Date:  September 26, 2012

To:  All Faculty and Academic Staff

From:  Peter Schiffer, Vice Chancellor for Research

Subject:  Annual Message on Research Integrity Policies

Integrity is at the core of all of our research activities, and this e-mail is the annual reminder of University policies regarding our obligations and responsibilities in the realm of research integrity.  Note that almost every sponsor of research activity requires all faculty, staff, and students engaged in sponsored research be informed regularly about campus policies on research integrity, so please share this message with all members of your research teams including both staff and students.  Please also make them aware of the Ethics Week events that will be co-sponsored by the Graduate College and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (http://search.grainger.uiuc.edu/ncpre/index.asp#).

The University-wide Policy and Procedures on Integrity in Research and Publication is available on the Web at:

            http://www.vpaa.uillinois.edu/Policies/integrityresearch/index.cfm    

Under this policy, all members of the University community are expected to observe high standards of academic integrity and ethical behavior in research and publication.  Procedures are defined for addressing particular instances of unethical conduct.  Any practice or conduct by a member of the University community that seriously deviates from those ethical standards for proposing, conducting, and publishing research that are commonly accepted within the professional community constitutes academic misconduct in violation of University policy.

Research misconduct includes, but is not limited to fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results:

- Fabrication is making up data or results and recording or reporting them;
- Falsification is manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record;
- Plagiarism is the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit;
- Intentionally misleading or deliberately false reporting of credentials and related information;
- Abuse of confidentiality with respect to unpublished materials;
- Misappropriation of research materials;
- Evasion, or intentional failure to comply after notice with research regulations, such as those governing conflict of interest/commitment, human subjects, laboratory animals, new drugs, radioactive materials, genetically altered organisms, and safety;
- Any other conduct that constitutes a serious deviation from accepted ethical guidelines and professional standards in scholarship and research; and,
- Does not include honest error or difference of opinion.  

Other related information:

The document "Responsible Professional Conduct:  Guidelines for Teaching, Research, and Service" is printed in the Academic Staff Handbook, available on the Web at:

            http://www.ahr.illinois.edu/ahrhandbook/chap5/index.html

Guidelines are also printed in the Graduate College Handbook for Students, Faculty and Staff, available on the Web at:

            http://www.grad.illinois.edu/gradhandbook/chapteri/section03

If you have questions about these policies, please contact our Campus Research Integrity Officer, Howard Guenther, at 333-6771 or rsofficer@illinois.edu.