Research Misconduct Policies and Procedures

This policy applies to all Earlham employees engaged in research.

Earlham has a long history of engaging in student-faculty collaborative research and including student researchers as co-authors on resulting publications. In the event of suspected student research misconduct, Earlham will investigate and apply sanctions in accordance with institutional student academic misconduct policies[1] unless research misconduct extends to public dissemination of results via means such as journal publication or grant proposal submission. In such cases, student conduct may necessarily be subject to the federally mandated procedures laid out herein with any subsequent sanctions determined in accordance with the Student Standards of Community Respect.

These policies and procedures apply only to research misconduct occurring within six years of the date Earlham (or Health and Human Services (HHS)) receives an allegation of research misconduct, subject to the following exceptions:

• The six-year time limitation does not apply if the researcher continues or renews any incident of alleged research misconduct that occurred before the six-year period through the use of, republication of, or citation to the portion(s) of the research record alleged to have been fabricated, falsified, or plagiarized, for the potential benefit of the respondent (“subsequent use exception”). For alleged research misconduct that appears subject to this subsequent use exception, but Earlham determines is not subject to the exception, the institution will document its determination that the subsequent use exception does not apply and will retain this documentation for the later of seven years after completion of the institutional proceeding or the completion of any HHS proceeding.
• The six-year time limitation also does not apply if the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) or Earlham, following consultation with ORI, determines that the alleged research misconduct, if it occurred, would possibly have a substantial adverse effect on the health or safety of the public.

[1] Visit https://earlham.edu/student-life/expectations-policies-services/ for policies and expectations for undergraduate students, and https://esr.earlham.edu/academics/ for the School of Religion.

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Download the Research Misconduct Policies and Procedures

Policy specifications