The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are currently undertaking the consensus study On Being a Scientist: An Updated and Online Guide to the Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research. The study committee will produce a revised, expanded, and online version of the guide, which 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. To support this work, ad hoc panels will be appointed to develop specific sections of the guide.
The Panel on Responsible Conduct and Stewardship of the Research Process will produce content that includes both compliance with laws and regulations and responsible conduct and other considerations beyond formal compliance. It will cover the following topics with a focus on the research process (designing, doing, and conveying research):

• Facilitating and strengthening reproducibility and replicability;
• Adopting open science and good community engagement practices;
• Understanding, preventing, and responding to research misconduct (including fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, abuse of confidentiality, failure to allocate credit, failure to report misconduct, retaliation);
• Preventing mistakes and negligence (including honest errors, replication issues, and corrections);
• Identifying, mitigating, and disclosing competing interests and bias;
• Conducting research with human participants and animal subjects;
• Following lab safety techniques and standards, and responsible environmental practices;
• Practicing responsible treatment of data;
• Being a responsible steward of research funds, intellectual property, and institutional resources;
• Addressing the ethical issues with emerging technologies and their impact on the practices and norms of research; and
• Sharing of research results (including the peer review process, authorship, publication, citations, dissemination, new technology and emerging communications practices).

The panel will make use of existing content from the third edition of On Being a Scientist (2009), update it where appropriate, and incorporate new information from existing literature and research. It will prepare the content for the online-first and modular format that the new edition of On Being a Scientist will use and will ensure the text is concise and easy-to-read.
The content produced by the Panel on Responsible Conduct and Stewardship of the Research Process will include: introductory information about the key topics and issues described above that are part of responsible conduct in research, sample scenarios to help readers understand the issues, and key questions for researchers to consider as they pursue science in a responsible manner. The panel’s product will be a guide for students and early-career researchers and will not contain any recommendations.
The material authored by the panel will not require approval by the full study committee; however, the panel will include 1 or 2 members who are also on the committee, and the rest of the committee will have opportunities to provide feedback and suggestions to the panel.
The final product will be subject to institutional review prior to online publication.