Contents

  1. Overview
  2. Types of Concerns
  3. How to Report Concerns
  4. Protocol for Dealing with Alleged Violations of Scientific Trust
  5. Title IX
  6. Other Resources

Overview

The NDCLab is founded upon standards of openness, respect, and accountability. When lab members have concerns, these should be addressed in the shortest possible timeframe in order to ensure that the lab remains an inclusive, positive place to achieve our shared goals.

Types of Concerns

In a collaborative environment, many different types of concerns may arise, such as:

  • Concerns over general professionalism
  • Concerns over potential data security risks (committing, or through negligence allowing, unauthorized breach of participant confidentiality)
  • Concerns over interpersonal violations of trust (lying, intentionally witholding infromation, etc.)
  • Concerns over scientific violations of trust (plagarism, falsifying data, etc.)
  • Concerns over discriminatory, offensive, or harassing behavior
  • Concerns over potential ethics violations
  • Concerns over non-compliance with rules and regulations

How to Report Concerns

First, please consider if you can discuss your concern directly with the individual involved. Often, concerns arise from simple misunderstandings and an open discussion can resolve them most efficiently, providing both parties with an opportunity to understand the perspective of the other.

If you have a concern to report that cannot be discussed directly with the individual, or such a discussion has failed to lead to satisfactory resolution, you must decide if you are comfortable reporting your concern directly, either to the lab director or the lab manager, or if you are only comfortable making the report anonymously. Wherever possible, direct reporting of concerns is preferred as this aligns with the lab’s culture of openness, honesty, and accountability.

To make a direct report, simply reach out to either the lab director or the lab manager to discuss your concern. They both commit to hearing all concerns with an open mind and withholding judgment until the concern has been investigated.

If you are only comfortable making an anonymous report, use this anonymous box. Only the lab director and lab manager can see the contents of this box, which includes your comments, along with the date and time you sent them. They cannot see any information about you as the sender.

Protocol for Dealing with Alleged Violations of Scientific Trust

Alleged violations of scientific trust are a special category of concern; they are dealt with as follows:

  1. Alleged violations of the lab’s trust should be discussed privately with the accused first to resolve potential misunderstanding on the assumption that the violation of trust was a mistake and not the result of bad intentions.
  2. If the direct discussion above does not lead to satisfactory resolution, the lab director should be informed privately.
  3. Once informed, the lab director will investigate the alleged violation of trust as privately as reasonably possible. It must be noted, however, that anyone accused of violating the lab’s trust has the right to be aware of the accusation and respond to it accordingly.
  4. The lab director must make a determination of whether a violation of trust occurred and also whether it was likely intentional, unintentional, intent cannot be determined, or a statement of intent is not being made (often, for our purposes, intent does not matter).
  5. This determination will be recorded in a public-facing ledger and announced to the individuals affected (this may require a small announcement to a specific project, a lab-wide announcement, or a wider public announcement).
  6. As part of this public facing ledger, any bans will be listed and/or whether the individual is listed as an “untrusted source”.

Title IX

The NDCLab does not tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment by its members. Furthermore, all lab members should be aware that the lab director and all members of lab staff are legally required to and will report any violation of federal Title IX of which they become aware.

Other Resources

We believe that most, if not all, concerns can be resolved by means of the above protocols. If, however, your concern is of such a nature that you are not comfortable raising it with the lab director or lab manager, FIU does provide a hotline where you can make a confidential report: https://compliance.fiu.edu/hotline/