RCR refresher syllabus

RCR refresher syllabus 2023

Basic Information

Class website:

https://www.colorado.edu/lab/allen/content/avanced-rcr-senior-graduate-students-and-post-docs

Class directory:

http://tinyurl.com/2024RCR

Summary of class:

Teaching Philosophy

The class is primarily discussion and project-based. As participants, you have all worked in the laboratory and taken previous RCR classes. Therefore you know most of the material that NIH requires, and you should know it well enough to teach it. Therefore, in this RCR course, we will work together to create plans for RCR education and tools that will help us become more rigorous and more reproducible in our research.

Course Content

HOMEWORK!

Before start of class, Watch/Read:

1. Read: Conflict of Interest article from New york times (pdf only)

2. Read: Reproducibility Crisis? Or Fake data?

3. Read: Even in our own backyard. (pdf)

4. Watch: What Constitutes Authorship?

5. Watch: Peer Review in 3 Minutes (Links to an external site.)

6. Watch: Science in service to the public good

7. Watch: Introduction to Experimental Design

8. Watch: Experimental Design Module 1a: Replication

Jan 12^th, 9-5

1. 6 Ws of CCARS
   1. Who are you/Who am I
   2. What are we going to learn in this class
   3. Where is the class
   4. When is this class
   5. Why do we take RCR
   6. How will we learn it
2. Quiz
3. All of RCR graduate education in 10 min #this makes sure we have covered all topics the NIH requires
4. 6 Ws of RCR. # You are now in charge of Responsible conduct of research education for all of the people that the NIH funds. You have some decisions to make.
   1. Who should take RCR? (Undergraduates, graduate students, post-docs, Faulty)
   2. What should they learn?
      
      1. NIH suggested topics
         
         1. conflict of interest – personal, professional, and financial – and conflict of commitment in allocating time, effort, or other research resources
         2. policies regarding human subjects, live vertebrate animal subjects in research, and safe laboratory practices
         3. mentor/mentee responsibilities and relationships
         4. safe research environments (e.g., those that promote inclusion and are free of sexual, racial, ethnic, disability and other forms of discriminatory harassment)
         5. collaborative research, including collaborations with industry and investigators and institutions in other countries
         6. peer review, including the responsibility for maintaining confidentiality and security in peer review
         7. data acquisition and analysis; laboratory tools (e.g., tools for analyzing data and creating or working with digital images); recordkeeping practices, including methods such as electronic laboratory notebooks
         8. secure and ethical data use; data confidentiality, management, sharing, and ownership
         9. research misconduct and policies for handling misconduct
         10. responsible authorship and publication
         11. the scientist as a responsible member of society, contemporary ethical issues in biomedical research, and the environmental and societal impacts of scientific research
   3. When should they take it? How often?
   4. Where should they learn? University class? Lab setting? Government agency?
   5. Why do they need RCR education? What is the point?
   6. How should they learn it? What is the most effective way to teach RCR?
      1. Case studies
      2. Videos
      3. Discussion groups
      4. Storytime
5. Homework Overview
6. Practical ways to ensure responsible research
   1. People:
      Practice difficult conversations
      IDP (Individual Development plan)
      Mentor Map

   2. Data (rigor and reproducibility techniques)
      SOP (Standard operating procedures)
      Onboarding document
      Lab Expectations document

   3. Polices:
      Clear Contact information
      Acronym decoder

Jan 13^th, 9-12
work on your own or in groups on the homework

Assignments are due before 5 pm on Jan 13^th, and more instructions will be given in class.

Assignment 0: Create a folder in our google drive under homework with YOURNAME!!!

Assignment 1: One page (double-spaced) letter to a new graduate student of RCR on one of the following topics:

• What is a responsible researcher?
• What are the signs of a responsible researcher?
• What are the signs of research misconduct?
• How do you do good research?
• What should RCR teach?
• Is peer review done in the best way possible?
• How should science handle conflicts of interest?
• What is the best way to avoid authorship conflicts?
• Are there enough safeguards for students and post-docs or do mentors have too much power?
• What is the best way to train students to collect and back up data? Whose job is it to train them to do things like controls?
• How do you know when your internal bias is fooling you? What makes a responsible researcher?
• *Any other question can be used if approved by the instructor (Enter a new topic at the "assignment 1" tab to get approval from the instructor. alternate topics must be entered by 5 pm.

Assignment 2: Pick 3 FAQs from any of the student questions. Answer them. Direct the answers to a young graduate student.

Assignment 3: Group or individual project—Choose a grey zone case study and explain to me how you would teach it and why you think it would be an effective way to teach it. This assignment should be 250-500 words. 

1. You can make up a case study or talk about a case study you have heard about or read about. #Please, no names or details that would tie to a person!
2. You could write the case study as a role play or questions/answers for group discussion. Many more methods will be discussed in class. 

Jan 13^th, 1-5

1. Discuss Assignments and questions you could not answer
2. Finish Practical ways to create a better research environment
3. ​“You never really know something until you teach it to someone else.”
   1. The class will work together to prepare slides and lectures on all topics required in an NIH RCR course.
      1. The lecture should be understandable to a first-year graduate student.