Graduate Division

RCR Overview - Students, Postdocs, and Faculty

To satisfy the RCR requirements, log onto CITI at https://about.citiprogram.org/ 
You must use the Single Sign On (SSO) option to log in. Step-by-Step instructions can be found here.

• Student Requirements

  All new graduate students, with some exceptions, will be provided an introduction to education in RCR by completing 4 CITI online modules within the first year of enrollment in their program. 

  • Year 1 Modules are: Introduction to RCR, Data Management, Mentoring, Conflicts of Interest, and Research Misconduct
  • Students engaged in research involving human subjects and/or animal use must complete the CITI training modules for those subjects in their first year, before submitting IRB or IACUC approvals. 
  • Students conducting engineering based research, will also have an opportunity to complete training in that area. 

  During the second year of their program, all students completing a dissertation or thesis must complete an additional 3 CITI modules. 

  • Year 2 Modules are: Collaborative Research, Authorship, and Peer Review

  Registration holds will be posted on student accounts if these requirements are not completed on time. 

• Post-Doctoral Scholar Requirements

  Post-doctoral scholars must complete all required modules by the end of the first three months at UCR. If RCR training has been previously completed via CITI, those records will be available. If training has been completed by other means at a previous institution, verification must be submitted. 

  • Modules are: Introduction to RCR, Data Management, Mentoring, Conflicts of Interest, Research Misconduct, Collaborative Research, Authorship, and Peer Review
• Faculty Requirements

  Faculty members who wish to be a member of an Oral Qualifying Exam, PhD Dissertation Committee, or Master's Thesis Committee must complete CITI training before the nomination can be approved by the Graduate Division. All required modules must be completed. 

  • Modules are: Introduction to RCR, Data Management, Mentoring, Conflicts of Interest, Research Misconduct, Collaborative Research, Authorship, and Peer Review

Face-to-Face Discussion Based Training

Online training is important, but learning does not end there. Starting in year two, master's and doctoral graduate students completing a thesis or dissertation, and post-doctoral scholars, must complete at least 10 hours of face-to-face discussion-based training before receiving their degrees. These hours can be completed at any point during the first 2 years.

Supplemental/Refresher Training
In addition to all the above, beginning in year 4 when relevant graduate students [and, if relevant, post-doctoral scholars] will complete an additional 2 hours of face-to-face discussion-based training prior to receiving their degrees.

At least 8 of the 10 total face-to-face discussion-based hours required must be provided by faculty within the student’s department/program. These hours can be provided as discussions in journal clubs, brown bag lunches, seminar series in the department or elsewhere on campus. They can also be conversations integrated into professional development courses in ways that make sense to the content of the course.

Specifics about the content, the delivery mechanisms, the timing of, and the tracking mechanism for, the basic and refresher training will necessarily be defined in the individual department/program or college plan. Monitoring of face-to-face requirements will be done at the department/program or college level and communicated to the Graduate Division as the time of student annual evaluation submission.

Department/program or college plans must be submitted to a committee, chaired by the Director of the Research Ethics Education Program, and including the AVC in the Office of Research Integrity, the Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies, along with the Advisory Board of REEP. Once reviewed and assessed as meeting the campus wide requirement, plans will be forwarded to the Graduate Council for review and final approval.