SPEC Kit 336: Responsible Conduct of Research Training · 19
SURVEY QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES
The SPEC Survey on Responsible Conduct of Research Training was designed by Michelle Leonard,
Science &Technology Librarian, and Denise Bennett, Engineering Librarian, at the University of Florida.
These results are based on data submitted by 48 libraries at 47 of the 125 ARL member libraries (38%) by the
deadline of June 9, 2013. The survey’s introductory text and questions are reproduced below, followed by the
response data and selected comments from the respondents.
News reports from the research community routinely include stories of plagiarism, falsification, and fabrication of data, as well as
journal publishers’ updates on redacted papers due to research misconduct. To counter such activity, federal granting agencies in
the US and Canada are requiring that institutions receiving grants must ensure that participants have received appropriate training
as defined by the institution. In response, universities and other research institutions are developing programs, tutorials, and guides
to inform and to assure that their faculty, staff, students, and researchers are complying with granting agencies’ requirements for
responsible conduct of research (RCR), which now includes data management practices.
A scan of academic websites indicates that most RCR training is being conducted outside of libraries. Often it is centralized through
the graduate school or the office of research, though libraries may be tapped to identify resources and have been conducting
workshops on avoiding plagiarism and proper citation practices for a long time. The next leap from plagiarism prevention training
is to request that librarians conduct responsible conduct of research training. Librarians can promote RCR through a variety of
educational efforts including traditional face-to-face workshops for students, partnering with faculty to design plagiarism proof
assignments, developing research ethics symposia, and creating online resources.
The purpose of this survey is to assess research libraries’ participation in institutional efforts to train faculty, staff, students, and
other researchers in the principles of responsible conduct of research and ethical research practices. It includes questions on the
institution’s training activities, on training roles currently undertaken by librarians, and on librarians’ willingness to expand instruction
into the arena of responsible conduct of research. Data and documentation will serve to inform librarians of their peers’ activities and
to provide links and templates for reuse.
Some institutions may have multiple libraries that provide RCR instruction, for example science and medicine. Because they may
handle the material differently, we will accept separate responses from as many libraries as wish to complete this survey so that we
may get as complete an understanding of current policy and practice as possible. But, a response from each library that provides RCR
instruction at your institution is not required. If more than one library is responding, please submit separate surveys.
Definitions
For the purposes of the survey, Responsible Conduct of Research can be broadly defined as the ethical and responsible practice of
research in the following areas:
Data management, sharing, and ownership
Conflict of interest and commitment
Previous Page Next Page