Responsible Research & Research Integrity

Research Integrity

All staff, students, honorary appointees and visitors are expected to conduct research at the University of Melbourne ethically and responsibly.

All graduate researchers (PhD’s and masters by research, excluding honours and masters by coursework) must successfully complete the University’s Research Integrity Online Training (RIOT) to gain skills in the responsible conduct of research.

When there is concern that a researcher, including a graduate researcher, may have breached the Code, a complaint may be made under the University’s Research Integrity and Misconduct Policy. While the University aims to take an educative approach for mistakes and unintentional breaches of the Policy and the Code, the consequences of being found to have intentionally breached the Policy and the Code can be severe.

View the University's Statement on research integrity and digital assistance tools.

Intellectual Property

You should discuss with your supervisors as early as possible any conditions that may apply to the Intellectual Property (IP) in your research project. Any conditions related to the IP should be documented. If you have any concerns or questions, consult the University of Melbourne IP Policy and get in touch with Knowledge and Technology Transfer Team.

The University makes no claim on your IP, other than IP which is the subject of a third-party agreement (eg. a research grant funding agreement or a research contract with an external sponsor). If you're working on collaborative or team-based projects, you need to ensure that the rights associated with joint contribution are respected and documented. We strongly recommend that you discuss with your supervisors and an advisor in the Knowledge and Technology Transfer Team whether the intellectual property in your project is subject to a third party agreement, and/or whether your IP is jointly owned by other research team members or collaborators.

If you're working on a project that is the subject of a third-party agreement with an external organisation, the University owns all IP (other than 'scholarly works') that is created by working on such a project (subject to the rights of creators as set out in the Graduate Research Training Policy and the Academic Board Regulation Part 7). This is regardless of whether or not you're receiving a stipend or part-stipend from the external organisation. If the University commercialises or benefits from the commercialisation of the IP, you will share any net proceeds of commercialisation (along with any other University creators of that IP).

Authorship

Authorship is another topic you should discuss and agree with your supervisors as early as possible in candidature. For an explanation of authorship and publication practices, and The University of Melbourne's Authorship Policy Framework, see the Research Ethics and Integrity's webpage on Authorship, and visit the Library's Publishing and Profiles webpage.

RIOT: Research Integrity Online Training

All staff, students, honorary appointees and visitors are required to conduct research at the University of Melbourne ethically and responsibly. The Research Integrity Online Training (RIOT) is the University’s online community for research integrity training and resources.

The purpose of RIOT is to help you develop responsible research practices during your research training. The online training modules cover principles of research integrity and are tailored to discipline-specific research practices.

Topics covered include authorship, data management, research publication and communication, research ethics, and how to respond to research misconduct.

It is compulsory for you to complete RIOT before your confirmation meeting.

At the end of the training, you will need to complete the RIOT quiz and get at least 80% correct answers to successfully complete RIOT.

RIOT is available as a self-enrol community to all graduate researchers on the University’s Learning Management System (LMS).

You should enrol in RIOT when you start your candidature, and complete the training at your own pace before confirmation. You are also encouraged to discuss topics covered by RIOT with your supervisors and see Research Ethics and Integrity for more information.

Before you contemplate publication of your thesis either online or in print, it is important that you understand both your rights and obligations under copyright.

Some publishers require that you sign an author or publishing agreement. Before signing any agreement, you should make sure that you fully understand the terms and your rights under the agreement. If your thesis includes copyright material created by other people, you must ensure that you have the right to publish this material – discuss this carefully with all persons involved before signing.

While the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright Act allow you to reproduce a limited amount of third party copyright works in your thesis for the purpose of study and research, you cannot rely upon these provisions when you publish the work to the world. If you intend to publish your work, you will generally need to seek permission from the copyright owner as there are only limited provisions in the Copyright Act that allow material to be published without permission.

More information

Research data management

As a graduate researcher you must appropriately record and store your research data. Learn about effective and ethical data research and records, University research policy and tools to manage your research data at Doing Data Better @ Melbourne.

More information

Ethics applications

All projects requiring the use of human participants, animals, genetically modified organisms or hazardous biological agents must be approved by the appropriate University committee before the work begins. Approval will not be granted retrospectively.

More information

Other regulatory requirements

If your research brings you into contact with children, patients, vulnerable groups or sensitive information, you may need to complete a Police Check or Working with Children Check. Talk to your supervisors or your graduate school to determine whether you need to apply or if you have any questions or concerns about this process.

As part of any collaboration in your research you will need to consider whether any Conflicts of Interest. See the Conflict of Interest module for further information .

You may also need to complete specific Environment, Health and Safety training, depending on your project requirements. Visit the Safety website for more information, and visit risk management and assessment page for specific procedures and forms. Also see the University's health and safety policies.

Some graduate researchers are required to complete the Foreign Interest Disclosure eLearn and a Foreign Interest Disclosure Form. If you are part of this cohort you will be sent an email with further details soon after commencing your degree, and then on an annual basis during your time at the University. Review the Foreign Interest Disclosure page for more details.

Insurance

The primary objective of the insurance program is to cover the University's business activities. This includes cover for you while you are on   University approved course  activities, business, teaching or research activities including any time spent travelling.

You are covered while enrolled up to submission of your thesis. For information on the coverage provided, please see the University of Melbourne insurance webpage.

If you have a general enquiry or need to make a claim, contact the University's Insurance office.

Please note: You are only automatically covered for travel insurance during a period of approved study away. For information about travel insurance, see the Study Away webpage.