Unit Role
Principles, Standards, and Guidance
Education and Awareness
Administration and Management
Institutional Oversight
Noncompliance
Coordination Among Entities
Records and Reporting
Unit Role
The Committees on Research Integrity (CRI) help to ensure compliance with federal regulations and university and sponsoring agency policies and procedures governing research misconduct. In accordance with this objective, the CRI’s function is to respond to, review, and resolve allegations of research misconduct against researchers, staff, and students at Washington University as promptly and fairly as possible.
The Research Integrity Office provides administrative support to the CRI. In addition, the Research Integrity Office develops and implements communication strategies and educational resources that provide guidance and raise community awareness regarding research misconduct, responsible research practices, and the ethical conduct of research.
The Research Integrity Office reports to the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Administration.
Principles, Standards and Guidance
- Promotes a culture of compliance and oversees adherence to federal regulations and university and sponsoring agency policies and procedures instituted to assure the ethical and responsible conduct of research.
- Develops, implements, and maintains institutional policies and procedures pertaining to research misconduct and the responsible conduct of research.
- Formulates guidelines that identify and promote responsible research practices.
Education and Awareness
- Disseminates information and provides educational resources for researchers, staff, and students regarding research misconduct, responsible research practices, and the ethical conduct of research.
Administration and Management
- Represents the university to federal regulatory agencies.
Develops and maintains electronic systems and technology solutions related to research integrity. - Assures confidentiality of research misconduct proceedings in accordance with federal regulations and university and sponsoring agency policies and procedures.
Institutional Oversight
- Responds to, reviews, and resolves allegations of research misconduct against staff, students, and faculty members at Washington University as promptly and fairly as possible.
- Protects the rights and integrity of the respondent, the complainant, and all other individuals and institutions that participate in research misconduct proceedings.
Noncompliance
- Supports and endorses cooperation with university compliance and monitoring efforts and reports instances of noncompliance to the appropriate compliance office.
- Receives and reviews all allegations of research misconduct alleged to have occurred at any point during the research process.
- Considers violations of Washington University’s Policy for Authorship on Scientific and Scholarly Publications.
- Considers allegations of serious or continuing violations of federal regulations and university policies and procedures governing the conduct of research involving human research participants.
- Determines by a preponderance of the evidence whether or not research misconduct occurred.
- Recommends sanctions or other corrective measures to the dean of the appropriate school in accordance with university policies and procedures.
Coordination Among Entities
- Coordinates efforts with the Human Research Protection Office (HRPO) and the Human Studies Research Quality Assurance / Quality Improvement program (HSR QA/QI) when allegations of research misconduct include serious or continuing violations of federal regulations and university and sponsoring agency policies and procedures governing the conduct of research involving human participants.
Records and Reporting
- Creates and maintains records for all research misconduct proceedings.
Reports the status of research misconduct proceedings to Federal agencies, applicable individuals and University entities, and the sponsoring agency in accordance with federal regulations and university and sponsoring agency policies and procedures. - Fulfills research integrity annual reporting requirements in accordance with federal regulations and university and sponsoring agency policies and procedures.