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Researcher's Handbook

Section 4

University Policies and Guidelines

Centers, Bureaus and Institutes

The University of Florida has approximately 164 Board of Trustees' approved Centers, Institutes and Bureaus that have been established for the purposes of research and/or education, coordinating international relationships, advancing public policy, and providing research/ instrumentation facilities and services. Centers, Institutes, and Bureaus (hereafter referred to as "Centers") focus on domains of knowledge that reside within a discipline or are cross-disciplinary in scope. These are organizational mechanisms that can be used to provide greater depth in teaching and/or research to a narrower band of problems within a discipline, or to apply a broader vision to problem sets that cross traditional knowledge boundaries. Center status provides visibility for, and tangible evidence of, a formalized structure for an activity that strengthens its credibility to funding agencies as well as to other external sponsors.

All University of Florida Centers must be approved by the Board of Trustees as either a Type I, II, III or IV Center. Proposals for Centers require approval by the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs after initial review and approval of the respective chairs, deans, vice president (where appropriate) and the Vice President for Research.

Once the department and college reviews have occurred, signified by the signatures of the chair and dean (and vice president where appropriate), the proposal should be forwarded to the Office of Research for review by the Vice President (VP) for Research. In general, the primary critical review should occur at the College and Departmental level; the VP may solicit constructive suggestions from the Research Advisory Board (RAB) for integrating the Center's objectives with existing University programs. Proposals that are approved by the VP will then be forwarded to the Office of the Provost. The Provost or his designee will provide the final approval and transmit the proposal to the Board of Trustees.

Faculty who are members of a Center may choose to submit their grant or contract applications via their home department or via their Center, Bureau or Institute. (Note: Faculty in EIES and IFAS should contact their own college for information regarding this matter.) If submitted via the Center, a project needs signatures from the department chair as well as the center director and respective dean. Centers are entitled a percentage of indirect cost returns on individual research/training grants.

The full University of Florida Policy for Establishing and Reviewing Centers, Bureaus and Institutes is available online at http://www.ir.ufl.edu/centers.htm.

Classified Research

The University permits faculty the opportunity to engage in classified research. However, the primary mission of any major research university is to disseminate information and advance knowledge in all academic fields. University researchers should be as free as possible to seek new knowledge without constraints, and to share their findings with other scholars.

Before submitting a proposal to a sponsor to conduct classified research, the researcher must submit the proposal for review to the Vice President for Research. The Vice President will review the proposed research activity to determine if it is acceptable as appropriate academic research. Consideration will be given to the restrictions on publications, use of graduate students, the humanitarian nature of the research and the appropriateness of the scientific inquiry within a university environment.

The Vice President will make a recommendation to the President of the University, and the final decision of acceptance or rejection of the proposed research will be made at that level.

Consultant/Contractual Services on Grants

Consultant payments on sponsored projects must represent compensation to individuals who are independent of the university and who render independent services. Consultant payments may not be made by faculty to colleagues where an employer/employee relationship exists. Rather, in these situations colleagues should be compensated for services via the University personnel/payroll system according to percent effort of committed time; or donate their services as professional courtesy. If overload can be demonstrated for short-term teaching situations, permission must be obtained from the Division of Continuing Education (DOCE).

On the whole, it is expected that consulting needs can be satisfied from resources within the University community. When outside consulting services are needed for a grant or contract, all of these conditions must be met:

Cost Accounting Standards

In order to comply with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-21 and Cost Accounting Standards (CAS), the University of Florida established a policy for charging costs to federally sponsored projects. Unless direct charging can be justified in accordance with OMB Circular A-21, clerical and administrative salaries will be charged indirectly.

With few exceptions, the following items cannot be charged directly to the project:

The following items are generally considered direct charges:

Exemptions to the University's CAS policy will be permitted only under the following circumstances:

  1. The above costs may be allowed as direct charges to a grant if the justification document can show how the charging of such costs to the project are for "unlike circumstances", usually due to a high demand of that item on that project. All such charges must be project-specific.

  2. Clerical and administrative individuals whose salaries are paid from a federally sponsored projects must have responsibilities specifically associated with the work of that sponsored project. The specific association requirement may be satisfied in one of two ways:

    1. Unusually high levels of administrative activity associated with large/ complex projects such as program projects, cooperative agreements, coordinating centers, multi center grants or operations offices. Only in such cases, eligible responsibilities might include coordination of fiscal activities for multiple projects, core units, meetings for steering or advisory committees, pilot project programs, special reporting needs, etc.

