Responsible Conduct of Research

Responsible conduct of research (RCR) is defined as "the practice of scientific investigation with integrity." It involves the awareness and application of established professional norms and ethical principles in the performance of all activities related to scientific research. It is the responsibility of all those engaged in research at HMH to uphold these principles. 

Individuals who are funded by NIH on the following awards:

• Training grants (T’s)
• Fellowship (F’s)
• Career Development (K’s and R00)
• Research education (R25, R36)
• Dissertation (D’s) and Cooperative agreements (U2R)
• +Any other FOA that requires RCR Instruction

Are required to complete minimum of 8 substantive face-to-face training must be completed every 4 years (NOT-OD-10-019). Individuals at HMH who are identified as requiring to complete RCR instruction will be notified by Research Compliance. 

In collaboration with the Office of Research Administration, programming has been developed to meet these requirements. 

Individuals not required to complete are still encouraged to attend RCR programming. 

RCR Topics

RCR instruction includes, but is not limited to, the following topic areas:

• conflict of interest – personal, professional, and financial – and conflict of commitment, in allocating time, effort, or other research resources
• policies regarding human subjects, live vertebrate animal subjects in research, and safe laboratory practices
• mentor/mentee responsibilities and relationships
• safe research environments (e.g., those that promote inclusion and are free of sexual, racial, ethnic, disability and other forms of discriminatory harassment)
• collaborative research, including collaborations with industry and investigators and institutions in other countries
• peer review, including the responsibility for maintaining confidentiality and security in peer review
• 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
• secure and ethical data use; data confidentiality, management, sharing, and ownership
• research misconduct and policies for handling misconduct
• responsible authorship and publication
• the scientist as a responsible member of society, contemporary ethical issues in biomedical research, and the environmental and societal impacts of scientific research