Effort Reporting is required in accordance with eCFR 200.430 Compensation-Personal Services.

• The processes and system in place allow for reasonable approximations of the activity actually performed;
• The system must recognize the principle of after-the fact confirmation or determination so that costs distributed represent actual costs.
• Reasonably reflect the total activity for which the employee is compensated by the non-Federal entity, not exceeding 100% of compensated activities (for IHE, this per the IHE's definition of IBS)
• Salaries and wages of employees used in meeting cost sharing or matching requirements on Federal awards must be supported in the same manner as salaries and wages claimed for reimbursement from Federal awards.

Effort reports provide a percentage breakdown of an individual’s total activity during the certification period and must equal 100% of their dedicated time and effort across all funding sources including university activity efforts.

Types of Effort

• Funded Research under sponsored program
• Unfunded Research
• Teaching
• Service (University, department/college related duties)
• Administration (e.g. department chair, associate dean)
• Sabbatical or leave of absence

Effort reports should be certified by responsible persons with suitable means of verification that the work was performed. However, PIs must certify their own reports.

Effort reports are distributed three times a year – once each Semester – Spring/Summer/Fall. The Effort Report deadlines will be:

Spring – Early July (Due to fiscal year end processes and recast deadlines)
Summer – September 24
Fall – March 31

Training Materials:

Effort Reporting and Recast Overview
Banner Effort Report Module Manual
Banner Effort Report Module Navigation video

Instructions to view:

Go to MyNJIT Login. In Faculty/Staff Services, under Research Services, select "Effort Certification." The first tab on the "Effort Certification" module is "Certify My Effort” to certify your own efforts.

For certifications of individuals on the grants, PIs can use “Advanced Search” by clicking on the “Review or certify effort” tab and then 

1. Select or enter “1” for Chart of Account (COA) code
2. Select or enter “FALL2021” for the Effort Period code
3. Click on the “Go” button: It will then list the grants for which certifications are required.

We strongly encourage PIs to review the training materials particularly the training navigation video and powerpoint presentation below. This provides instructions, how to understand the report data, and the criteria PIs need to enter to access certifications for their staff/students. 

If there are still any questions, please send an email to timeandeffort-group@njit.edu.

Policy: Time and Effort Reporting and Certification

Participant support costs are direct costs for items such as stipends or subsistence allowances, travel allowances and registration fees paid to or on behalf of participants or trainees (but not employees) in connection with conferences or training projects (eCFR 200).

A participant is a non-NJIT employee, who is eligible to receive a service or training associated with a workshop, conference, seminar, symposium or other short-term instructional or information-sharing activity.  Participants may include students, scholars, and scientists from other institutions, individuals from the private sector, teachers, and state or local government personnel.

A participant does not perform work for the project, and is not required to provide any service or deliverables in return for the participant support allowances.

Participant Support does not include fees for speakers or trainers, expenses for the PI, expenses for NJIT employees to attend training or conferences, or incentives for research subjects to participate in a research project, such as gift cards or stipends.

For research (human) subjects that are part of a project, there is a separate account code utilized. The grant account will be able to provide that information.

Participant Support is only allowable on a research project with the prior approval of the awarding agency (eCFR 200.456), and when the project includes an education or outreach component.

Budgeting and Managing Participant Support Costs

Participant support should be budgeted in its own separate category, labeled as Participant Support. All funds approved for this budget category have a restricted purpose and are to be accounted for separately. At NJIT, a separate Expense Account for participant support costs is set up, and all expenses charged to this account are exempt from indirect costs. Under the Uniform Guidance, participant support costs are exempt from indirect costs and they are excluded from Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC) for the purposes of F&A (UG Appendix VII to Part 200).

In cases when the sponsor doesn't impose any additional restrictions, funds may be transferred into Participant Support budget category but may not be budgeted out without prior approval from the sponsor (eCFR 200.308). If prior approval to rebudget participant support costs is not obtained, any unspent funds in this budget category cannot be used for any other purpose and must be returned to the sponsor at the end of the project period.

PIs and departmental research administrators are responsible for reviewing award documents, monitoring expenditures throughout the life of the award, and for obtaining written sponsor approval for any rebudgeting when prior approval to transfer funds between the cost categories is required.

All grant transactions are initiated by the departmental support staff upon the direction of the Principal Investigator responsible for the award.  These transactions must align with the executed award agreement and budget plan.

