MICR 700 Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research

Required course for all first-year Molecular and Cellular Biology graduate students. Generally consists of five two hour sessions as well as additional reading and preparation. This course seeks to coordinate basic training in professional ethics required of all Dartmouth graduate students with ethical training in the biomedical sciences required for NIH-sponsored research. A basic training program that addresses ethical issues related to professionalism, authorship, mentoring, and data collection has been developed by the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies in collaboration with the Ethics Institute at Dartmouth. In these sessions, graduate training faculty chosen from each of the foundational science departments on a rotating basis will meet with small groups of first-year graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to facilitate discussions on ethical dilemmas they may encounter in their scientific careers. During each two hour session, students will have the opportunity to become actively engaged in discussions about responsibilities to their profession and society at large as they embark on their training in research and discovery. Case studies will be used to provide a framework for discussions on ethical issues occurring in scientific research. The course sessions will cover topics related to NIH-sponsored research including ethical use of research subjects, intellectual property and scientific rigor.