11.19 – Faculty Distribution of Effort

There are competing demands on the energies of a faculty member (for instance, research, teaching, committee work, outside consulting).  The way in which a faculty member divides effort among these various functions does not raise ethical questions unless the university or government, industrial, or business agency supporting the research is misled in its understanding of the amount of intellectual effort actually devoted to the research in question.  A system of precise time accounting is incompatible with the inherent character of the work of a faculty member, since the various functions performed are closely interrelated and do not conform to any meaningful division of a standard work week.  On the other hand, if the research agreement contemplates that a staff member will devote a certain fraction of effort to the government, industrial, or business sponsored research, a demonstrable relationship between the indicated effort of responsibility and the actual extent of involvement is to be expected.  Research administering agencies in the university have established simple procedures of accounting which indicate the proportion of the investigator’s time spent on sponsored research.  Each administering agency will inform the investigator of the procedures developed to assure that proposals are responsibly made and complied with.