RESPONSIBLE AND ETHICAL
CONDUCT OF RESEARCH

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This one-session, in-person class will highlight the importance of professional ethics in the responsible conduct of research.  The class will take a maximum of 2 hours to complete and will include a discussion of research integrity. 

Promoting the responsible conduct of research for students is a crucial component of obtaining federal funding.  Being an effective and ethical researcher means understanding a variety of areas connected to research.  We will cover select areas as identified by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). 

The topics explored in this class session are on research misconduct, conflict of interest, human subjects research, and the role of the scientist in society.  We will (1) use lecture and case studies to discuss these topics and (2) provide links to resources for you on the UU campus, as well as from the NIH, NSF and federal Office of Research Integrity.  The discussions with peers will promote research integrity and the responsible conduct of research for the basis of your research career. 

At the conclusion of this class, you should be able to:

• Characterize elements of responsible conduct of research (RCR)
• Define research integrity
• Describe areas of research misconduct and differentiate activities to promote responsible conduct of research (RCR) in your discipline
• Articulate impact of research misconduct on science
• Locate resources for you as a student

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Participants will develop a basis for understanding the background and regulations for the protection of human research subjects. The Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) will be discussed including the informed consent process, vulnerable populations, Serious Adverse Event (SAE) reporting, inclusion and exclusion criteria, HIPAA authorization, and protocol applications. The Electronic Research Integrity Compliance Administration (ERICA) program will be presented and IRB documentation standards will be explained.

At the conclusion of this class, you should be able to:

• Describe the background and events that lead to the development of ethical principles and regulations for the conduct of human subject research
• Summarize the Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) with accompanying regulations
• Identify regulations and processes for the protection of research participants using informed consent
• List vulnerable human subject populations and explain why they are vulnerable
• Describe how to use online IRB resources and portal.

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Publication in science and academia serves several purposes. In addition to advancing the field by making new knowledge permanently and widely available to the scientific and lay communities, publication plays an integral role in an individual's career development. In this workshop, strategies for researchers and other academicians to publish their papers in well-regarded journals in their field will be presented. Several questions will be addressed including:

• What criteria do editors and reviewers use in evaluating papers for publication?
• What can an author do to enhance the likelihood that their manuscript will be reviewed and accepted?
• What can an author do when their manuscript is rejected or unfairly evaluated?
• What is considered ethical and unethical behavior when it comes to issues of authorship, peer review, data presentation, citation and discussion of the literature?
• What are the rights and responsibilities of authors, editors, reviewers and readers?

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Research mentors play crucial roles in the development of emerging scholars. Elements of Effective Mentoring/Developing a Mentoring Philosophy is the first class in the Research Mentoring Certificate and provides a foundation for the remainder of the certificate classes.

Participants are introduced to the research-based characteristics of high-quality mentoring and are encouraged to reflect on how their own experiences as a mentor and as a mentee influence their own mentoring practice. Crucially, this class problematizes harmful mentoring attitudes and practices and exposes participants to issues that disproportionally impact marginalized mentees.

At the conclusion of this class, you should be able to:

• Identify research-based characteristics of high-quality mentoring.
• Explain how your prior experiences with mentorship influence their approaches to working with research mentees.
• Recognize considerations/implications of mentorship for diverse mentees.

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Data Monitoring plans are required for all human subject research projects at the University of Utah while Safety Monitoring plans are required for all greater than minimal risk human subject research. Studies that do not have an industry sponsor often require the investigator to create the data and safety monitoring plans. Additionally, if an industry sponsor does not provide a local data monitoring plan, the investigator must create one. These plans are required as part of the IRB approval process.  

At the conclusion of this class, you should be able to:

• Describe the differences between and components of data monitoring and safety monitoring
• Determine the need for a data and safety monitoring plan, board, or committee
• Demonstrate how to complete IRB application Data Monitoring and Safety Monitoring pages

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Learn how to use library databases to enhance and protect your researcher identity. Discover the impact of your research, how to manage and promote your research, how to determine which scholars have cited your work, and how to locate top-ranked journals in your field or science. 

This presentation will explain methods for effectively and efficiently using Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, ORCID and a variety of social media tools to maintain your online scholarly profile. Bibliometric measures such as h-factor, an author-level metric, and Impact Factor, the average number of times articles published in the past two years, will also be described.

At the conclusion of this class, you should be able to:

• Build a Google Scholar profile
• Register for an ORCID
• Explain methods for using Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, ORCID and a variety of social media tools to build and maintain your online scholarly profile
• Describe bibliometric measures such as h-factor, an author-level metric, and Impact Factor

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The process of informed consent will be considered from the research participant's perspective. What is Good Clinical Practice (GCP) when addressing participant questions and concerns? How can the informed consent process be improved for the participant? What do your participants truly understand, consent to, and wish they knew more about? How does Health Literacy impact the informed consent process in clinical research? What is therapeutic misconception and how can it be avoided?

These questions and other "hot topics" will be the focus of discussion in this open forum presentation.

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Rigor and reproducibility of research is critical to the advancement of science. Irreproducibility of research, in particular clinical research, is a growing concern as valuable time is wasted pursuing false leads and consuming significant resources, often from publicly-funded federal grantees. 

Various efforts in academia and the scientific community are underway to improve the transparency and robustness in publications and to promote a cultural shift. This presentation will provide an introduction to the problem of irreproducibility, define key terms and concepts, and describe emerging tools and tactics for supporting and encouraging rigor and reproducibility in research. 

The Open Access movement and the latest guidelines and policies from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be discussed including new review criteria for grant proposals.

ENROLL IN synchronous     ENROLL IN Asynchronous

The purpose of this class is to provide you with the requirements for source documentation based on applicable regulations. These requirements and the collection of clinical research data for investigator-initiated studies, as well as research sponsored by industry and government, will be presented. How to properly document data and prepare forms to serve as source documents will be described. Examples of templates and forms will be provided.

At the conclusion of this class, you should be able to:

• Recognize regulations, guidelines, and standards that apply to source documentation
• Identify which documents are necessary as source documents in research data collection
• Determine how to properly document acquired data
• Create required forms that will serve as source documents and transfer source data to Case Report Forms if appropriate.