STT Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RECR) Plan
Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RECR) Plan
This Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RECR) plan applies to students who began a graduate program with the Department of Statistics and Probability in Fall 2017 or later https://grad.msu.edu/researchintegrity. The Graduate School RECR Workshop series may be used to help fulfill both the annual refresher and discussion-based training requirements: https://grad.msu.edu/rcr
Students who are supported by an NSF award may be required to complete additional specific training; they must meet the timeline and content requirements of training for that award.
Students engaged in research involving human subjects must complete the Michigan State University training modules for human subjects before submitting IRB approvals.
For additional help with RECR, please see these instructions from the MSU Graduate School RECR Job Aid for Students
1) Year 1
The following FOUR (4) CITI online modules must be completed within the first year of enrollment in the statistics graduate program. Please visit https://grad.msu.edu/researchintegrity and scroll towards the bottom. Click on the orange box, which says "CITI (actual training modules)." This will take you to the CITI site. You may need to create an account. Completion of this requirement will be tracked in Ability LMS https://ora.msu.edu/train/.
- Introduction to the Responsible Conduct of Research
- Authorship
- Plagiarism
- Research Misconduct
2) Discussion-Based Training
All graduate students must complete a total of 6 hours of discussion-based training prior to receiving their degrees. To be completed by the time of graduation for master’s students and prior to completing the comprehensive examination and entering candidate status for doctoral students. For students entering graduate school in FS2022 or later, one-on-one discussions with a faculty mentor or advisor can NO LONGER be used to fulfill the 6 hours of discussion-based education. Students can complete this by attending workshops offered by the Grad School or MSU academic departments, completing approved coursework covering RECR content or taking part in group discussions with an advisor or facilitator.
Each year as part of the annual review process, students will submit a report describing the Discussion-Based Training completed during that academic year and will share this report with their advisors. Student and advisor will sign and date the report, and the student will submit it to the Graduate Program Coordinator for uploading to GradPlan / SIS.
3) Year 2
Within the first 2 years of enrollment in the statistics graduate program, doctoral and master’s Plan A will complete 3 additional MSU online training modules, to be selected from the following list. Completion of this requirement will be tracked in SABA.
- CITI Collaborative Research
- CITI Conflicts of Interest
- CITI Data Management
- CITI Financial Responsibility
- CITI Mentoring
- CITI Peer Review
- Rigor and Reproducibility Course
- Human Research Protection/ IRB Certification (in http://Train.ORA.msu.edu)
Please visit https://grad.msu.edu/researchintegrity and scroll towards the bottom. Click on the orange box, which says "CITI (actual training modules)." This will take you to the CITI site. You may need to create an account.
4) Annual Refresher Training
Starting in year 3, all doctoral students must complete 3 hours of annual refresher training per year; this can include discussion-based training and online courses beyond those required in Items 1) and 3). Completion of this requirement will be recorded by STT in GradInfo as “Annual” training.
Each year students in year 3 or later of the program will submit a report describing the 3 hours of Annual Refresher Training and will share this report with their advisors. Student and advisor will sign and date the report, and the student will submit it to the Graduate Program Coordinator for recording.
lease note:
Possible Options for Annual Refresher RECR Education
The Center for Statistical Training and Consultation (CSTAT) at MSU offers seminars and workshops regularly (at least once each semester) that can fulfill Annual Refresher RECR Education requirements. Details on the workshops and other events can be found at https://cstat.msu.edu/events.
To receive RECR credit, you must attend the CSTAT RECR education events (some are via Zoom and some are held in-person) and answer questions in a survey specific to the topics covered, which is sent to you after the event. All answers will be read carefully by CSTAT before names are submitted to MSU GradPlan for RECR credit.