• This workshop series is intended to support the efforts of departments and graduate programs in fostering responsible research and proper scholarly practices. The expectation is that student’s research/scholarship will be of higher quality, and that the student will be better able to avoid and respond to situations involving irresponsible and inappropriate research and scholarly practices and behaviors.
• It is critically important that early career scholars understand that their research and scholarly work impacts others and contributes to the research and scholarship of others in important ways that may not always be clear.
• Research and creative works are supported by the public and/or private funding. These sponsors, and society in general,  trust that new information generated is accurate, true, and carefully considered. Inaccurate (flawed, incorrect) results can occur from mistakes or chance. In some instances, individual researchers violate the principles of research integrity by intentionally misrepresenting their findings (research misconduct or detrimental research practices).

1. The Graduate School has established minimum requirements for the RECR education of graduate and graduate professional students at MSU (https://grad.msu.edu/researchintegrity). One of these requirements is completion of at least 6 hours of discussion-based, instructor-led education. Currently, all workshops are offered online and live-streamed. WHICH workshop(s) a trainee attends is up to the student and or their department. Please consult with your department about which of the 13 workshops offered best suit your educational needs.
2. It is your (the trainee) responsibility and duty to read and understand MSU's policies and procedures on academic and research integrity and misconduct.
3. Workshops will begin promptly at 6 p.m. and end at 7:30 p.m. In order to receive credit, a student must participate in the entire session.

Registration by students and postdoctoral researchers themselves is required.

Before you Register:

• Find out from your Department, School, or Program which specific workshops are required for you.
• Make sure you have a NetID and your password.

Registering:

• Links for registering for each workshop can be found in each of the twelve (FY2023-24) listings in the Schedule of Presentations below.
• The deadline for registering for a session is one week before the session. You will know if you have successfully registered for a workshop because you will receive an e-mail from [email protected].

Persons with disabilities or special needs should contact the Graduate School at 517-353-3220 or [email protected] to request arrangements no later than one week prior to the session date. Requests received after this date will be met when possible.

At the end of the workshop series, attendees will be expected to understand and be able to explain:

• MSU's rules concerning academic integrity, including possible disciplinary actions regarding allegations of academic or research misconduct;
• MSU's requirements for training and oversight in the responsible and ethical conduct of research;
• Where to find their department's or program's plan for training and oversight in the responsible and ethical conduct of research;
• How to properly credit other's works in order to avoid accusations of plagiarism;
• How to reason logically and critically evaluate ethical dilemmas and professional situations to guide responsible and ethical actions in the conduct of research/scholarship;
• How their research/scholarship affects others, both professionally and personally; and
• How to responsibly collaborate with others in research/scholarly teams.

The ABILITY system that is supported by the Office of Research Regulatory Support (ORRS) will keep track of the workshops you attended as well as the CITI lessons you complete. To track your workshop training go to: https://orrs.msu.edu/train/. From your Home page, click the My Training (CITI) or MY TRANSCRIPT (workshops) tab to view your record. The default list is just the last three months.

Safeguarding the integrity of research and creative activities is fundamental to the mission of Michigan State University. We owe no less to the public which sustains institutions like ours and to the governmental agencies and private entities that sponsor the research enterprise.  All members of MSU share responsibility to assure that misconduct or fraud in research and creative activity is dealt with effectively and that MSU's high standards for scholarly integrity are preserved. This workshop will review types of misconduct (fabrication, falsification or plagiarism) that occur in proposing, performing, or reviewing research and scholarly activities, and best practices to avoid these. The session will also cover proper behavior in mentor-mentee relationships.

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The focus of this discussion-based workshop is on reviewing some real-world cases studies illustrating examples of poor mentorship and how this can lead to inappropriate research and scholarship practices and ultimately to research misconduct. Additionally, case studies will explore examples of student mentees failing to fulfill their responsibilities, which leads to ineffective mentor-mentee relationships.  Following the training, participants will better understand what constitutes effective mentor-mentee relationships and what student mentee responsibilities are, and learn how to navigate conflicts that might arise with a mentor.

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Publication of a scholarly work makes you an author - and that’s both exciting and a responsibility. This session will be dedicated to understanding the definitions and disagreements about what constitutes an author, how conflicts are resolved, how to avoid such conflicts, and where/to whom to go for help about authorship issues.

