The following article argues that the research compliance system has some flaws that should be addressed, particularly with regard to excessive emphasis of and reliance upon formal regulations in research administration. Ethical formalism, understood here as the use of formal rules for the determination of behavior, is not an optimal perspective…

Academic peer review is widely viewed as fair, equitable, and essential to academic quality. Successfully completing the process through publication or award is widely deemed as one of the most rigorous and prestigious forms of scholarly accomplishment. Despite this sentiment the academic peer review process is not without fault. It is criticized…

Despite the presence of several funded research projects at academic and research institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, the quality of the pre/post grant award process in these institutions is inadequate. There is a need to strengthen research administration through infrastructural, organizational, and human resource development to match the dynamic…

If university research is to remain a high priority in the national education agenda, graduate students must be prepared to move into research positions. Cleveland State University created the Graduate Grant Writing Center to enhance students' understanding of research principles and ethics, appreciation of the value of collaborations and…

This paper looks into the importance of a responsible research community and how ethics can contribute towards the building of such a community. The paper starts off by outlining the many challenges facing a responsible research community. These challenges range from doing research, transferring the research results, commercialising the…

This year the world commemorates the beginning of the tragic USPHS syphilis experiments that occurred in Tuskegee, Alabama from 1932 to 1972. In light of this sobering anniversary, this article will briefly examine four studies: the already mentioned USPHS syphilis studies in Tuskegee, the Nazi Holocaust Experiments and the resulting Doctors'…

Research administration and leadership, above all, directly serve the needs of researchers, scientists, research programs, institutions and their leaders, and the public trust itself. Research administration is therefore an expansive and all encompassing profession. It integrates all of the diverse arts and sciences that are foundational to…

Voice of Experience advances the tradition of service of the "Journal of Research Administration" by fostering consideration of and reflection upon contemporary issues and concerns in research administration. VOE is a celebrated feature column in each edition of the Journal. In this article, the author presents a review of recent literature…

Located within the recently emerged field of researcher development, this article represents an attempt to make a key theoretical contribution to its knowledge base through a conceptual analysis. It presents as propositional knowledge an original theoretical model of the componential structure of researcher development, as interpreted and defined…

In lesser-developed African countries, the lack of institutionalised support for research, combined with limited career opportunities and poor remuneration, have contributed to weak research infrastructure and capacity, and a continuing brain drain to developed countries. Malawi's Research Support Centre (RSC) model is novel in that it provides a…

In the current economic climate, many colleges and universities face similar challenges: the need to increase external sponsorship for research activities and the need to benefit from additional indirect cost recovery. Preparing funding proposals for submission to sponsors is a faculty behavior that can be modified by applying behavioral theory to…

Issues surrounding gender discrimination have been addressed over the past 40 years with various pieces of legislation and federal policies that have made such discrimination illegal. The number of women in higher education as students and faculty has steadily increased since the 1950s, though only in certain disciplines and in the lower faculty…

Academic medical centers are well-known for their emphasis on teaching, research and public service; however, like most large, bureaucratic organizations, they oftentimes suffer from an inability to learn as an organization. The role of the research administrator in the academic medical center has grown over time as the profession itself has…

In the last decades there has arisen a greater awareness of the ever present need for critical academic reflection on the nature of ethics leadership and committees in research, healthcare, and organizational systems. Yet what is meant by ethics itself? How is ethics understood as a historical phenomenon? What challenges must ethics leaders face…

Multidisciplinary research institutes provide universities with an important vehicle to conduct research across traditional disciplines, and this can be an attractive capability for external funding bodies. However, there can be particular challenges, including managing different reporting lines, the need for effective research coordination, and…