Chief Executive Update
Supporting responsible research practice
In yesterday’s Alert newsletter, we announced the release of a Research Charter for Aotearoa New Zealand. This is the culmination of a two-year project involving a working group drawn from across the research community to develop a resource to underpin responsible research practice. The charter is intended to be drawn on by research organisations and individual researchers, to ensure that both organisational policies and research practices as they occur on the ground, are of high quality, meet international standards and have the specific characteristics needed in Aotearoa.
It sets out separate expectations for researchers, research organisations and research funders. A key benefit from the charter project is that as more organisations choose to use the charter as the basis for their own policies, the more consistency there will be across our research community.
The Society provides a home on its website for the Research Charter for Aotearoa New Zealand on behalf of the working group but is not the charter “owner” – the owner is the working group, which is drawn from a variety of sector groupings. A variety of presentation formats of the charter are available for anyone to use as they wish, including in te reo Māori.
The publication of the charter as an additional resource for the wider research community does not change the obligation on Society members and Fellows to conform to the Society’s Code of Professional Standards and Ethics. To the extent that the Code and the charter are different, the charter is higher level in places and less specific about the characteristics of ethical and responsible research practice than the Code. The charter also sets out organisational elements such as the characteristics of good practice processes for investigating complaints, whereas the Society has a more detailed Complaints Procedure that is separate to the Code.
Members should thus be cognisant of the charter as exemplifying good practice, but continue to meet their obligations to the Society through conforming to the Society's Code.