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Professional Ethics and Responsible Research Conduct

All graduate students in the WRS Program must complete an ethics requirement to graduate; this is mandated by the Graduate School. Masters and Ph.D. students are expected to attend a series of ethics seminars or an ethics class.

The ethics requirement is attendance at the orientation ethics seminar and a half semester (0.5 cr) ethics course (WRS 8581 Research and Professional Ethics in Water Resources and Environmental Science). Students must register for the course, which will generally be offered in Spring for the first half of the semester in the Twin Cities. Arrangements are being made for the course to be offered in Duluth, likely under the same course designator (or alternatively, students may take a 1 cr ethics seminar offered in Duluth by other graduate programs). you must register at lease once for this course in order to graduate.

Students who entered the WRS program prior to Fall 2003 may follow the old requirements based on attendance at occasional seminars (at least once per semester) given by the WRS program, or equivalent seminars offered by other programs. M.S. students need to attend four ethics seminars and Ph.D. students six ethics seminars. The ethics seminars given at orientation counts as one of the seminars. Students are responsible for ensuring that the WRS office records their attendance, and attendance at non-WRS ethics seminars is relayed to the WRS office by the department offering the seminar.

WRS Ethics Workshop Presentation, pdf, 424 KB

The presentation given as part of the initial WRS ethics training during orientation is available online.

Expectations for Graduate Students in Research, Scholarship, and Professional Education

This document, available on the Graduate School Web site, describes the University's position on scholarly and professional ethics.

Teaching Ethics for Research, Scholarship and Practice

The U of MN Graduate School and the Office of the Vice President for Research provide a wealth of information, including curriculum resources, case studies, and bibliographies.