    2. Administrative work that is specifically related to the distinctive scientific and technical requirements of the work of the sponsored project, such as data collection, maintaining subject/patient data, phone surveys, etc.

  3. Clerical and administrative salaries must be project-specific, supporting a major project or activity. A major project would include:

    1. Large complex programs such as general clinical research centers, primate centers, engineering research centers and other federally sponsored projects that entail assembling and managing teams of investigators from a large number of institutions.

    2. Projects which involve extensive data accumulation and entry, surveying, tabulation, cataloging and reporting such as epidemiological studies, clinical trials and retrospective clinical records studies.

    3. Projects that require making substantial travel and meeting arrangements for large numbers of program participants.

    4. Projects whose principal focus is the preparation and production of manuals and large reports excluding routine progress and technical reports.

    5. Projects that are geographically inaccessible to normal departmental administrative services (i.e., seagoing research vessels and radio astronomy projects that are remote (not in Alachua County) from campus.

Non-Federal Sponsored Agreements:

All costs may be direct charged to a non-federal sponsored agreement as long as they have been approved by the awarding sponsor. All questions should be directed to the appropriate contract and grant office for your college.

Cost Sharing

1. Policy

It is the policy of the University that only mandatory cost sharing be submitted to sponsoring agencies. This policy does not preclude exceptions that may be judged appropriate under certain circumstances to leverage a project. Mandatory cost sharing requirements are usually defined by law, statute, agency regulations, or written in the application guidelines for a specific program. When there is mandatory cost sharing a copy of the RFP, regulations or guidelines must be submitted with the proposal along with a written commitment from the individual authorized to commit the resources. All non-mandatory or voluntary cost sharing must be reviewed and committed in writing by the College Dean (without delegation) and forwarded with the proposal for approval in the Office of Research by an authorized institutional representative.

Criteria for Cost Sharing Commitments

  1. Cost sharing and matching funds must be verifiable from the University's records.

  2. In-kind, third party contributions offered as cost sharing, require a commitment letter on company letterhead signed by an individual who is in a position to commit the in-kind contribution. After the fact reporting to the University will be necessary.

  3. Commitments must not be included as contributions for any other project or program.

  4. Commitments are necessary and reasonable for proper and efficient accomplishment of project or program objectives.

  5. Commitments are allowable and allocable under the applicable cost principles.

  6. Cost sharing commitments may not be from other funds supported by the Federal Government under another award, except where authorized by Federal statute to be used for cost sharing or matching.

  7. Costs are described in the approved budget and/or terms of the sponsored agreement when required by the awarding agency.

  8. Cost sharing provisions of OMB Circular A-110 are met.

2. General Information

Cost sharing is a term that describes circumstances whereby the University is not reimbursed for allowable costs of performing a project because the requested or approved budget does not cover the full costs associated with the specific project. Therefore, cost sharing (also known as matching, or in-kind contributions) represents that portion of the project costs not paid for by the sponsor.

Matching funds may be cash or in-kind contributions. They may include a dollar-for-dollar match to purchase equipment or renovate a facility.

In-kind contributions may be donated time, space, equipment, etc.

Caution: (The value of a third party in-kind contribution must be established and verified at the time of proposal submission and documented at the post award stages. For example when the contribution is in the form of personal services, the contributor must certify that the amount being provided as in-kind is comparable to the individual's regular rate of compensation. When in-kind contributions are other than personal services, the fair market value of the item must be established, consistent with OMB A-110 procedures).

Cost sharing may be mandatory, voluntary committed or voluntary uncommitted.

Mandatory cost sharing is either required by statute or may be a condition of a specific solicitation. It will normally appear in the award document from the agency. Mandatory cost sharing expenses must be reported back to the sponsoring agency in a Financial Report.

Voluntary committed cost sharing is created if a proposal included cost sharing when none was required. Even if that cost sharing is not in the budget awarded by the agency, the PI and the University are "committed" to providing the project with the indicated support. Voluntary committed cost sharing expenses are not reported back to the sponsoring agency; however, it is still required that the University track and document these costs as they are subject to audit.

Voluntary uncommitted cost sharing is cost sharing that is neither mandatory nor committed. It represents contributions to a sponsored project that do not come from the awarding agency. Voluntary uncommitted cost sharing expenses are not reported back to the sponsoring agency.