Plagiarism - stealing the work of another - is an increasing problem in the scholarly community. At MSU, this ranks as the #1 allegation of research misconduct. This session will also aim to help you understand what plagiarism is, how to test for it within your own work, how to discuss plagiarism, and where to go for advice on plagiarism.

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The focus of this discussion-based workshop is on reviewing some real-world case studies illustrating examples of team power dynamics in authorship, determining who should be an author on a paper, authorship disputes in multi-team collaborations, and crossing the line into plagiarism. Following the training, participants will better understand what criteria should be met for determining authorship, learn about the benefits of authorship agreements and effective communication, develop some strategies for resolving authorship conflicts that might arise with a mentor or colleague, and recognize the different forms of plagiarism and best practices for avoidance.

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Research is an increasingly complex endeavor, and one rarely works in isolation. This session will help you understand and appreciate what a ‘conflict of interest’ is, that they occur in many situations and are manageable. Strategies to avoid conflicts of interest will be presented. Conflicts within the context of peer review will be discussed - an important duty for all members of the scholarly community.

The term "collaboration" in academic research is usually thought to mean an equal partnership between at least two academic faculty members who are pursuing mutually interesting and beneficial research or scholarly activities. Today, however, many collaborations involve researchers of differing stature, funding status, and types of organizations. In this workshop, rules for successful research collaboration will be discussed.

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At the heart of what you do as a scholar is to produce data and or other creative products. The gathering, use of and ownership of data  and creative products are critical to understand. This session will discuss the diversity of what data can be, and who controls, owns and can share such data. We will also discuss practical means to protect your data and creative products. 

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Conduct in research spans a spectrum, from that performed with integrity to true research misconduct. Accusations of misconduct are incredibly serious, and the consequences grave. This session will help you understand the spectrum of behaviors that can arise while performing research and scholarly activities. Examples of misconduct and detrimental research practices will be presented. There will be discussions about best practices to follow to avoid research and scholarly activity misconduct and detrimental practices, and to whom one should go to with concerns about research activities. The session will review the processes of reporting, investigating, and reviewing alleged misconduct.

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Research collaboration involves individuals working together to achieve a common goal of producing new scientific knowledge, insight on a problem, or understanding of a phenomenon. Collaboration also helps build stronger connections amongst coworkers making the team unit more successful and efficient than working individually on the same tasks. Collaboration is one of the most important parts of your graduate studies. This workshop will review guidelines to following when looking to initiate collaboration and best practices for effective collaboration. The session will also explore student conflicts of interest that can arise in research and creative activity. These can occur when there is a divergence between an individual’s private interests and his or her professional obligations to the University such that an independent observer might reasonably question the individual’s professional actions or decisions.

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As part of research, it may be necessary to use test animals. This workshop will help you understand the requirements – both at the level of MSU and the federal government – that must be adhered to be able to use animals in research. Key compliance issues will be discussed as will ethical issues associated with their use. Finally, Animal Use Forms (AUF) and application procedures will be discussed as all research, teaching, and extension/outreach activities using animals must have an approved AUF from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).

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As part of research, it may be necessary to use human subjects. This workshop will help you understand the requirements – both at the level of MSU and the federal government – that must be adhered to be able to use human subjects in research. Key compliance issues will be discussed as will ethical issues associated with their use. Finally, the Institutional Review Board for Protection of Human Subjects in Research (IRB) and the IRB application process will be reviewed.

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NIH and other funding agencies are requiring comprehensive strategies for proper research methods and procedures, and the presentation of research data. These include applying rigor, minimizing bias, and maximizing reproducibility in all efforts. This workshop will discuss means by which to address these within quantitative and qualitative research. The primary principles covered within this session are rigor and reproducibility.

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This workshop will review (i) non-disclosure agreements and  (ii) the different types of intellectual property created in the academic setting namely copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. The workshop will also introduce the participants to Export Control regulations. Export Controls are U.S. laws that regulate and restrict the release of critical technologies, information, and services to foreign nationals, within and outside of the United States, and foreign countries for reasons of foreign policy and national security.

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