Protecting and upholding scholarly integrity starts with you.
Staying up to date with training, accessing new knowledge, and seeking help to understand unfamiliar topics can help you uphold scholarly integrity within your work, as well as help you spot violations in others' so that you can avoid misconduct.
UBC Resources & Support
Mentorship and Supervision
- Guide: Handbook of Graduate Supervision, UBC Faculty of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies
- Guide: Principles of Excellent Graduate Supervision, UBC Faculty of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies
- Template: Graduate Student-Supervision Expectation Checklist, UBC College of Graduate Studies
- Template: Graduate Student-Supervision Expectation Form, UBC Faculty of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies
- Template: Supervision Template Letter, UBC Faculty of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies
- Workshop: Foundations of Career Planning Program, UBC Postdoctoral Fellow Office
- Workshop: Graduate Supervision Workshops, UBC Faculty of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies
Data Management
- Guide: Research Data Management, UBC Advanced Research Computing
- Guide: Research Data Management, UBC Library
- Guide: White Paper on Data Management Plans, UBC Dynamic Brain Circuit Cluster
- Initiative: Privacy Matters
- Services: High-Performance Computing, UBC Advanced Research Computing
- Support: Applied Statistics and Data Science Group, UBC Department of Statistics
- Software: DMP Assistant Software, Portage Network
- Standards: Information Security Standards, UBC Office of Chief Information Officer
- Workshops: Data Analysis and Management Software Tools, UBC Library
Writing with Integrity
- Canvas Module: Introduction to Academic Integrity, UBC Vancouver
- Guides: Academic Integrity, UBC Chapman Learning Commons
- Guides: Citation Management, UBC Library
- Support: Centre for Scholarly Communication, UBCO Library
- Support: Centre for Writing and Scholarly Communication, UBCV Library
- Workshops: Citation Management, UBC Library
Authorship and Publishing
- Guide: Intellectual Property, UBC Faculty of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies
- Guide: Publishing a Journal Article, UBC Library
- Guide: Avoid Predatory Publishers, UBC Library
Conflict of Interest
- Checklist: Identifying Conflicts of Interest
- Initiative: Staff Conflict of Interest
- Resource: Conflict of Interest and Conflict of Commitment, UBC University Counsel
- Resource: US Financial Conflict of Interest, UBC Office of Research Ethics
Funding and Financial Management
- Support: UBC Office or Research Services
- Support: UBC Research Finance
Research Policies
- Resource: Guidance Notes, UBC Office of Research Ethics
- Support: Planning Your Research, UBC Animal Care and Use Program
- Support: UBC Indigenous Research Support Services
- Training: Research Safety, UBC Safety and Risk Services
Safeguarding Your Research
- Support: Safeguarding Your Research, UBC Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation
- Guide: Mitigating Economic and/or Geopolitical Risks in Sensitive Research
- Guide: Travel Security Guide for UBC Researchers and Staff
- Guide: Export Licence Controls and Working with Controlled Goods
- Guide: Resources for Secure Remote Working, UBC IT
- Guide: Cybersecurity Resources, UBC IT
- Guide: Foreign Interference and How it Relates to Academia and Research, Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Training
- Foundations of Responsible Conduct of Research, UBC (Canvas course)
- Responsible Conduct of Research Training, Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI)
- CORE: Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS 2 2018) Online Tutorial, Panel on Research Ethics
- Responsible Conduct of Research Courses portal, Columbia University
- The Lab: Avoiding Research Misconduct, U.S. Office of Research Integrity
Further Reading
Responsible Conduct of Research
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Introduction to the Responsible Conduct of Research (2007)
A comprehensive and practical overview of scholarly standards, regulations, and professional practices that define the responsible conduct of research in nine core areas. While it was written primarily for researchers and research staff engaged in research supported by the Public Health Service but applies to scholarly research in general. -
Responsible Conduct of Research (2009)
Complete with case studies and discussion questions, this textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to the ethical issues at stake in the conduct of research. -
On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research (2009)
A comprehensive and digestible read for scientists at all stages of their education and careers. This book provides an overview of the professional standards of science and explains why adherence to those standards is essential for continued scientific progress. -
Toolbox in RCRC: Synthesis of Responsible Conduct in Research-Creation Issues and Proposal of Reflective Tools (2018)
Informed by an empirical ethics research project exploring the responsible conduct of research (RCR) as it relates to the specific context of research creation, this innovative toolkit serves as a useful starting point for all researchers to build awareness and to be better equipped to address the RCR issues that they encounter in their specific areas of research and practice. Research-creation designates any research process or approach that fosters the creation of research and aims at producing new aesthetic, theoretical, methodological, epistemological or technical knowledge.
Mentorship and Supervision
- Thoughts on Choosing a Research Mentor (n.d.)
The article shares some tips and advice on how to choose a research mentor.
