title: Assessing the educational literature in the responsible conduct of research for core content.
abstract: To determine core content for RCR instruction, content analysis was conducted using key instructional resources for ORI's nine RCR "core instructional areas". Topics discussed in these key RCR resources were identified and their frequency across resources was tabulated. Topics covered most frequently were judged to be core content. Although key educational resources cited a variety of references, specific topics and issues addressed were generally consistent across the materials examined. Nonetheless, key resources varied in organization and depth of coverage for core instructional areas. Recent resources were more systematic and comprehensive than earlier works. This was particularly evident in materials about human participant research, conflicts of interest, and data management and sharing. Key resources presented additional "non-core" issues, such as scientific values, ethical principles, creativity and objectivity, moral reasoning, genetics, epidemiological issues, and scientists' societal roles, suggesting that ORI's core instructional areas should be reconfigured or expanded. Because educational material available on RCR and professionalism was so comprehensive, we recommend that ORI consider research integrity, not research misconduct, as one core instructional area. We also recommend that compliance with research regulations be restored as a core instructional area to accentuate ethical, financial and legal requirements related to acceptance of federal funding.
authors.affiliation: Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Heitman
authors.forename: Ruth Ellen
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Bulger
mesh_terms: D001319:Authorship; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000941:ethics* / Q000592:standards*; D016265:Conflict of Interest; D003625:Data Collection; D032984:Ethics, Research / Q000193:education*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D035082:Federal Government; D033161:Government Regulation; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006805:Human Experimentation / Q000941:ethics; D033181:Information Dissemination; D007878:Legislation as Topic; D017712:Peer Review, Research / Q000941:ethics / Q000592:standards; D011643:Publishing / Q000941:ethics / Q000592:standards; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000193:education* / Q000941:ethics*; D012109:Research Support as Topic; D015871:Scientific Misconduct; D012941:Social Responsibility; D013664:Teaching Materials / Q000592:standards; D014481:United States; D018172:United States Office of Research Integrity