Overview

This course is part of the “RCR@UMD” catalog, which houses the university’s Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training series. All UMD researchers are expected to complete RCR training, which was designed to accomplish the following:

• To broadly foster a culture of research integrity by aiding our research community in understanding the expectations for conducting all aspects of their research responsibly;
• To provide a foundation for acting in accordance with those expectations by offering guidance, best practices, and tools;
• To ensure appropriate stewardship of funds that support our important work;
• To help our researchers fulfill related training requirements.

RCR encompasses an ever-evolving set of foundational topics pertinent to the research endeavor, which currently includes:

• Research Misconduct
• Responsible Authorship and Publication Practices
• Responsible Data Practices
• Mentor/Mentee Responsibilities and Relationships
• Collaborative Research
• Intellectual Property
• Peer Review
• Conflicts of Interest and Commitment
• Use of Human Participants
• Use of Animals
• Safe Laboratory Practices
• Safe and Inclusive Research Environments
• Meeting Other Ethical Obligations to Society

The “RCR Overview” course was designed to aid UMD researchers in fulfilling their obligations to conduct scholarly activities responsibly, ethically, and with integrity. As such, this course presents the following information for each foundational RCR topic:

• An introduction to the topic area and its context in the research setting;
• Guidance on topic-specific “best practices” and an explanation of how said practices support research integrity;
• Federal and/or institutional regulations/policies/procedures/expectations relating to the topic area in the context of research;
• Relevant information, tools, resources, and references to facilitate engagement in “best practices.”