Research Misconduct Policy Definitions — Office of Research and Innovation

Adjudication: Means the formal and final decision of the Deciding Official regarding the Allegations of Research Misconduct, including the imposition of Sanctions and Corrective Actions, if any.
Allegation: Means an accusation of specific Falsification, Fabrication or Plagiarism, received through any means of communication, to an institutional or HHS Official, that triggers the procedures described in this policy.
Applied Research: Means original investigation that is undertaken to acquire new knowledge. It is, however, directed primarily towards a specific, practical aim or objective.
Assessment: Means the initial evaluation to determine if each Allegation fits within the definition of Research Misconduct and if each Allegation is credible and specific so that potential Evidence of Research Misconduct may be identified.
Basic Research: Means experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable facts, without any particular application or use in view. Basic research may include activities with broad or general applications in mind, such as the study of how plant genomes change, but should exclude research directed towards a specific application or requirement, such as optimizing the genome of one particular crop species.
Business Day: Means a day in which the Institution is operating and identified as being open, regardless of whether classes are in session.
Complainant: Means a person who in Good Faith makes an Allegation of Research Misconduct.
Complaint: Means a set of Research Misconduct allegations. The Complaint may be by a written or oral statement or other communication. A Complaint is typically directed toward a specific Respondent and can be received at one time or sequentially.
Conflict of Interest: Means, in the context of Research Misconduct Proceedings, the actual or apparent possibility that the interests of one person may compromise or affect the interests of another person due to prior or existing personal, familial, financial, or professional relationships. Members of an Investigation or Inquiry Panel are not deemed to have a conflict of interest solely because of their role at UofL and the relationship that such a role creates with the Respondent or the Complainant (e.g., a college Dean is not deemed to have a conflict merely because the individual is the Dean of the college of a Respondent who is a faculty member).
Corrective Action: Means any action determined to be necessary to address Research Misconduct or Questionable Research Practices. For example, Corrective Actions could include retraction of published manuscripts, return of funded grants to the agency, withdrawal of submitted grant applications, withdrawal of manuscripts submitted for publication, withdrawal of abstracts submitted for presentation at meetings, or other actions.
Day: Means calendar day. If the last day of a designated time period falls on a weekend or a day on which the university is closed, the period will expire at the close of business on the next succeeding business day.
Deciding Official: Means the institutional official who makes final determinations on allegations of research misconduct and any institutional administrative actions. The Executive Vice President, Research and Innovation, at the University of Louisville is the Deciding Official, barring any conflict.
Evidence: Means any document, tangible item, or testimony offered or obtained during a research misconduct proceeding that tends to prove or disprove the existence of an alleged fact.
Experimental Development: Means systematic work, drawing on knowledge gained from research and practical experience and producing additional knowledge, which is directed to creating new products or processes or to improving existing ones. Experimental Development includes producing materials, devices, and systems or methods, including the designing, constructing and testing experimental prototypes.
Fabrication: Means making up data or results and recording or reporting them.
Falsification: Means manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the Research Record.
Good Faith: Means, as applied to a Complainant or witness, having a belief in the truth of one's Allegation or testimony that a reasonable person in the Complainant's or witness's position could have based on the information known to the Complainant or witness at the time. An Allegation or cooperation with a Research Misconduct Proceeding is not in Good Faith if it Knowingly or Recklessly disregards information that would negate the Allegation or testimony. Good Faith as applied to an Inquiry or Investigation Panel member means cooperating to help an institution meet its responsibilities under this policy. An Inquiry or Investigation Panel member does not act in Good Faith if actions or omissions on the committee are dishonest or influenced by personal, professional, or financial conflicts of interest with those involved in the Research Misconduct Proceeding.
HHS: Means the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
Home Institution: Means the institution with jurisdiction over a specific Allegation because it is the institution where the Research Misconduct took place and which retains and/or is responsible for the retention of the original Research Records.
Inquiry: Means the initial process for determining whether an Allegation or apparent instance of Research Misconduct has substance (i.e., sufficient evidence exists that Research Misconduct may have occurred to warrant investigation).
Institutional Member: Means a person employed by, is an agent of, or is affiliated by contract or agreement with the University of Louisville or one of its statutory affiliated corporations. Institutional Members may include, but are not limited to, officials, tenured and nontenured faculty, teaching and support staff, researchers, research coordinators, clinical technicians, postdoctoral and other fellows, volunteers, students, visiting scholars, visiting students, agents and contractors, subcontractors, and sub awardees and their employees.
Institutional Official: Means person with direct authority over faculty and staff appointments, salaries, promotions, signatory authority, or division of institutional resources, such as the assignment of graduate students or other trainees, progress or promotion of students, funding or space for faculty who are conducting research. Term includes anyone holding administrator positions, even temporarily. Term includes, but is not limited to individuals serving as: Deans, Associate Deans, and Assistant Deans; Institute and Center Directors; University Counsel; University Compliance Officers; Director of Audit Services; Provost, Vice Provosts, Associate Vice Provosts, and Assistant Vice Provosts; President, Executive Vice Presidents, Senior Vice Presidents, Vice Presidents, Associate Vice Presidents, and Assistant Vice Presidents; Department Heads; Directors of Sponsored Programs, Technology Transfer, Research Integrity, Human Subjects Protection; and chairs of the Institutional Review Board, Institutional Biosafety Committee, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, Conflict Review Board, and other similar committees created in the future.
Intentionally: Means to directly engage in Falsification, Fabrication, or Plagiarism with the intent or purpose of misleading the reader of the Research Record.
Interference: Means intentional, unauthorized taking, sequestering, or materially damaging any research-related apparatus, reagents, biological materials, writings, data, hardware, software, or any other substance or device used or produced in the conduct of research. See also Research Vandalism.