When the University accepts an award with mandatory or voluntary committed cost sharing, the University is making an agreement with the sponsor that is subject to audit. The University is committing to provide the stated cost sharing during the period of performance of the sponsored project.

Caution: (Voluntary committed cost sharing offered in a proposal may be accepted by the sponsoring agency and become a condition of the award, thereby making it mandatory cost sharing.)

Cost sharing must be an allowable cost. This means that grants and contract costs must be allowable under OMB Circular A-21, A-110 and University policies. Any cost that would be unallowable on the grant or contract will be unallowable as cost sharing for that grant or contract. For example, administrative support is not normally allowed as a direct charge to a Federal grant, therefore it is an unallowable cost regardless of the source of support and cannot be used for cost sharing purposes. Sponsoring agencies may have various guidelines with regard to cost sharing. For example, the U.S. Department of Education may allow 8% TDC on a training grant. The difference between 44.5% and 8% cannot be used as cost sharing without prior approval of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education.

Cost sharing must be identifiable and verifiable. The college research office (IFAS, Engineering, College of Medicine) or business unit will be responsible for identifying and verifying mandatory and voluntary committed cost sharing by obtaining the required documentation for cost sharing at the time of proposal submission and sending the information with the proposal to the Division of Sponsored Research. The responsibility for entering cost sharing that was met during the project into the University's effort reporting system is at the department level. The respective Contracts & Grants accounting offices (in IFAS, Engineering or Contracts & Grants-Tigert) are responsible for entering, from data provided by the departments, any cost sharing other than that reported through the effort reporting system, into the University's cost sharing system.

The Contracts & Grants Accounting Office in Finance and Accounting, located at Tigert Hall, will track all cost sharing in the University's accounting system and provide official reporting for such cost sharing. It will be the responsibility of the Principal Investigator and the Units to ensure that the cost sharing commitment is met on a grant or contract and to provide the appropriate Contracts & Grants accounting office the documentation necessary to track cost sharing commitments.

3. The Impact of Cost Sharing on the University's Federal Facilities & Administrative Rate

Cost sharing dollars in aggregate have a negative impact on the University's Facilities and Administrative cost rate (indirect cost rate). As cost sharing dollars from various units throughout the University accrue in the accounting system, the total amount is incorporated into formula used in the negotiation of the University's indirect cost rate. As the denominator increases, the percent rate decreases, resulting in a lower Facilities and Administrative rate (indirect cost rate).

4. Cost Sharing Does Not Include (revised 11/06/02):

a) Percent effort of personnel listed in the Current and Pending Support Section of a proposal, unless specifically identified as cost sharing, and for the current proposal being submitted as long as funds have been requested from the Sponsor for the effort listed.

Caution: Any percent effort of personnel identified within the current proposal being submitted for which no funding is requested from the Sponsor is considered cost sharing and appropriate approvals are required in accordance with the University's cost sharing policy.

b) Voluntary uncommitted cost sharing.

For Example: The Principal Investigator or Project Director of a grant funded project may chose to work at a level of 25% effort rather than the 20% effort as budgeted for in the proposal being funded. This additional 5% effort is defined as voluntary uncommitted cost sharing and such effort should be accurately reported in the University's Time and Effort Reporting System, but not accounted for in the University's cost sharing system.

Available References

Employment of Relatives on Grants/Contracts

When faculty plan to employ a spouse, child or other close relative on government sponsored projects, the agency must be fully informed about the nature of the relationship and the outstanding qualifications which make the services particularly desirable. Furthermore, under University of Florida policy, no such related person can be employed unless the President or President's designee has determined prior to the appointment that there is no conflict of interest (6C1-7.40, Florida Administrative Code).

Financial Conflict of Interest

A university faculty is made up of highly trained professionals, many of them of national and international reputation, representing a substantial reservoir of human resources. Services of this group are available to the various sectors of society for the mutual benefit of industry, government, the academic community and society at large. Outside employment and activities are encouraged, provided they do not detract from the full and competent performance of a faculty member's duties. In light of this, faculty whose activities are paid from grants or contracts should be aware of potential conflict of interest situations.

The University's policy on conflict of interest is found in Rule 6C1-1.011, Florida Administrative Code and applicable collective bargaining agreements. The policy is explained in detail in the University's "Guidelines, Policies, and Procedures on Conflict of Interest and Outside Activities, including Financial Interests".

