FASEB Submits Feedback on Strategies to Foster Responsible Conduct of Research

By: Yvette Seger
Thursday, December 17, 2020

On December 9, FASEB submitted feedback in response to a Request for Information (RFI) issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Research Integrity (ORI) to obtain input on best practices, challenges, and needs related to responsible conduct of research (RCR) training and fostering research integrity (RI) in general.

FASEB’s comments reiterated several recommendations from its 2016 report, Enhancing Research Reproducibility, the output of a series of roundtable discussions to consider strategies researchers could adopt to enhance rigor and reproducibility of research findings. A key theme arising from these discussions was the need for all research team members to commit to good research practices. Thus, FASEB’s comments to the current RFI reiterated the need for RI/RCR training that spans laboratory roles, from principal investigator to students and technicians and making this a term of award for all individuals supported by HHS funds.

Recognizing that the majority of scientific societies host regular convenings of their members, FASEB also recommended that ORI partner with societies to host educational sessions and distribute uniform resources on RI/RCR. Similarly, since many issues pertaining to RI arise at the publication stage, FASEB encouraged ORI to work with scientific publishers — many of whom are affiliated with societies — to adapt the existing excellent resources for authors and reviewers for RI/RCR training.