Excerpts from LLU's Academic Policies and Procedures:

You may wish to see the entire section in the Faculty Handbook (3.4.0; beginning on page 18): "Faculty functions and responsibilities - Research".

3.4.11(b) Supervision of research trainees.

Careful supervision of new investigators by their preceptors is in the best interest of the scientific community. The complexity of scientific methods, the necessity for caution in interpreting possibly ambiguous data, and the need for advanced statistical analysis, all require an active role for the preceptor in the guidance of new investigators. This is particularly true in the not uncommon circumstances of a trainee who arrives in a research unit without substantial experience in laboratory science. These guidelines for supervision of trainees should be followed:

(1) The responsibility for supervision of each junior investigator should be specifically assigned to some faculty member in each research unit.

(2) The ratio of trainees to preceptors should be small enough that close interaction is possible for scientific interchange as well as oversight of the research at all stages.

(3) The preceptor should supervise the design of experiments and the processes of acquiring, recording, examining, interpreting, and storing data. (A preceptor who limits his/her role to the editing of manuscripts does not provide adequate supervision.)

(4) Collegial discussions among all preceptors and trainees constituting a research unit should be held regularly both to contribute to the scientific efforts of the members of the group and to provide informal peer review.

(5) The preceptor should provide each new investigator (whether student, postdoctoral fellow, or junior faculty) with applicable governmental and institutional requirements for conduct of studies involving healthy volunteers or patients, animals, radioactive or other hazardous substances, and recombinant DNA and with procedures for reporting possible research misconduct to the appropriate individuals.