The following represent prohibited activities or activities that can be permitted only with conditions:

  1. Orienting/influencing University research to serve the needs of a private financial interest or enterprise.

  2. Purchasing major equipment, instruments, material or other items for research from any private firm in which the staff member has either a direct or indirect interest.

  3. Transmitting to any private firm or enterprise, use for personal gain, or other unauthorized use of sponsored work products, results, material, records, or information that are not made generally available. (This includes licensing arrangements for inventions or consulting on the basis of sponsored research results or in any way using the information in outside activities.)

  4. The use for personal gain or other unauthorized use of privileged information, such as sharing the information in the course of outside activities, acquired in connection with the staff member's sponsored activities. (The term "privileged information" includes but is not limited to medical, personnel, or security records of individuals; anticipated material requirements or price actions; possible new sites for sponsor's operations; knowledge of forthcoming programs or of selection of contractors or subcontractors in advance of official announcements; and academic principles, ideas or processes discovered or improved upon as a result of sponsored activity).

  5. The direct or indirect participation in the negotiation of agreements relating to the staff member's research, between the University and private organizations with which the staff member has consulting or other contractual relationships.

  6. Acceptance of gratuities or special favors from private concerns with which the University does conduct, or may conduct, business in connection with a sponsored research project; or extension of gratuities or special favors to employees of the sponsoring agency under circumstances that might reasonably be interpreted as an attempt to influence the recipients in the conduct of their duties.

As of October 1, 1995, new federal regulations require that the university manage, reduce, or eliminate any actual or potential conflicts of interest that may be presented by the compensated outside activities and other financial interests of persons involved in sponsored research projects funded by the Public Health Service (PHS), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the American Heart Association (AHA). The primary purpose of the federal regulations is to prevent bias in the design, conduct, or reporting of research projects. Principal investigators and others working on projects funded by the PHS, NSF or AHA must abide by these requirements.

Any employee submitting a grant or contract proposal to the PHS, NSF or AHA through the university or conducting research or educational activities pursuant to such a federal grant or contract at the university as an "investigator" must report any "Significant Financial Interest" that would reasonably appear to be affected by the proposed or funded research activities, including interests maintained in entities that would be so affected. An "investigator" is defined as the principal investigator, co-principal investigator, or any other employee responsible for the design, conduct, or reporting the proposed or funded research or educational activities. For the purpose of determining a Significant Financial Interest, an "investigator" also includes an employee's spouse and dependent children.

A "Significant Financial Interest" refers to: salary or other payments for services, such as consulting fees and honoraria; equity interests, such as stocks and stock options; and intellectual property rights, such as patents, copyrights, and royalties. A Significant Financial Interest does not refer to salary or other remuneration from the university; income derived from seminars, lectures or teaching engagements sponsored by public or nonprofit entities; income derived from service on advisory committees or review panels for public or nonprofit entities; or salary, royalties or other payments that, when aggregated for the investigator and his or her spouse and dependent children, is not expected to exceed $10,000 over a 12 month period. An equity interest that, when aggregated for the investigator, spouse, and dependent children, does not exceed $10,000 and does not represent more than a five percent ownership interest in any entity is also not considered a Significant Financial Interest.

Significant Financial Interests must be disclosed at the time of the submission of the proposal, but approval of the outside activities and financial interests (with conditions if warranted) need not occur until the project has been funded. The federal regulations also require that the disclosures be made annually during the course of the research, or as new reportable significant financial interests are obtained. The employee must file a new report if a new Significant Financial Interest is obtained, which is consistent with the university's requirement that any material changes to outside activities and financial interests must be reported during the academic year. Review and approval or disapproval of the interests disclosed during the course of a research project must be accomplished within 60 days.

The department chairperson/or supervisor and the dean/director are responsible for reviewing each disclosure to determine if there is a conflict of interest. Under the federal regulations, if a Significant Financial Interest may directly and significantly affect the design, conduct, or reporting of the research a conflict will be deemed to exist. The university, through the department chairperson/supervisor and dean/director, is required to manage, reduce or eliminate the conflict. Conditions that might be imposed in such cases include public disclosure of the conflict, modification of the research design, or monitoring of the research by independent reviewers. If adequate measures are not feasible, the employee may have to discontinue the compensated activities or divest himself or herself of the financial interest, or discontinue the research. The employee must abide by the conditions under which the research is permitted.

