The Coordinated Science Laboratory
National Center for Principled Leadership & Research Ethics

Research Ethics Resources

The National Center for Principled Leadership & Research Ethics (NCPRE) creates and shares resources to support the development of better ethics and leadership practices in academic and other professional contexts. In our model, leadership—and particularly ethical leadership—is a key component of setting an institutional tone and promoting healthy and productive professional interactions. Intentional leadership development and institutional integrity are linked. We create tools and resources to support both.

Some featured resources

Teaching Ethics: Instructional Models, Methods, and Modalities for University Studies

Teaching Ethics: Instructional Models, Methods, and Modalities for University Studies encourages teachers and students to approach their work with a deep awareness that people, not as disinterested reasoners devoid of or effectively cut-off from passions, make ethical judgments. An individual’s social and emotional constitution should be taken into account. This collaborative publication offers salient instructional models, methods and modalities centered on the whole person.

Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Education

Our perspective on RCR education encompasses roles and responsibilities (who does what); best practices (essential elements of and common challenges to effective RCR training); resources to support faculty in delivering high-quality RCR education; and recommended formats and frequency.

RCR Education Materials Research Ethics by Topics

Articles and Talks

Research Integrity materials

  • Fostering Integrity in Research (2017). A report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that stresses the important role played by institutions, environments, and individual researchers in supporting scientific integrity (Free PDF available).
  • On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research (third edition, 2009). Written for beginning researchers, this guide sought to describe the ethical foundations of scientific practices and some of the personal and professional issues that researchers encounter in their work (Free PDF available).

Where Do I Start?

Get started with the article What is Research Ethics? to get a broad overview of research ethics and ethical distinctions. If you are interested in Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) education, see our Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Education Materials and Institutional Research Integrity page.

If you are an educator, see our Resources for Instructors that features a variety of information and resources on teaching research ethics. Our curriculum resources include Two-Minute Challenges and Role-Playing Scenarios which will challenge you and your students with issues based on real-world situations.

Our Educational Materials include featured and contributed resources for teaching and learning about research ethics, including resources focused on specific Research Ethics by Topic. From there, you can dig deeper to browse the Role-specific resources, where you will find research articles, position papers, and training materials most relevant to you. 

 

NCPRE develops, hosts and curates resources on research ethics, particularly for educating about research ethics, and institutional research integrity. We host materials with the permission or at the request of the authors/developers of those materials. Please consult the license with each item (generally a Creative Commons license). We do not claim ownership and credit for materials we did not develop ourselves.