Recently completed
Topics
For researchers, the great joy of making new discoveries is accompanied by a longstanding foundation of professional and ethical responsibilities to ensure research integrity and maintain public trust. On Being a Scientist, an updated guide from the National Academies, introduces the principles and practices of responsible conduct for early career researchers and students across all disciplines and fields. Designed to help researchers navigate a rapidly changing scientific landscape, this resource tackles critical issues facing researchers today, from professional standards for collaboration to research security.
News and updates
National Academies Release New Edition of Widely Used Guide to Responsible Research
News Release
A new edition of “On Being a Scientist: A Guide to the Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research” reflects the evolution of the scientific enterprise since the last version published in 2009, introducing students and early-career researchers to the fundamental values that guide responsible research.
Neil Shubin Presents Updated ‘On Being a Scientist’
Announcement
For researchers, making new discoveries is accompanied by professional and ethical responsibilities to ensure research integrity and maintain public trust. In a new video, NAS President Neil Shubin introduces an updated guide from the National Academies for early career researchers and students to help them navigate a rapidly changing scientific landscape and tackle critical issues facing researchers today.
Featured publication
Consensus Study Report
·2026
The research enterprise has undergone immense change in recent years, shaped by increasing collaboration, global competition, and emerging technologies like AI and CRISPR that raise new ethical questions for researchers. On Being a Scientist is a resource designed to help graduate students and early...
View details
Statement of Task
An ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will produce a revised, expanded, and online version of On Being a Scientist: A Guide to the Responsible Conduct of Research. This new version will update and expand on the 2009 edition to reflect changes in the current national and international research enterprise relevant to the conduct of research and to address professional conduct that limits or harms research talent and research advancement.
The guide will be revised in three ways. First, the guide's existing text and example scenarios, which describe key topics, issues, and questions to consider on responsible and ethical conduct in research, will be updated overall to ensure it reflects current best practices and experiences in research (such as for the topics of conflicts of interest, intellectual property, sharing and treatment of data, the researcher in society, and human subjects research) and to remove any text that may appear outdated for today's students. Second, and a greater focus of the project, will be to add, expand, and/or significantly revise text on the following topics:
- Preventing, addressing, and mitigating sexual harassment,
- Following good practices for advising and mentoring,
- Facilitating and strengthening reproducibility and replicability,
- Adopting open science and good community engagement practices,
- Fostering and advancing a more collaborative culture in research that broadens participation and supports the full engagement of all individuals,
- Recognizing and mitigating potential risks and promoting a culture of research security,
- Supporting good practices for team science and international collaboration, and
- Addressing the ethical issues with emerging technologies and their impact on the practices and norms of research.
On topics, such as research security, that are actively evolving in terms of how scientists should handle the issues, the content will be developed with special attention to facilitating additional details being added in the future as consensus is reached.
Third, the guide will be revised and reorganized to be published as an online-first, user-friendly resource containing a series of modules that address key topics in a concise, easy-to-read format. The structure will enable individual modules to be added or revised independently in the future, as new research and information warrant. Such revisions and additional modules will build on findings and recommendations from relevant National Academies reports and other relevant sources.
The process of developing the updated guide will include consultations with anticipated user groups and members of target audiences (such as responsible conduct of research educators and early career researchers) to understand how On Being a Scientist is currently used, can be of greatest value to the research community, and can best complement existing research ethics training resources.
The ad hoc committee will lead the overall revision by:
- updating the introductory materials,
- reorganizing the topics and content from the existing edition into broader topic areas that allow for greater emphasis and coverage of the topics identified above,
- updating sections of the existing report needing only minimal revisions,
- identifying topics/sections to be revised or expanded by separate panels and developing a scope of work for each panel, and
- developing the organization and design for the online guide.
Ad hoc panels will be appointed to author or revise each module or section of a module as identified by the committee and to ensure the topics identified above are included in the updated guide. The modules authored by the panels will not require approval by the committee.
The committee and the panels will not provide recommendations; rather they will provide: introductory information about key topics and issues that are part of responsible conduct in research, example scenarios to help readers understand the issues, and key questions for researchers to consider as they pursue science in a responsible manner.
Contributors
Committee
Co-Chair
Co-Chair
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Elizabeth Cady
Staff Officer
Kait Spear
Staff Officer
Sponsors
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Department of Energy
National Science Foundation
Staff
Beth Cady
Lead
Kait Spear
Lead
Jordan Graves
Tom Wang
Ashley Bear
Samuel Crawford