Graduate Student Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)

WHAT IS THE REQUIRED RCR TRAINING?

Purdue University requires all degree-seeking graduate students to complete training in Responsible Conduct of Research. This training provides important guidance to all graduate students who will benefit from an understanding of how research is conducted. Students on certain research grants (NSF, NIH, etc.) may have additional requirements or earlier deadlines; check with your research advisor. Please also see resources at the end of this webpage.

  1. All Graduate Students: Complete the CITI online course on Responsible Conduct of Research Training – Faculty, Postdoctoral, and Graduate Course (CITI-RCR) within 60 days of starting your graduate study. The CITI-RCR online course includes 9 required modules. Each module takes approximately 30-60 minutes to complete and ends with a short multiple choice quiz. Students can enter, leave, and re-enter the course and each module as many times as they would like prior to taking the quiz. Students must achieve an average score of at least 80% on all quizzes in the required modules. When students have completed all the quizzes, they can print out a certificate of completion.
  2. In addition, mandatory for on-campus graduate students and optional for fully online students: Attend a follow-up seminar or workshop within the first year. The seminar or workshop may be given by the graduate program or the Graduate School either in-person or online. The seminar should be at least 60-90 minutes in length and allow students to ask questions and discuss RCR-related issues with the speaker.

HOW DO STUDENTS COMPLETE THE CITI ONLINE TRAINING REQUIREMENT?

Once you have your BoilerKey/Career Account login and password, you can use the following steps as a guide to complete the online training:

  • Visit www.citiprogram.org and select “Log In” and then “Log In Through My Institution.”
  • Click on Purdue University. Log in with your BoilerKey and complete the registration process.
  • Once logged in, click to add courses and select the Responsible Conduct of Research Training – Faculty, Postdoctoral, and Graduate Course.
  • Complete all 9 modules (8 CITI and 1 Purdue). This will meet the CoE online training requirement.

At the completion of the CITI course, a certificate of completion will be displayed. Once you receive the completion certificate for the CITI online course, email the certificate to Julayne Moser at moser@purdue.edu. This certificate is your only proof of completing the course, so do not miss this step!

HOW DO STUDENTS COMPLETE THE SEMINAR/WORKSHOP REQUIREMENT?

Students in the Chemical Engineering Professional MS Program will be required to register and attend the Graduate School’s Online RCR workshop.  Registration for an online session may be completed at: https://gspd.gosignmeup.com/public/course/browse

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WHY DO STUDENTS NEED TO COMPLETE THIS TRAINING EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT CONDUCTING RESEARCH?

Even if a student does not plan to conduct research at Purdue, the RCR training will be valuable. It is likely that a person with a graduate degree in engineering from Purdue will be involved with research at some point in their career – as a collaborator, a supervisor, a data manager, or a colleague. Even when simply using information from journal articles, it is important to understand potential RCR issues. Understanding the ethical issues that researchers face makes these future employees more valuable collaborators and better managers.

DOES THE CITI-RCR TRAINING EVER EXPIRE?

Graduate students working on active grants from certain federal agencies must recertify every 4 years. See the EVPRP RCR website linked below for details. Other graduate students need to complete the certification only once.

DO STUDENTS WHO HAVE TAKEN THE CITI ONLINE TRAINING AT A PREVIOUS INSTITUTION NEED TO TAKE IT AGAIN?

Students may be able to transfer the online training credits and should follow the instructions at the bottom of the quick reference card here: https://www.purdue.edu/research/docs/pdf/RCR%20Quick%20Reference%20Card.pdf. Transferred credits for training completed at other Institutions may or may not match the required credits/modules for Purdue RCR training requirements. You may need to complete additional modules to get full credit for the training required by Purdue. Even if the online training credits are transferred, on-campus students will still need to attend the follow-up workshop.

DO NON-THESIS STUDENTS NEED TO COMPLETE THE RCR TRAINING?

Yes. All degree-seeking graduate students are required to complete the CITI-RCR online training; additionally, all on-campus graduate students must attend a follow-up workshop or seminar.

DO NON-DEGREE STUDENTS NEED TO COMPLETE THE RCR TRAINING?

Non-degree students should complete the RCR training if they are working toward a certificate. Non-degree students taking an individual class are not required but are strongly encouraged to complete the training.

DO STUDENTS EARNING THEIR DEGREES ONLINE NEED TO COMPLETE THE RCR TRAINING?

Yes. RCR training is beneficial and required for all degree-seeking graduate students. Online students must complete the CITI-RCR online certification. An additional workshop or seminar is strongly encouraged but not required. Many excellent workshops are presented online.

RESOURCES:

Please note that any changes in university guidelines will supersede information presented in this webpage.