The Graduate Program

Responsible Conduct of Research

Graduate students in English at the University of Missouri-Columbia will be held to high expectations of integrity in their teaching and research. Failure to live up to standard levels of professional responsibility in the discipline will lead immediately to probation, with the possibility of immediate dismissal from the program if the student is held to have violated core principles of responsible research. In our discipline, the crucial category of misconduct is plagiarism. Use of primary and secondary sources must be fully documented according to the standards presented in the MLA Handbook or Chicago Manual of Style.

The university's site for Academic Integrity includes procedures through which faculty can pursue cases of suspected violation of responsible conduct of research, and it includes information of use to graduate students who are teaching as well as those who are only taking classes.

Please see as well the Graduate School's academic regulations, and be aware that special regulations apply to students whose research involves the use of animal or human subjects. Please see the Provost's compliance page for further information on human and animal subjects in research.

The Graduate School maintains a site on the Responsible Conduct of Research that all graduate students should be familiar with. The site includes instructions on how graduate students can qualify for a Dean's Certificate in the responsible conduct of research.