), defined present standards of RCR, and shaped the debate on how best to promote research integrity in the biomedical sciences. However, revisions to the Federal Policy on Research Misconduct in 2000 specifically expanded the policy's scope to include disciplines outside the biomedical and behavioral sciences, thus creating a need for RCR education in such fields as economics, education, mathematics, and linguistics. Even as some institutions have applied the Office of Research Integrity's (ORI) framework for RCR instruction university-wide, academic administrators and faculty from fields beyond the biomedical sciences have rightly noted that several of ORI's nine core instructional areas are tangential or irrelevant to the many disciplines whose research practices differ substantially from those of the biomedical sciences.

New graduate students' baseline knowledge of the responsible conduct of research.

Purpose: To assess (1) new biomedical science graduate students' baseline knowledge of core concepts and standards in responsible conduct of research (RCR), (2) differences in graduate students' baseline knowledge overall and across the Office of Research Integrity's nine core areas, and (3) demographic and educational factors in these differences.

Method: A 30-question, computer-scored multiple-choice test on core concepts and standards of RCR was developed following content analysis of 20 United States-published RCR texts, and combined with demographic questions on undergraduate experience with RCR developed from graduate student focus groups. Four hundred two new graduate students at three health science universities were recruited for Scantron and online testing before beginning RCR instruction.

The history, purpose, and future of instruction in the responsible conduct of research.

This article discusses the key decisions and steps that have partially formalized instruction in the responsible conduct of research (RCR) in U.S. research institutions, the different purposes for offering and/or requiring such instruction, and suggestions for what needs to be done to enhance the professional development of researchers in the future.

Assessing the educational literature in the responsible conduct of research for core content.

To determine core content for RCR instruction, content analysis was conducted using key instructional resources for ORI's nine RCR "core instructional areas". Topics discussed in these key RCR resources were identified and their frequency across resources was tabulated. Topics covered most frequently were judged to be core content.