Responsible Conduct of Research

In accordance with research sponsor requirements, UM is responsible to ensure individuals receive required Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) education/training. Our Institution follows the federal agency mandates that individuals subject to federal responsible conduct of research requirements, including those obligations pursuant to subawards received from and sent to other institutions, complete training in research ethics.

To foster an environment that promotes the responsible conduct of research and discourages research misconduct, all individuals engaged in research (e.g., faculty, research staff, students, and others) are encouraged to complete training regardless of funding source.

Basic Overview Training: The Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship (OVPRS) has developed training modules to provide standardized introductory training to all research teams. The RCR Overview training includes four modules that cover topics such as research misconduct, reproducibility, authorship, data management, conflict of interest, social impact, and more.

Who is Required to Complete RCR Education?

Research Supported By:
NSF NIH/AHRQ/HRSA

Undergraduate students

 All individuals supported by grants with significant training involded including

Graduate students 

 Training Awards

Postdoctoral researchers

 Career Development Award (individual or institutional)
Faculty/Senior Personnel (for proposals submitted on or after 7/31/23) 

Research Education grant

Dissertation Research grant

 

Access the RCR Basic Training

NIH RCR Requirement: Please note that if your RCR training is required by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), you need a minimum of 8 hours of live training. UM's RCR training overview courses do not fulfill requisite live training requirements.

NSF RCR Requirement: The NSF requires  its grant recipients to take an online RCR Course via CITI.

Research RCR Compliance

In addition, policies put forth by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other federal agencies require research teams supported by grants from these funding agencies to take courses in the responsible and ethical conduct of research.

All RCR training must be well-documented, and compliance must be formally tracked by the institution. Additional face-to-face training led by faculty in each program is also required for NIH trainees, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers.

REQUIRED RCR TRAINING TRACKING FORM 

RCR Education Topics*

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  • *Please note, RCR education may cover topics not expressly listed below. 

  • Safe Research & Laboratory Practices

    • Policies regarding human subjects and live vertebrate animal subjects in research.
    • Research safety, laboratory environmental safety, chemical hygiene an field work safetyPolicies regarding human subjects live vertebrate animal subjects in research, and safe laboratory practices.
     

  • Conflict of Interest and Research Security

    • Conflict of interest personal, professional, and financial and conflict of commitment, in allocating time, effort, or other research resources
    • Export control regulations
    • International research disclosure and reporting
    • Data security

  • Data Management Practices

    • Rigor and reproducibility; data acquisition and analysis
    • Laboratory tools (e.g., tools for analyzing data and creating or working with digital images)
    • Data management best practices for: confidentiality, privacy, recordkeeping practices, sharing, electronic laboratory notebooks

  • Mentor and Trainee Relationships

    • Mentor/mentee responsibilities
    • Ethical decision making
    • Societal impacts of research
    • Safe working environments
    • Respect for indigenous and marginalized populations

  • Authorship and Publication

    • Responsible authorship and publication practices, including appropriate citation and attribution of credit
    • Authorship agreements
    • Use of AI and Open Science

  • Peer Review

    • Responsibility for maintaining confidentiality and security in peer review
    • Professional responsibilities to clients and employers

  • Collaboration

    • Collaborative research, including international and industry
    • Professional responsibilities
    • Intellectual property & Material and Data Transfer Agreements

  • Research Misconduct

    • Understanding the regulations, standards and consequences surrounding plagiarism, falsification and/or fabrication of research data
    • Learning best practices to promote research integrity in all aspects of research
    • Reporting concerns & Whistleblower protections

Online education:

  • CITI Online Training on "Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)" module

Live education:

  • Provided by UM graduate programs 
  • Supervisor RCR education
  • Other

For a basic introduction on RCR, click here to sign up.

RCR training at UM is offered decentrally through graduate programs such as Programs in Biomedical Sciences (PiBS).  Please contatct your Lead PI or mentor to sign up for RCR training offered locally. 

How to access CITI program (the below instructions should only come up once branched/expanded): 

  1. Access www.citiprogram.org
  2. You will need to click “LOG IN THROUGH MY ORGANIZATION” to register for the training course.
  3. Select "University of Miami Jackson Health System" from the “Find your Organization”.
  4. Log in using your UM credentials.
  5. Choose your curriculum. Select “Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)”.
  6. Complete all modules in the course(s) selected.
  7. Once completed, download a copy of your completion report for your records and REMEMBER to add the education on your RCR Training Tracker form.

Policies & Guidance

The University of Miami enforces federal requirement for RCR Training:

Category Resource Description
National Institutes of Health (NIH) General Resources for the Responsible Conduct of Research General Resources for the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)
RCR Policy and RCR Policy Update Policy guidance and updates
RCR FAQs (see section XIV)
National Science Foundation (NSF) Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RECR)
Policy and Training Requirements
FAQs
Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Research Integrity

General RCR Information

Resource Description
RCR Boilerplate Language for Use in Grants
FAQs Coming Soon!

Contact Us

For support, reach out to us:

Jerry Engel
Research Integrity Investigator
  • Ph: (305) 243-4054
  • Email: jengel@miami.edu
 Kenia Francis Viamonte
Assistant Vice President, 2RISE
  • Ph: (305) 243-9672
  • Email: KViamonte@med.miami.edu
 Alberto Caban‑Martinez
Interim Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship
  • Ph: (305) 243-7565
  • Email: acaban@med.miami.edu

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