Budget Revisions

The Principal Investigator may need to request a Budget Transfer when the budget needs to be adjusted to reprogram grant funds from original budget due to anticipated program needs.

Regular monitoring allows the PI to adjust the spending plan prospectively and obtain any necessary approvals prior to spending.

For a copy of the form and submission of budget revisions requests, please contact your assigned grant accountant under Post-Award management section of the Contact us page.

Some budget transfers will require additional levels of approval if they have an impact on the following categories. PI must obtain Chair/Dean Approval if:

• Transfer of Academic Year release time to summer salary or to any other category.
• Reduction in student support (Stipend and/or Tuition)
• Reduction in F&A (Indirect/overhead costs charges)

Sponsor Agency Approval may be required for the following examples and will only be transferred when said approval is documented:

• Changes in Indirect Costs
• Changes in Academic Year Release Time or other key personnel or percentage effort
• Changes in Student Support (Stipend and/or Tuition)
• Exceeds allowable limit threshold for re-budgeting
• Changes to Equipment
• Changes to Subcontracts
• Reduction to Participant Support

Policy: Budget and Expenditure Monitoring for Sponsored Research Programs
Resource: Prior Approval Matrix across multiple federal agencies: Budget Change Approval Matrix
Form: Budget Transfer Request

Cost Transfers

All sponsored award expenditures should be initially charged to the correct sponsored award because of the direct impact it has for the aims of that project. However, occasionally expenses are charged erroneously. When an erroneous entry affects a sponsored award, the correction must be made on a timely basis and sufficient information must be provided to allow for a clear audit trail back to the initially recorded expense.

A cost (expense) transfer – is an after-the-fact movement of costs (labor and non-labor) from a sponsored or non-sponsored award to another sponsored award.  This is completed when expenses needs to be reallocated retroactively from one index to another whereby one or both of these is a sponsored award.

Requirements:

• These cost transfers require proper documentation of the original expenses to be reallocated.
• Justification/explanation are needed for transactions greater than 90 days.  Any adjustments done greater than 90 days, give the perception that grants aren’t being monitored regularly and are an audit flag.
• These instances require additional documentation, clear explanations and corrective actions to prevent future errors.

Grants should be reviewed at least quarterly to identify if any adjustments are needed.

Acceptable Reasons for a Cost Transfer

• Clerical Error – These are typically data entry errors such as transpositions.
• Pre-Award Costs – Costs incurred prior to receiving an award and setup on a non-grant fund. In no case, may an existing sponsored project index be used as holding account for pre-award costs on a pending award.
• Costs Benefiting More than One Project – “If a cost benefits two or more projects or activities in proportions that can be determined without undue effort or cost, the cost must be allocated to the projects based on the proportional benefit.   If a cost benefits two or more projects or activities in proportions that cannot be determined because of the interrelationship of the work involved, then…the costs may be allocated or transferred to the benefited projects on any reasonable documented basis.” 
• Continuation of a Sponsored Project or Program – If the continuation has another index and the expenses are in the initial index, these may be legitimately moved to the continuation award in accordance with the terms of the new award..

Inappropriate Reasons for Cost Transfers

OMB federal regulations state that any cost allocable to a Federal award may not be charged to other Federal awards to overcome fund deficiencies, to avoid restrictions imposed by regulations of terms and conditions of the Federal award, or for other reasons (eCFR 200.405).

In addition, it is strictly prohibited to allocate expenses on a federal award due to delay in funding from another source with the intent to move it when it comes in. This is called “Parking of Expenses” and it is not allowed.

Examples of other unallowable cost transfers are:

• To cover cost overruns or deficit balances in other non-grant or grant funds
• To utilize unexpended funds of a sponsored award
• To use for cost management strategy
• Used any other reason of convenience

Policy: Cost Transfer Policy
Resource: Expense Account Codes Listing-Finance
Form: Cost Transfer Request

Personnel (Labor) Adjustments

To ensure proactive personnel management on awards, regular review by department/PI on a monthly, or at least quarterly, basis to determine adjustments or updates needed to be processed promotes effective grant management.

When reviewing your monthly grant payroll reports, any corrections or adjustments should be done upon discovery so that these changes would have taken effect in time for the creation of the effort reports. This will reduce the need to make corrections during the open review period so the submission of the time and effort certification can be completed by the deadline.