In order to certify compliance with these federal regulations, the Office of Research policy requires that all investigators and other key personnel on PHS, NSF and AHA proposals, fill out and sign a Sponsored Research Disclosure of Significant Financial Conflict of Interest form before the proposal is submitted by DSR to these agencies. (This form is available online at http://research.ufl.edu/research/pdf/coiform.pdf.) The form should be part of the package submitted for review and approval through the usual departmental, college and unit approval process using the DSR-1 form. It is the principal investigator's responsibility to ensure that Disclosure of Significant Financial Conflict of Interest form for all investigators (including co-principal investigators and other employees responsible for the design, conduct, and reporting of the research) are obtained on a timely basis in order to meet proposal application deadlines. The DSR requires at least three business days to review proposals.

Regardless of whether or not a conflict exists, the proposal will be submitted to the agency . The form is kept on file in DSR and is not sent to the agency. However, an institutional certification that the University's policy is active and in compliance with the federal regulation will be transmitted to the agency.

Please contact the Assistant Director of Compliance at DSR (392-2144) if you have questions or require assistance.

Indirect Cost Policy

The indirect cost rate is negotiated with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (UF's cognizant audit agency) and reflects the rate of reimbursement for real, audited, facilities and administration costs incurred in the conduct of research. Included among these costs are: depreciation and use allowance costs of buildings and equipment, maintenance and repairs, janitorial services and utilities, hazardous waste disposal; libraries; and general administrative costs such as sponsored programs administration, departmental and general administration (accounting, purchasing, legal services, personnel compliance). These costs are "indirect", or general research support costs, because they are not included in the "direct" portion of the budget allocated for specific project research and typically cannot be ascribed to an individual project. They relate to the conduct of research in general, regardless of the source of funding, and therefore must be applied to all grants and contracts .

Effective July 1, 1995, all grants, contracts and agreements accepted from any sponsor to fund University research must be charged the full on-campus and off-campus indirect cost rates established for federal awards (with the exception of clinical trials which have a standard indirect cost rate of 25% of total direct costs [TDC]).

It is recognized that some private foundations, and even some programs of federal and state funding agencies, have an established policy that restricts the rate of indirect cost payment (e.g., research costs associated with competitive grants of the USDA are reimbursed at 14% rate; NIH training grants at 8%, Florida municipalities, Counties and Water Management Districts at 25%). Some other organizations will pay no indirect costs to an institution. The UF can accept funds from these organizations as long as their written policy is provided to the DSR at the time a proposal or application is submitted and the University agrees to cost sharing.

Several faculty have long standing research awards with sponsors that were negotiated initially with a lower indirect cost rate than the standard rate. In these cases, the Director or Assistant Director of DSR will work with the funding agency, faculty member, department or cognizant college office in the interim to identify a source of cost sharing that can be acknowledged in the proposal as a means of reducing the administrative component of the award by, for example, lump sum payments using a short-form letter of agreement. Also, it will be expected that over a reasonable time period, these rates will be increased and brought in line with the prevailing indirect cost rates.

Any modification of the university's indirect cost rate on a proposal or application must be approved by the Director, Associate Director, or Assistant Director of DSR before the proposal/application is submitted.A request to modify the rate must be agreed to by the relevant college dean. This applies to all awards. The standard UF indirect cost distribution percentages will hold for those awards accompanied by full indirect cost reimbursement. All indirect costs that are waived will be recovered from the share that is distributed to the Principal Investigator, Department Chair and Dean.

Click here for the University's Indirect Cost Rates.

Indirect Cost Return and Use Policy

Florida Statute 1004.22 allows each University within the State University System to retain collected overhead or indirect costs from grants and contracts. These funds are to be used to operate and support the sponsored research program of that particular University. The University of Florida's policy which effectuates the purpose of this section of statute follows.

Indirect cost return and use policy

  1. Each year the Office of the Vice President for Research returns a portion of the recovered indirect costs to principal investigators, department chairs, directors of certain authorized centers, if appropriate. If any recovered indirect costs still remain after the allocation of certain central costs and the cost for operating and supporting the sponsored research program, then an additional return is made to the college deans.

  2. The University of Florida Research Foundation (UFRF) applies this policy to all awards administered through UFRF, except that the college deans' returns are set at a maximum of 7.5%.

  3. This return of indirect costs generally occurs in the fall of each year and is based upon the indirect costs collected from grants and contracts during the preceding fiscal year (July 1 - June 30). The proportion of indirect costs returned to principal investigators is currently 10% of the collected indirect costs from the principal investigator's grants and contracts.