Interim Actions

Means any actions of the university taken prior to Adjudication to comply with laws or regulations, or for one or more of the following reasons:

to protect the public, research community, research subjects, or patients, including their health and safety;
to protect the interests of students, faculty, or staff;
to preserve Evidence;
to protect the university, state, or federal resources or interests, including contractual obligations; or,
to protect the interests of those involved in the Research Misconduct Proceedings.

Investigation: Means a formal review of all Evidence to determine if Research Misconduct occurred and by whom, and to recommend appropriate Corrective Actions and/or sanctions.
Investigation Panel: Means a group of at least three Institutional Members charged with conducting the Investigation. Members of the Standing Inquiry Panel are eligible to serve on the Investigation Panel.
Knowingly: Means to engage in Falsification, Fabrication, or Plagiarism with actual knowledge, deliberate ignorance, or plain indifference to the Falsification, Fabrication, or Plagiarism.
NSF: Means the National Science Foundation
PHS: Means the Public Health Service of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and any components of the PHS to which the authority involved may be delegated, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
PHS Regulation: Means the Public Health Service regulation establishing standards for institutional investigations into allegations of scientific misconduct, which is set forth at 42 C.F.R. Part 50, Subpart A, entitled "Responsibility of PHS Awardee and Applicant Institutions for Dealing With and Reporting Possible Misconduct in Science."
PHS Support: Means PHS grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements or applications thereof.
Plagiarism: Means the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit. Plagiarism also means the substantial unattributed copying of another's ideas, processes, results, or words. Substantial unattributed copying of another's ideas, processes, results, or words means the unattributed verbatim or nearly verbatim copying of sentences and paragraphs, style or structure which materially mislead the audience regarding the contributions of the author. Plagiarism does not include authorship or credit disputes, including those among former collaborators who have gone their separate ways but may use commonly developed concepts, methods, descriptive language, or other products of the former joint effort.
Preponderance of Evidence: Means proof by information that, compared with that opposing it, leads to the conclusion that the fact at issue is more probably true than not.

Questionable Research Practices

Means practices that do not constitute Research Misconduct but that violate applicable laws, regulations, or other governmental requirements, or University rules or policies, of which the Respondent had received notice or of which the Respondent reasonably should have been aware, for proposing, performing, reviewing, or reporting Research. These may include, but are not limited to:

Carelessness or negligence in the handling of research results
inappropriate research design
omitting relevant controls
inappropriate re-use of controls
neglecting negative results
removal of outliers
conscious bias
Failing to retain significant research data for a reasonable period
Maintaining inadequate research records, especially for results that are published or are relied on by others
misrepresentation of involvement, such as inappropriate claims to authorship and/or attribution of work where there has been no significant contribution, or the denial of authorship where an author has made a significant contribution
Refusing to give peers reasonable access to unique research materials or data that could support published papers
Using inappropriate statistical measurements, or other methods of measurement, to enhance the significance of research findings
Inadequately supervising research subordinates or exploiting them
Misrepresenting speculations as fact or releasing preliminary research results, especially in the public media, without providing sufficient data to allow peers to judge the validity of the results or to reproduce the experiments
Misappropriation of research funds or research equipment
Research Vandalism
misrepresentation of interests, including failure to declare material interests either of the researcher or of the funders of the research
Peer Review Violations (failure to disclose conflicts of interest; inadequate disclosure of clearly limited competence; misappropriation of the content of material; and breach of confidentiality or abuse of material provided in confidence for peer review purposes)
undisclosed duplication of publication, including undisclosed duplicate submission of manuscripts for publication;
dishonesty in publication: knowingly publishing material that will mislead readers (e.g., misrepresenting data, misrepresenting research progress; or adding the names of other authors without permission);
misrepresentation of qualifications and/or experience, including claiming or implying qualifications or experience which are not held
disclosing improperly the identity of individuals or groups involved in research without their consent, or other breaches of confidentiality;
placing any of those involved in research in danger, whether as subjects, participants or associated individuals, without their prior consent, and without appropriate safeguards even with consent; this includes reputational threat where that can be anticipated;
not taking all reasonable care to ensure that the risks and dangers, the broad objectives and the sponsors of the research are known to participants or their legal representatives, to ensure appropriate informed consent is appropriately obtained, explicitly and transparently;
not observing legal and reasonable ethical requirements or obligations of care for animal subjects, human organs or tissue used in research, or for the protection of the environment;
Failure to report observed research misconduct: covering up or otherwise failing to report observed, suspected, or apparent research misconduct by others;
Retaliation: taking punitive action against an individual for having reported alleged research misconduct;
Directing or encouraging others to engage in any of the above listed offenses.

