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RCR TOOLKIT
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As a first step, it is important to determine the goals of any responsible conduct of research (RCR) program. Mann, Kalichman and Macrina (2004) [1] describe the most common goals found among such programs. They fall in the following categories:
- Knowledge: Informing about rules, policies or guidelines; Expanding awareness of tools and resources available when faced with ethical dilemmas
- Skills: Enhancing such skills as: ethical reasoning and decision-making; lab and people management; and communication and conflict resolution
- Attitudes: Improving awareness and positive disposition toward scientific integrity issues
- Behaviors: Increasing transparency and discussion of ethical issues; Reducing the likelihood of misconduct occurrences
Having clear goals and objectives for a program is a critical step to ultimately evaluating its success and effectiveness. An evaluation tool should refer back to these objectives and assess the extent to which they have been met.
Along with your goals, determine the content you wish to cover as well as the information that holds the most interest for your target audience. There are a range of topics in RCR, usually characterized into the nine core areas put forward by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Research Integrity and each of these areas covers a range of subtopics. Information on particular issues for postdocs in some of these core topic areas is detailed in the following section on "RCR Topics for Postdocs." Your program could cover a series of these topics and address scientific integrity in general, or it could focus on one or two topics. Alternatively, you could integrate these topics into a program on other professional skills for scientists, such as a comprehensive survival skills or lab management course, or into a program focusing on one topic like grant writing that also addresses issues like responsible authorship, collaborative science and peer review. Thus the choice of program content goes hand-in-hand with the choice of the type and format of your program.
One way to design a program that has the most traction with your postdocs is to find out which topics or approaches hold the most interest for them and how much time they would be willing to commit. This can be done informally through individual consultations and in-person focus groups, or through more formal surveys. The NPA Postdoc Association Toolkit has an article on “Strategies for Conducting a Postdoc Survey.” Aggregate data on U.S. postdocs from the Sigma Xi Postdoc Survey might also be helpful: Sigma Xi summary report, Doctors Without Orders and Sigma Xi survey data.
Please complete a short feedback questionnaire on the toolkit and tell us how it might be improved!
[1] Mann, M.D., Kalichman, M.W., and Macrina, F.L. (2004) “Education in the responsible conduct of research.” The Physiologist. 47(4): 149 http://www.the-aps.org/publications/tphys/2004html/AugTPhys/educresp.htm
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