Ethics Day : Engaging Librarians in the Responsible Conduct of Research, a workshop report

Training in ethics and the responsible conduct of research (RCR) has received increasing attention from administrators, scientists, engineers, and ethics education experts due to a new National Science Foundation (NSF) RCR training requirement. While the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has had requirements for ethics training since 1989, NSF implemented a policy mandated by the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (COMPETES) Act (42 U.S.C. 1862o-1) in January 2010. It requires institutions that seek funding from the NSF to outline plans for ethics
training for undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows, and mentoring for postdoctoral
fellows. Programs are being developed and refined to address this requirement at the institutional level, and
the work involved should not be underestimated. Since ethics and RCR training is now required by at least two major federal funders, and institutions are re-evaluating and creating local training programs, librarians should have a fundamental understanding of research ethics and RCR. They should further play a role in development and support of ethics training and education. This report describes a workshop for librarians on research ethics and maps out roles and future directions for librarians in research ethics.