Core Component 2.E

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DRAFT

2.E The institution’s policies and procedures call for responsible acquisition, discovery and application of knowledge by its faculty, students and staff.

  1. The institution provides effective oversight and support services to ensure the integrity of research and scholarly practice conducted by its faculty, staff, and students.
  2. Students are offered guidance in the ethical use of information resources.
  3. The institution has and enforces policies on academic honesty and integrity.

Argument

2.E.1. The Employee Handbook contains relevant policies and guidelines including the Code of Ethics for faculty and the Conflict of Interest Policy. The Office of Sponsored Projects Administration (OSPA) also provides university policies affecting research and oversees research compliance and training through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) to assure that faculty are aware of their responsibility relating to ethical conduct of research. State of Illinois employees are required to complete annual ethics training (5 ILCS 430/5-10) under the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act. The SIU System Ethics Office provides guidelines, policies, and maintains statements of economic interests.

SIUC supports and trains new faculty and administrators through faculty orientation and workshops for academic administrators. OSPA and the SOM Office of Grants and Contracts (OGC) provide oversight and support for sponsored projects.

SIUC has policies, offices, and committees to ensure the integrity of research and scholar practice including:

  • SIUC Human Subjects Committee
  • Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
  • Institutional Biosafety Committee   
  • Financial Interest on Federal Grants Policy (requires training for investigators on federal research grants and a financial interest disclosure statement for investigators on all grants)
  • Online training for responsible research and scholarly practice (CITI) (required for all faculty and student research projects, including those involving undergraduates)

The SOM maintains policies and committees unique to the branch campus:

  • Committee for Research Involving Human Subjects
  • Conflict of Interest/Commitment Policy
  • Industry Relations Policy and Committee
  • Infection Control and Safety Committee
  • Misconduct in Science Committee
  • Laboratory Animal Medicine

SIUC strategic plan calls to enhance research, scholarly and creative activity, and our reputation for providing cutting edge graduate and undergraduate research opportunities. Training and support for maintaining research compliance is an essential element in maintaining a high research environment to enable these critical institutional goals.

2.E.2. SIUC and SOM students are guided and educated in the ethical use of information resources in different venues and policies:

  • Student Conduct Code
  • New Student Orientation
  • Syllabi of first year courses including University College (UCOL) 101, Communication Studies 101, English (ENG) 101, ENG 102, and Media and Information Literacy (MCMA) 200
  • SIUC IT division also offers advisement and guidance on the ethical use of information
  • Medical Student Use of Electronic Devices policy

2.E.3. SIUC actively encourages academic honesty and integrity as defined in the:

  • Code of Ethics Policy for Faculty
  • Student Conduct Code
  • Saluki Creed
  • SOM Student Honor Code

The Student Conduct Code was updated in 2018 by the Student Rights and Responsibilities Office to bring the policies and procedures in line with the Association for Student Conduct Administrator’s best practices including an Administrative Panel process for all incidents that end in a student’s separation from the University.

Plagiarism policies exist for both faculty and students. The plagiarism detection tool, Turnitin, is available through the course management system (D2L) with training regularly offered by the Center for Teaching Excellence.            

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