  4. All indirect cost funds collected and returned under this policy must, by Statute, be used to support research or sponsored training programs.

Institutional Prior Approval

The University of Florida has established an institutional prior approval system required by federal agencies and authorized by the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP). Under this system, authorized officials in the Office of Research provide prior approval for some pre-award costs and post-award changes on sponsored projects as permitted under FDP and other sponsoring agency guidelines. In short, approvals for certain actions can be granted within the university rather than the participating agency.

Institutional Review and Signature

Certain administrators in the Office of Research have been authorized by the University President to enter into research and training agreements on behalf of the University. At the proposal stage, this signature, along with those of other appropriate University officials (i.e., principal and co-principal investigators, department chair, dean/director, and vice president, if necessary) indicates the willingness and capability of the University to guarantee proper accountability and administration of funds. A PI's signature alone on grants and other agreements does not commit the University's resources and cannot be accepted in lieu of the authorized institutional officials in the Office of Research.

All proposals must have institutional review and appropriate signatures via the DSR-1 form (also known as the "Signature Page"). Letters to sponsors requesting changes to an awarded grant or contract must be countersigned in the Office of Research but do not require the DSR-1 form. Such changes include no-cost extensions, rebudgeting, transfer of grants to new institutions, etc.

Managing Your UF Money

In July 1997, the University implemented an online system that allows designated university employees to access state accounts and perform transactions that are fed directly into the state's accounting system, SAMAS. By allowing departments to directly manage most of their own accounts the University has greatly reduced the paperwork processed through the Finance and Accounting office. Called Managing Your UF Money, this system was expanded in November 1997 to include some grant and contract accounts: overhead accounts, miscellaneous donors accounts, royalty returns to departments, and other funds specifically identified by the sponsor as unrestricted. If a researcher has one of these types of accounts, he/she (or their designee) will be able to move funds between most budget categories without sending in paperwork or getting approval from the Division of Sponsored Research or the Office of Contracts & Grants.

All contract and grant accounts are designated as restricted in the Managing Your UF Money system until the staff in the Office of Research's Award Administration Office determines the funds meet the criteria for unrestricted rebudgeting. For security purposes, every new account (restricted or unrestricted) is assigned an authority code by Contracts & Grants (or the EIES/IFAS C&G accounting offices). The authority code indicates who is able to access the account and for what purpose. Typically, the authority code associated with the fiscal person for that particular department or center will be assigned to the account. Approximately every 2-4 weeks a report is sent to the college deans asking them to review, and change if necessary, the authority codes assigned to each new account in their area.

If the researcher wants to manage his/her own unrestricted research accounts, or wants to designate a fiscal person who does not currently have an authority code, then he/she will need to request a form to establish a new authority code from the Finance and Accounting Office (392-1324). A signature from the center director or department chair is required. Further, the appropriateness of new authority codes is reviewed by Finance and Accounting, the Office of Academic Affairs, and the Division of Sponsored Research.

Release Time

All personnel working on sponsored projects must be relieved of their regular duties by the department chair or other responsible individual for the period of time and percentage of effort devoted to the sponsored project. If such personnel continue to be paid from departmental funds while working on a sponsored project, the portion of their salary and fringe related to the project represents cost sharing to the project. However, if personnel are appointed to and paid from the sponsored project, "salary savings" occur within the departmental budget and can be released for other purposes within the University, subject to administrative approval.

Research Misconduct

It is the policy of the University that each individual faculty, staff member and student is expected to maintain high ethical standards in the conduct and reporting of his/her scientific and scholarly research. Faculty, staff, and students have responsibilities for ethical conduct in research not only to the University, but also to the community at large, to the academic community, and to private and public institutions sponsoring the research activities.

Research Misconduct is defined as fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research or reporting the results. It does not include honest error or honest differences in interpretations or judgments of data. It also does not include authorship or credit disputes.

Should alleged incidents of misconduct in research occur, reporting of such possible violations is a shared responsibility, and it is the duty of the faculty, staff members and students to respond in a fitting manner to resolve issues arising from such alleged misconduct. Such an allegation should be brought to the administrative officer to whom the accused reports (e.g., supervisor, department chair, dean or director). The procedures for reporting misconduct may vary depending on the type, seriousness, and technical nature of the alleged misconduct.

Click here for the full policy or call DSR's Program Information Office (392-4804).

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