SPEC Kit 336: Responsible Conduct of Research Training · 15
for some, and open sessions. The randomness is best
expressed in the comment, “Given that RCR incorpo-
rates many areas, there isn’t really any single or simple
answer for who it initiates sessions, what the topics
are, or when they happen.”
The most frequent activities among libraries cur-
rently offering some level of RCR training include:
incorporating plagiarism prevention in citation man-
agement workshops developing guides and pointing
to university-level requirements, activities, and sourc-
es. No unusual marketing and publicity techniques
were uncovered, but collaborative publicity, such as
blasts from both the library and from the graduate
school, seems to boost attendance.
Evaluation Results
Few libraries are conducting pre- or post-tests with
RCR activities, though quizzing or pre/post tests are
perceived as valuable aids to priming attendees to the
learning objectives. Assessment exercises are more
likely to be conducted when attendees receive certifi-
cation or other formal credit.
Those who use quizzes have learned that attend-
ees appear to be less knowledgeable than expected in
the areas of when and how to cite resources, how to
paraphrase properly, plagiarism, data management
and data sharing, ethics of authorship, copyright and
fair use, and how to search effectively &efficiently.
Further workshops/topics most frequently re-
quested by attendees are avoiding plagiarism, data
management/sharing/ownership, and responsible
authorship and publication practices. Graduate stu-
dents who serve as teaching assistants are requesting
support in teaching academic integrity.
About one third of the respondents are planning
to add workshops, either on subtopics such as data
management, or tailored to specific audience groups
such as international students.
Models
Successful models include a multi-faceted approach, in
which RCR elements are offered as distinct activities,
incorporated in small bits into established instruc-
tion sessions, included in or linked from guides, of-
fered through individual appointments, and delivered
through online tutorials. Subject guides can include
links to relevant university policies and websites.
Libraries may provide individual consultations to
faculty and students as well as general workshops.
Some libraries have succeeded in obtaining time dur-
ing orientations and seminars, which can be altered
to discipline-specific examples and which may be
marketed by the academic departments as required
activities for graduate students.
Why Libraries Are Not Conducting RCR Training
The responding libraries that are not conducting RCR
training gave a number of reasons why not. Some do
not consider RCR a library responsibility since train-
ing is handled at the university level. Others are not
yet experiencing a demand for training, have insuffi-
cient staffing or expertise, or acknowledged that they
are conducting plagiarism/citation training but hadn’t
considered these topics as part of RCR. One hadn’t
considered RCR as a route for librarians before receiv-
ing the survey.
Conclusion: How Can Libraries Help
“We see our role as filling in any gaps in the institu-
tional RCR training, which primarily occur in the area
of plagiarism and proper citations/citation manage-
ment systems.”
The goal of this project was twofold: to assess and
communicate the depth and variety of RCR sessions
provided by ARL libraries and to enable librarians
who perceive gaps in university-based training to
successfully initiate RCR training sessions or to in-
corporate RCR aspects into existing events.
The survey responses demonstrate that librarians
have been involved in plagiarism awareness edu-
cation for years, providing standalone training via
workshops or tutorials and incorporating segments
into course-based instruction. But librarians may not
perceive plagiarism awareness as a component of
the larger topic of Responsible Conduct of Research,
which is largely relevant to researchers and the gradu-
ate student level or higher. Typically, librarians’ ser-
vices have focused on the how-to or instructional
aspects of academic and research integrity, rather
than the conceptual and educational aspects. As such,
librarians may not have been asked to play a larger
role in the past. But the need to meet funding agency
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