Procedures for the Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RECR) for Federally Funded Projects

Please review the below procedures and then submit a Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RECR) form to compliance@cofc.edu. 

Background

The College of Charleston is dedicated to truth in pursuit of knowledge through research and to the transmission of knowledge through teaching. A spirit of mutual respect and a broad trust that all faculty members, students and staff share this dedication to the truth is essential to the functioning of the College. 

All members of the research community, including faculty, research staff, students, adjunct faculty, and visiting researchers, are expected to adhere to the highest ethical and professional standards as they pursue research activities, complying with all legal, regulatory, and ethical requirements established by the College, regulatory bodies, funding sources and professional organizations. The Code of Professional Conduct and Statement of Professional Ethics (Faculty and Administration Manual) prescribes standards of work performance and ethical conduct expected of all persons engaged in teaching and research. 

While expectations of ethical conduct are high, education in the responsible conduct of research has historically been uneven at best. Many researchers have received little to no training in conducting and mentoring research beyond those specific to their own disciplines. In contrast, the risks of research misconduct can be both personally and institutionally great. 

The Office of Research Integrity, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, encourages researchers to make a special effort to understand, discuss, and teach others about the responsible conduct of research. It is understood that responsible conduct of research can be taught and learned in many ways and that the standards can vary from discipline to discipline. Therefore, this policy represents the College of Charleston’s commitment to promoting and fostering the responsible conduct of research through educational opportunities for students, faculty, and staff.

Purpose

The purpose of this SOP is to provide information about how to ensure that PIs, Senior Personnel, and students are provided training on topics related to the responsible and ethical conduct of research in compliance with federal requirements, including, but not limited to:

  • Section 7009 of the America COMPETES Act (42 USC 1862o–1)
  • NSF PAPPG
  • NIH NOT-OD-22-055
  • Sections 2, 3, and 8 of 2 CFR Part 422

These procedures also delegate oversight of training plans involving the instruction of RECR topics to graduate and undergraduate students.

In addition to promoting ethical research practices, this document also intends to stress the importance of safe research environments that promote inclusion and are free of sexual, racial, ethnic, disability and other forms of discriminatory harassment.

Applicability

These procedures must be followed by all PIs, senior personnel, and students who are conducting research or hosting research conferences, as required by federal sponsors. This includes federal flow-through awards (e.g., state grants that are funded through federal agencies).

While these procedures are only required for federally funded research, the Office of Research and Grants Administration encourages the promotion of responsible and ethical conduct of research and safe research spaces for all research conducted at the College of Charleston, as well as any research conducted in the field or at collaborating institutions.

Required Certification and Training for Faculty, Staff, Senior Personnel, and Students involved in federally funded research

All PIs and Senior Personnel listed on a federal or flow-through grant proposal are required to complete the RCR CITI program training prior to the award start. The CITI completion certificate must be emailed to compliance@cofc.edu prior to a grant start date. Additional non-discrimination courses are also available through the Title IX Office.

All PIs of federal-funded research are required to submit an Assurance of Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RECR) in Federally Funded Research Form. As part of this form, PIs certify that in order to receive federal funding for research they must:

  • Understand reporting requirements of allegations of research misconduct.
  • Promote safe research spaces and include a communication plan that includes how to report allegations of harassment and nondiscrimination to all members of the research team and/or conference attendees, as advised in the non-discrimination course.
  • Provide the training plan for students funded by the research project (if applicable).

All students (graduate, undergraduate, and postdoctoral) that are part of federally funded research are required to receive in-person instruction on responsible and ethical conduct of research, typically provided by the PI or other senior personnel. The training plan for students is provided by the PI in the Assurance of Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RECR) in Federally Funded Research Form and is emailed to compliance@cofc.edu prior to grant proposal submission.

Required Student Training Plans

The submission of the Assurance of RECR form is required regardless of the number of students involved in the funded research. Training must include discussion-based instruction and face-to-face interaction with the students. Video conferencing can supplement face-to-face interaction but cannot be the sole means of instruction. It should be tailored to each educational level. The students’ training must occur at least once per career stage and at least once every 4 years.

Student training plans are required to include instructional plans for the following topics:

  • Mentor/Trainee Responsibilities – facilitating the training and development of students and other junior members of the community; ensuring that they have the opportunity to achieve their full potential; demonstrating respect, protecting their rights and welfare.
  • Safe Research Environments- those that promote inclusion and are free of sexual, racial, ethnic, disability and other forms of discriminatory harassment
  • Research Misconduct – understanding consequences of fabrication, falsification and plagiarism; policies for handling misconduct.
  • Data Acquisition and Management – understanding proper and ethical data collection, representation and retention of data, data acquisition and analysis; laboratory tools (e.g., tools for analyzing data and creating or working with digital images); recordkeeping practices, including methods such as electronic laboratory notebooks
  • Data Sharing and Ownership- secure and ethical data use; data confidentiality, management, sharing, and ownership.
  • Publication Practices and Responsible Authorship – giving appropriate credit and acknowledgments, citations, co-authorship, description of methods, representing accurately and honestly the actual observations and findings in whatever medium they are presented; using statistics and other methods of data analysis and evaluation in an appropriate and responsible manner.

It is recommended that training plans also cover the following topics, as appropriate for the research discipline and educational level:

  • Conflicts of Interest and Commitment- appropriately disclosing any relationships, financial or personal, that might be perceived to compromise one's scholarly judgment. And conflict of commitment, in allocating time, effort, or other research resources.
  • Human Participants, Live Vertebrate Animal Subjects, and Safe Laboratory Practices – understanding policies, regulations, and protections.
  • Peer Review – treating all members of the research community with impartiality, respect and fairness.
  • Collaborative Research – facilitating the exchange of knowledge among researchers at all levels of experience by encouraging a climate of intellectual collaboration and trust; communicating clearly. Including collaborations with industry and investigators and institutions in other countries.
  • Fiscal Responsibility and Stewardship of Resources- demonstrating stewardship of resources by appropriate use of research funds, care and maintenance of equipment and other research materials, and compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, policies, and guidelines for the use and disposal of hazardous substances.
  • The Scientist as a Responsible Member of Society – understanding contemporary ethical issues in research and the environmental and societal impacts of scientific research.

Oversight

All training plans must be approved by the research compliance manager in ORGA. All Responsible Conduct of Research CITI training certificates must be provided to the compliance manager once completed so they can be appended to the PIs RECR form.

 

Created: July 28, 2008,

Updated: September 5, 2016; January 27, 2025