Sometimes professors need a little guidance of their own when it comes to research ethics.

The Office of Research Compliance at NIU has established a committee that sets appropriate guidelines to help aid faculty with their research.

Sociology professor Jim Thomas stressed the importance of responsible conduct of research for all faculty members and students involved in a research setting, according to the Spectrum, a biannual development newsletter.

In 2000, the U.S. Public Health Service enacted a policy stating public and private research institutions receiving federal funds must implement training on research ethics and responsibilities.

Also at NIU, the Responsible Conduct of Scholarship committee has been created in aiding the researcher on following the appropriate ethical guidelines.

The two committees now work together to ensure proper guidelines are met.

So what exactly are research ethics?

For Lori Bross, assistant to the dean for Research Compliance, it isn’t quite an easy answer.

“Simply put, I suppose one could think of research ethics as the rules or standards, formal or informal, governing the conduct of a researcher or professional academic,” she said.

For more than a year, there has been a dispute with Congress over implementing national formal guidelines, so many universities have set forth with their own version of appropriate guidelines.

“The original Responsible Conduct of Research Policy was enacted in December 2001, and required each institution to have an RCR educational program for research staff in place by Oct. 1, 2001,” Bross said. “In late February 2001, the policy was challenged in Congress, not because of the content of the policy, but because of concerns raised that the policy had not gone through all the appropriate channels on the way to implementation. So institutions were being told that what was originally required by the policy was now being made optional and that institutions could proceed with making plans for their RCR education programs voluntarily if they so desired.”

Communication professor Mary Lynn Henningsen has completed research at four universities, including NIU.

“My research here at NIU was a follow-up study to my dissertation,” she said. “The guidelines for research are set by the Institutional Review Board in the Office of Research Compliance. To complete research, faculty submit an application to the board. The board then reviews the application and evaluates the goal of the research in the context of the risk or value to the participants of the studies.”

Bross said the only types of research that are governed by federal regulations include research with human beings, educational and research activities with live, vertebrate animals, educational and research activities involving the use of biohazardous materials, and activities involving the use of radiation or radioactive materials.

Bross said she thinks that NIU researchers are extremely concerned with protecting their research and conducting it with the welfare of others in mind.

“Based on what I have learned from colleagues at other institutions, it appears that NIU is somewhat ahead of the game in terms of preparing its RCS educational program.”