- Nature’s Guide for Mentors (2007)
This featured article highlights the attributes of a good mentor. With several concrete examples, it is a valuable resource for mentors from all disciplines to reflect on their mentoring practices and to identify potential modifications to their approach.
- Re-imagining the Human Dimensions of Mentoring: A Framework for Research Administration and the Academy (2009)
This article offers mentoring frameworks for higher education that are applicable to research administrators and academic scholars. It examines how the “piecemeal conceptualization” of mentorship results in inadequate preparation of the next generation of professionals and shares mentoring ideas and strategies for mentors and mentees to consider.
Data Management
- Academic Research Record-Keeping: Best Practices for Individuals, Group Leaders, and Institutions (2006)
The article presents separate sets of systematically compiled best practices for research record-keeping for the individual researcher, the research group leader, and the department/institution.
- Ensuring the Integrity, Accessibility, and Stewardship of Research Data in the Digital Age (2009)
This Consensus Study Report examines emerging issues related to research data integrity, accessibility, and stewardship. It also offers broad fundamental principles and specific recommendations to support the research community’s ongoing commitment to safeguarding data.
- Statistical Tests, P Values, Confidence Intervals, and Power: A Guide to Misinterpretations (2016)
An excellent resource to help researchers to avoid statistical misinterpretations. It provides an explanatory list of 25 misinterpretations and offers guidelines for improving statistical interpretation and reporting.
Writing with Integrity
- Avoiding Plagiarism, Self-Plagiarism, and Other Questionable Writing Practices: A Guide to Ethical Writing (2015)
Concrete examples for a wide range of writing malpractices are provided, along with recommendations on how to avoid them. A paraphrasing exercise is also included, for those interested in applying guideline recommendations to avoid plagiarism.
- Responsible Use of Language in Scientific Writing and Science Communication (2014)
The authors note the increasing use of marketing strategies in scientific writing to compete for funding and public attention. They highlight the importance of communicating science responsibly in the context of rapidly evolving knowledge and propose guidelines for the responsible use of metaphors in science writing and communication.
- Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
This online hub contains a wide range of excellent writing resources — from basic grammar and punctuation to subject-specific and research writing — to support user’s development as writers.
Authorship and Publishing
- How to Handle Authorship Disputes: A Guide for New Researchers (2003)
A guide for young researchers about the area of authorship.
- Problems in Research Integrity Arising from Misconceptions about the Ownership of Research (2008)
The authors argue that many allegations of research misconduct originate in misconceptions about the ownership of publicly supported research. In this book chapter, the authors focus on scientific authorship responsibilities and clarified the rights of scientists, collaborators, and trainees to ideas, materials and grants.
- Co-authorship in the Humanities and Social Sciences: A Global View (2017)
A white paper revealing factors driving significant growth of co-authorship in the Humanities and Social Sciences, as well as the key challenges associated with co-authorship. The article also highlights the role of journals, editors, reviewers, and institutions in promoting best practices for authorship attribution.
Conflict of Interest
- Conflict of Interest (COI) Toolkit
An online hub with recommendations, tools and resources for the conduct and management of financial relationships developed specifically for researchers, institutions, journal editors, professional societies, and industry partners.
Funding and Financial Management
- Tri-Agency Guide to Financial Administration (2017)
A comprehensive resource for Tri-Agency grant recipients and research institutions to understand changes to the Agencies’ approach to financial monitoring reviews and administration of grants, along with frequently asked questions and clarification around roles and responsibilities.
Research Policies
- Canadian Council on Animal Care Training
A series of online modules to support research institutions, animal care committees, researchers, and instructors to educate all personnel who work with animals, as well as a selection of webinars on various topics relating to animal ethics and care in Canada.
- Declaration of Helsinki
A statement of ethical principles to guide physicians and other participants in medical research involving human subjects.
- First Nations Information Governance Centre
FNIGC offers training on the Fundamentals of ownership, control, access and possession (OCAP) of information and data of Indigenous people.
Policies & Guidelines
This list is non-exhaustive and researchers should seek information on other relevant policies from funders, sponsors and research collaborators that may be relevant to their work.
- Policy SC6, Scholarly Integrity
- Policy SC14, Acceptable Use and Security of UBC Electronic Information Systems
- Policy SC3: Conflict of Interest and Conflict of Commitment
- Policy SC15: Internal Audit, Investigations, and Financial Whistleblower
- Policy SC18: Retaliation, Safe Disclosure, and Reporting
- Policy LR2: Research
- Policy FM4: Research Over-expenditure
- Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research
- Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy
- Tri-Agency Guide to Financial Administration (TAGFA)
- Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCP2)
- B.C. Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act
- Federal Research Misconduct Policy, US Office of Research Integrity
Looking to report or respond to a potential breach of scholarly integrity at UBC?
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