West Virginia University’s point man for helping to ensure the integrity of all research performed by faculty has contributed a key chapter to a new textbook receiving international attention.

Daniel Vasgird, director of the WVU Office of Research Integrity and Compliance, was asked to author a chapter on responsible conduct of research training for “Promoting Research Integrity in a Global Environment,” a new book edited by experts from the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore and the University of Michigan. The book is based on proceedings from the Second World Conference on Research Integrity in Singapore in 2010. Dr. Vasgird was an invited guest speaker.

The Office of Research Integrity and Compliance works to help faculty, staff and students comply with all applicable federal, state and institutional requirements and policies. Research integrity and compliance areas covered by Vasgird and his office include human subjects’ protections, animal welfare, biosafety, export control, conflict of interest and the responsible conduct of research.

“The mission of our Office of Research Integrity and Compliance is to foster a culture of integrity within the University ensuring that participants in the WVU research enterprise internalize and pursue the goal of self-directed responsible conduct of research,” Vasgird said.

Vasgird’s long record of success in helping institutions make sure their research meets the highest of standards was the basis for his participation in the book-writing process.

“Research, representing the systematic side of science, generally flourishes when the public that supports it and ultimately makes use of its products has a high regard for its ways and means,” Vasgird wrote in the book. “Science and the global public can be seen in a contractual relationship, sometimes explicit and sometimes implicit. Therefore, every effort must be made to bolster the invaluable commodities of respect and trust.”

His chapter goes on to identify key aspects that he includes in creation of training programs, such as case study videos and online training.

“It is crucial to understand that the global public has placed a tremendous responsibility in the hands of science – its hope for the future – but it has expectations in return,” Vasgird wrote. “At the top of that list is a sense of responsibility from which flows that oft-referred to sense of trust.”

Vasgird received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of California and completed his Ph.D. in social psychology at Syracuse University. He later returned to do a post-doctoral research fellowship at Berkeley and then worked overseas as a human services educator and consultant for the federal government.

Vasgird also serves as an associate professor in the WVU Department of Community Medicine.

-WVU-

gg/04/04/12

CONTACT: Daniel Vasgird, WVU Office of Research Integrity and Compliance
304.293.7073, Daniel.Vasgird@mail.wvu.edu

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