Recklessly: Means to use or allow the use of, through action or inaction, falsified, fabricated or plagiarized data while aware of an increased risk of falsified, fabricated, or plagiarized data being used or generated, or while the risk is so obvious that a typical researcher in the relevant research community should have known. Recklessness is distinguished from negligence, where an individual deviates from ordinary care that a typical researcher in the relevant research community would have exercised, but the individual is unaware that there was a substantial risk of Falsification, Fabrication or Plagiarism.
Research and Development: Research means a systematic study directed toward fuller scientific knowledge or understanding of the subject studied. This definition encompasses basic and applied research, including research training activities not included in formal instruction and all development activities. Development is the systematic use of knowledge and understanding gained from research, directed toward the production of useful materials, devices, systems, or methods, including design and development of prototypes and processes. For purposes of this policy, both Research and Development apply.
Research Integrity Officer (RIO): Means institutional official with the primary responsibility for assuring adherence to the implementing procedures of this policy. The Director of the ORI is the RIO for the University of Louisville.
Research Integrity Panel (RIP): Means nine to eleven Institutional Members, selected for disciplinary breadth in consultation with the Council of Research Deans and Council of Academic Officers. The RIP's charge is to conduct the Inquiry and Investigation in a Research Misconduct Proceeding. Members of the RIP are guided by RES 1.04 and RES 1.04a.
Research Misconduct: Means fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results. Research Misconduct does not include honest errors or differences of opinion.
Research Misconduct Proceeding: Means any actions and associated records related to alleged Research Misconduct defined in this policy, including but not limited to, allegation assessments, inquiries, investigations, ORI oversight reviews, hearings and administrative appeals. This includes: (1) the Research Record and Evidence secured for a Proceeding pursuant to this policy, except to the extent the RIO determines and documents that those records are not relevant to the Proceeding or that the records duplicate other records that have been retained; (2) the documentation of the determination of irrelevant or duplicate records; (3) the Inquiry Report and final documents (not drafts) produced in the course of preparing that report, including the documentation of any decision not to investigate; (4) the Investigation Report and all records (other than drafts of the report) in support of the report, including any recordings or transcripts of each interview conducted; and (5) the complete record of any appeal within the institution from the finding of Research Misconduct.
Research Record: Means any data or results, in any media or format, which embodies the information resulting from research. A Research Record includes, but is not limited to, grant or contract applications, whether funded or unfunded; grant or contract progress and other reports; laboratory notebooks; notes; correspondence; videos; photographs; X-ray film; slides; biological materials; computer files and printouts; manuscripts and publications; equipment use logs; laboratory procurement records; animal facility records; human and animal subject protocols; medical charts; patient research files; computer code; musical scores; musical composition; and choreography.
Research Vandalism: Means is intentionally causing material harm to the research or scholarly work of others, and may include stealing, damaging or destroying the property of others, such as research papers, supplies, equipment, or products of research or scholarship; disrupting active experiments; or altering or deleting products of research, including data.
Respondent: Means the person against whom Allegations of Research Misconduct are made or who is thought to be responsible.
Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR): Means the conduct of Research in an honest and professional manner while maintaining rigorous adherence to professional standards. RCR means planning, performing, reporting, and reviewing Research in accordance with objectivity, honesty, openness, accountability, fairness, and stewardship.
Retaliation: Means any action that adversely affects the employment or other institutional status of a Complainant or other individual and which occurs because of the individual's Good Faith Allegation of Research Misconduct or Good Faith participation in a Research Misconduct Proceeding.
Sequestration: Means the collection and segregation of research records, equipment, and other tangible or intangible information for the specific purpose of assessing Allegations as part of the Research Misconduct investigative process. ORI has the authority and responsibility for the Sequestration of Research Records relative to
Research Misconduct Allegations at UofL: All appropriate rights are accorded to the Respondent in the act of sequestering Research Records, as outlined in the Roles and Responsibilities of the Respondent Matrix for this policy.
Sponsored Programs: Means research, training, and instructional projects involving funds, materials, gifts, or other compensation from external governmental or non-governmental organizations under agreements with UofL.
Statutory Affiliates: University of Louisville Research Foundation, University of Louisville Athletic Association and any other affiliates added in the future.
ULORI: Means the Office for Research Integrity, the office within the University of Louisville responsible for overseeing Research Misconduct Proceedings and promoting the Responsible Conduct of Research at the University of Louisville.