Research Compliance

Ethics Education and the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) at LMU

Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Training

Federal agencies require that grant recipients comply with Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training requirements in recognition of the importance of research integrity and in the responsible and ethical conduct of research as part of the America COMPETES Act (America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (COMPETES) Act).

Who Must be Trained?

Frequency and Format of Training

*Note: NIH requires that all trainees, fellows, participants, and scholars receiving support through any NIH training, career development award (individual or institutional), research education grant, and dissertation research grant must receive instruction in responsible conduct of research.  This policy will take effect with all new and renewal applications submitted on or after January 25, 2010, and for all continuation (Type 5) applications with deadlines on or after January 1, 2011.  This Notice applies to the following programs:  D43, D71, F05, F30, F31, F32, F33, F34, F37, F38, K01, K02, K05, K07, K08, K12, K18, K22, K23, K24, K25, K26, K30, K99/R00, KL1, KL2, R25, R36, T15, T32, T34, T35, T36, T37, T90/R90, TL1, TU2, and U2R.  

This policy also applies to any other NIH-funded programs supporting research training, career development, or research education that require instruction in responsible conduct of research as stated in the relevant funding opportunity announcements. Principal Investigators of active NIH, NSF, and USDA grants must provide the Office of Sponsored Research and Federal Relations with verification that the applicable parties impacted by the grant have completed the RCR training.

Helpful Website Addresses:

NIH RCR: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-10-019.html

NSF RCR: https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/rcr.jsp

USDA RCR: https://nifa.usda.gov/responsible-and-ethical-conduct-research

The LMU Plan for Fulfilling the RCR Requirement

The CITI public access course in the Responsible Conduct of Research is available to the LMU research community free of charge. This course is designed for learners who are discipline specific. Biomedical, Social & Behavioral Research, Physical Sciences, Humanities, Engineers, Administrators courses are available.
The RCR topic areas include: Research Misconduct; Data Management; Conflict of Interest; Collaborative Science; Responsible Authorship; Mentoring; Peer Review; Lab Animals; and Human Subjects ;
You can also find CITI training modules specifically on Human Subjects Research and Lab Animal Welfare. Each training section takes about 20 – 30 minutes to complete, and each module does not need to be completed all at once.
Upon completion of the RCR course, you will receive a certificate of completion.

How to Begin

1. Go to www.citiprogram.orgto register for CITI online training.
2. Click on “New Users Register Here.”
3. Under “Select your institution or organization” page select Loyola Marymount University. 
4. Next, proceed to create your own username, password, and then select the Learner Group.

Once you have completed the preceding steps you are logged in and registered for the course. You may begin the appropriate course or log out and return at another time. If you chose to log out, when you return to the CITI homepage you will not need to register again. You will login with the username and password you have already created. Upon completion of the course, you will receive a certificate of completion. 

If you have any questions, please call or email

¹For more background information, please see: Federal Register, August 20, 2009 (v 74, no. 160), Action: NSF’s Implementation of Section 7009 of the America Competes Act, pp. 42126-42128.

In addition to the above, the following National Science Foundation website includes the actual Statutory Requirement, Federal Register Notices, and NSF-Funded Beta Sites that provide resources on ethics education in science and engineering: http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/rcr.jsp.