Such misconduct is rare, as faculty at our member institutions have attained success in their careers through adherence to the highest professional standards. Nonetheless, when misconduct occurs, it harms all of science. Our association has a long history of involvement in the issue of research integrity. That document still serves as a guide for university efforts to address research misconduct. Our member institutions take that responsibility seriously, and each has developed its own strict procedures for addressing allegations of fraud or scientific misconduct.
Universities also have their own policies for dealing with other unacceptable practices by faculty.
At the same time, we acknowledge that the federal government has the responsibility to ensure that its funds are not spent inappropriately and that oversight of institutional efforts in this regard is necessary. In general, AAU approves of the proposed policy released on October 14. We endorse the concept of uniformity among agency policies in the safeguards that protect against research misconduct. We hope that final guidelines will be consistent for all agencies that support academic research. As individual agencies implement these guidelines, we hope that OSTP will continue working to coordinate these efforts.