GDIV 403, Interdisciplinary Seminar: Research and Scholarship Ethics, is a one unit course offered in Fall and Spring quarters, open to graduate students for credit (satisfactory/no credit only, not for a letter grade).  The purpose of this course is to engage students in reading, considering, and discussing the responsible conduct of research across different disciplines.  Please note: this course does not fully meet the NIH requirements for education in the responsible conduct of research. 

GDIV 405, Entering Mentoring, is a two unit course offer in the Spring quarter, open to graduate students for credit (satisfactory/no credit only, not for a letter grade). This course is aimed at developing and improving graduate student mentoring skills for those who are or will be involved in supervising undergraduate and/or new graduate research experiences. 

I will work with faculty teaching / facilitating the department’s professional development course and provide appropriate materials [case studies, brief videos, lecture questions, etc] and strategies for integrating ethics materials into the course.

The Director of the Research Ethics Education Program offers various train the trainers curricula for faculty from a range of disciplines who might be interested in initial or additional education in the responsible conduct of research [RCR], as well as those who are interested in research ethics education more broadly defined. 

Following is a description of the available curricula*: 

• Research Ethics Courses: This workshop is designed to result in concrete, discipline-specific strategies and plans to create courses on the subject of research ethics. Such courses can help to meet NSF and NIH requirement for teaching of responsible conduct of research. 
• Research Ethics Modules: This workshop is designed to result in concrete, discipline-specific strategies and plans to create modules/lessons for already existing courses [methods courses, data management courses] on the subject of research ethics. Such courses can help to meet NSF and NIH requirement for teaching of responsible conduct of research. 
• Promoting Ethics in Research:  This workshop is designed to result in concrete, discipline-specific strategies and plans to incorporate research ethics education into the mentoring of trainees and staff. Such mentoring can help to meet NSF and NIH requirement for teaching of responsible conduct of research. 

Please contact the Director for additional information or to request a training.

*These workshops were first created at UC San Diego; I thank the Director of the Research Ethics Program at UCSD, Dr. Michael Kalichman, for permission to use the workshop descriptions here.

Throughout the Fall, Winter and Spring quarters, the Research Ethics Education Program will, on request of a PI, host a breakfast or lunch conversation in a lab meeting/journal club/brown bag lunch event or similar gathering. This is meant to be an informal conversation concerning any area of practice in which the PI and the lab members have interest. It can also be a more formal presentation depending on the topic and the context. These breakfast/lunch programs are limited to 10 participants, including the PI.  This is modeled on the UCR iREDS project.

If you are using the on-line CITI training modules to meet the federal requirements for RCR training for those on NSF/NIFA funds, I can provide materials to supplement any of the modules in the CITI training. The department could choose which 5 of the modules to supplement with in-person training, and could have faculty provide that training [with assistance from me], or could bring in other experts for a face-to-face session.

At no cost to the department, I will co-teach with faculty any course or workshop series dealing with research ethics.

The Research Ethics Education Program has developed this series*, offered upon request, in coordination with the UC Riverside PostDoc Association. These sessions are designed to be informal discussions and explorations of various ethically complex and ambiguous issues that researchers regularly confront in their practice, with the specific topics chosen by the participants. 

Please contact Dena Plemmons, dena.plemmons@ucr.edu, for more information. 

*for general professional development opportunities for post-docs, please contact the Dean of the Graduate Division. 

We provide consultation to programs and departments on the development of RCR training plans for inclusion in grant  proposals, as well as evaluation of current or planned RCR approaches and materials.