Responsible Conduct of Research
East Tennessee State University recognizes that maintenance of the highest standards
of ethics in research is essential to the advancement of knowledge and to retaining
public trust in the research and scholarly activities conducted by its faculty, students
and staff. To this end all faculty, staff and students engaged in research and scholarly
activities are strongly encouraged to read the documents linked from this page, especially
the ETSU Guidelines on the Responsible Conduct of Research and the ETSU Policy on
Misconduct in Research and Scholarship (see below). The former provides the context
for ethical conduct of research at ETSU and every person conducting research at ETSU
should be familiar with the Policy on Misconduct in Research and Scholarship.
CITI Course in the RCR
ETSU also provides the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Course in the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR). All individuals involved in research and scholarly activity at ETSU are encouraged to take the appropriate CITI course. Note that those who are personnel on some types of grants funded by the federal government (e.g. NIH center and training grants) are required to complete this or some other form of formal training in RCR. For those of you who have been certified for use of human or animal research subjects, this is a companion course and the format is very similar to CITI training in those areas.
You do not have to complete the entire course at one sitting. A certificate is available to print/save upon completion.
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Basic CITI RCR courses include the following topics:
- Introduction to the Responsible Conduct of Research
- Research Misconduct
- Data Acquisition and Management
- Responsible Authorship
- Peer Review
- Mentoring
- Conflicts of Interest
- Collaborative Research
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Other RCR options include:
- CITI Biomedical Sciences RCR Course
- CITI Social and Behavioral Sciences RCR Course
- CITI Physical Sciences and Engineering RCR Course
- CITI RCR Course for Students and Investigators in the Humanities
- CITI Course for IACUC Members
- Review the CITI Health Information Privacy and Security (HIPS) Course
Research students, staff and faculty are encouraged to complete the CITI Course in the Responsible Conduct of Research and other RCR training options in the area of specific interest or expertise. The course is flexible enough that classroom instructors of research methods courses can use this online tutorial as an adjunct to class instruction.
ETSU Guidelines on the Responsible Conduct of Research
A central responsibility of a university is to promote, encourage, enable, and conduct high quality research. East Tennessee State University is committed to quality research, and to the responsible conduct of that research. The university expects everyone working here individual researchers, lab managers, technicians, and students to embody the highest standards of research excellence, to exhibit exemplary moral behavior as researchers. However, It is not enough to hold employees and students to high ethical standards. The institution will actively seek ways (a) to encourage careful thought about our ethical responsibilities as researchers, (b) to reward exemplary behavior and to censure questionable behavior, and (c) to promulgate these expectations to all students and everyone within the university's employ.
For the full text, please see the ETSU Guidelines on the Responsible Conduct of Research.
Other Helpful Information:
On Being a Scientist: Responsible Conduct of Research
AAAS Resource Site is a website for students, researchers, administrators, and policymakers bringing together a diverse array of resources, including authorship, use of research animals, peer review, data sharing, protection of human subjects, conflict of interest and responsible conduct in research education.