Promoting Responsible Conduct of Research: A Canadian Perspective

Abstract

This article compares the current Canadian and American approaches to governing the responsible conduct of research. The Canadian Secretariat on Responsible Conduct of Research acts on behalf of Canada's three federal research agencies to implement their Framework on Responsible Conduct of Research. It operates not on the basis of regulatory authority, like its U.S. counterpart, the Office of Research Integrity, but rather on the basis of making compliance a condition of eligibility for funding. Both offices are dedicated to promoting good research practices and to enforcing good standards of research practice.

Keywords:

• allegations of misconduct in research
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
• fabrication
• falsification
• and plagiarism (FFP)
• institutional investigations
• Panel on Responsible Conduct of Research (PRCR)
• research integrity
• Research Integrity Officers (RIO)
• responsible allegation
• Secretariat on Responsible Conduct of Research
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
• Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research
• responsible conduct of research (RCR)
• Tri-Agency Research Integrity Policy
• U.S. Office of Research Integrity (ORI)

Notes

1. This exercise, which took two years to complete, drew on international approaches to research integrity and the advice of an expert committee—the Research Integrity Advisory Group—a 7-member group chaired by Deborah Poff, President of Brandon University. Nicholas Steneck of the University of Michigan was the international member. It also included a working group responsible for overseeing the drafting of the new document, with representatives of the three Agencies as well as the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. A draft was circulated for consultation. This initiative also drew on a report produced by the Council of Canadian Academies: http://www.scienceadvice.ca/uploads/eng/assessments%20and%20publications%20and%20news%20releases/research%20integrity/ri_report.pdf

2. For a detailed look at various initiatives to strengthen research integrity in Canada, see reference Master, 2012.

3. The Framework is found online at http://www.rcr.ethics.gc.ca/eng/policy-politique/framework-cadre/

4. Agency policies cover a range of topics, including financial management of grants and awards, ethical conduct of research involving humans, and animal care, for example.

5. Integrity in Research and Scholarship–A Tri-Council Policy Statement: http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/NSERC-CRSNG/Policies-Politiques/tpsintegrity-picintegritie_eng. Dated January 1994.

6. Now embedded in the Framework as Articles 2.1.

7. Framework, supra n.2, Art. 2.2.

8. Framework, supra n.2, Art. 2.3.

9. Framework, supra n.2, Art. 2.4.

10. Framework, supra, n.2, Art. 2.5.

11. Ibid., Art. 4.4(d).

12. Ibid., Appendix B–Glossary.

13. Ibid., Art. 4.4(d).

14. At the federal level, Canada's Privacy Act (http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/en/acts/P-21/index.html) does not permit public identification of those found to have committed research misconduct unless the public interest in disclosure clearly outweighs any invasion of privacy that could result from the disclosure--Art.8(2)(m)(i).

15. http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/_doc/NSERC-CRSNG/governance-gouvernance/consent-consentement_eng.pdf . Art.6.1.4(c) of the Framework also sets out the information that the Agency may publish if there is a finding of serious breach. A serious breach is determined based on the extent to which the breach jeopardizes the safety of the public or brings the conduct of research into disrepute. http://www.rcr.ethics.gc.ca/eng/policy-politique/framework-cadre/#B

16. See footnote 3.

17. The scope of the Framework extends beyond publicly funded research: it is a condition of eligibility that an institution complies with the Framework in respect of all research conducted under its auspices, regardless of the source of funding. Only investigations involving Agency-funded research need be reported to the Secretariat, however.

18. Examples include inaccurate declarations of graduate student supervision on a grant application, submitting false travel expenditures, and failing to obtain appropriate certification for research involving humans.

19. The Secretariat's website contains an introductory webinar on RCR, and, by the fall 2013, will include an online interactive RCR tutorial. http://www.rcr.ethics.gc.ca/eng/index/