Realignment of Personnel Expenses

As a grant is approaching 90/60/30 days prior to expiration of funding, the Principal Investigator with departmental administrative support, must take proactive measure to avoid employees falling off payroll. 

One of the following steps must be taken:

• Submit Personnel Action Form (PAF) with future effective start date on the new funding source.
   
• If anticipated grant balance and work continuation is expected on the grant, submit a No Cost Extension (NCE) request at least 90 days prior to grant end to allow reasonable time for sponsor response and updating in Banner.  Contact your College Office of Research liaison to initiate the NCE request.
   
• If there is no continued grant funding established but you anticipate additional funding, these personnel can be moved to a non-grant funding source approved by your College Dean until your external funding is received. 

Otherwise, contact your College Office of Research liaison to inquire about an Advance Account request. Note: You will need to provide evidence from the sponsor to support that the grant is imminent and this will need to be approved by leadership. See link: Advance Account Requests for Sponsored Research

An updated PAF must be sent to Human Resources by the PAF processing deadline for the payroll in which their end date occurs for each of these scenarios.  A link to the payroll and PAF processing calendar can be found here.

Any ineligible expenses on the grant beyond the grant end date will need to be removed and covered by your area if proactive measures are not taken to ensure timely reallocation of personnel. 

Labor Redistribution (Recasts)

Given that a timely review of monthly grant payroll reports is expected, labor transfers should occur infrequently and must include detailed documentation as to why the transfer is required. Written justification and PI approval for the labor transfer for sponsored awards is required and must be provided on the cost transfer form upon request from the grant accountant.

For non-sponsored funds, approval from the Budget Administrator or appropriate delegated authority is required.

Resource: eCFR 200.430 Compensation-Personal Services
Resources: Labor Redistribution-Finance Site

There are two types of grant awards. Depending on the type of award, the accounting, invoicing, and closeout procedures of the award are handled differently.

Cost Reimbursable Awards (CRB) – The sponsor is invoiced based on actual costs expended by the University at the time of invoicing that were incurred within the grant performance period.

• Payment is based on actual reported expenditures.
• Encumbrances do not qualify as actual costs incurred.
• The costs cannot exceed the award amount.
• Any deficits will be the responsibility of the college/dept/center to reconcile.

Fixed Price Awards (FIX) – The sponsor will pay the University an agreed amount for a deliverable(s), irrespective of the costs incurred by the researcher.

• Actual project costs are not reported to the sponsor
• The award may include a pre-determined invoicing schedule date and fixed amount
• The payments may not be made until a deliverable is met. The PI is responsible to communicating to their grant accountant when this occurs so invoice can be provided to sponsor.
• Any deficits will be the responsibility of the college/dept/center to reconcile.
• There may be a residual balance (payment less expenditures) that the PI/Dept/College may be eligible to retain.

The residual balance will be calculated and distributed accordingly as described in the Residual Fund policy.

Policy: Residual Fund Balances for Fixed Price Awards
Grant Accountant: Post Award Contacts list

Expenditures on a sponsored award requires regular monitoring to make sure they are allowable, allocable, and reasonably charged to the project. In some cases, cost sharing/matching may be required of some sponsors.  Therefore, funding will need to be monitored by the Principal Investigator and their departmental support to make sure that obligations are being met and that they are acting as good financial stewards of the research award.

The following financial reports are distributed to Principal Investigators on a monthly basis to provide monitoring support:

1. Monthly Grant Payroll Reports
2. Budget and Expense Reports

Review of these reports on a monthly, or at least quarterly, basis helps identify:

1. Potential large balances due to unallocated expenses
2. Budget revisions particularly if they will need sponsor approval
3. The need for a no cost extensions to submit before the grant expires to avoid payroll delays
4. Potential accelerated spending that can lead to deficits
5. Grants that are in deficit that need to be reconciled
6. Grants that are ending in the next 90 to 30 days which need to start preparing for closeout including purchase order closures, subcontract invoicing finalization, expense and labor reallocations to new funding sources, or employee terminations.

In addition, the Principal Investigator and departmental support can access the specific award in Banner for expense details. For training and information on how to access, please visit Finance Website-Banner Finance Resources.

Policy: Budget and Expenditure Monitoring for Sponsored Research Programs

Research misconduct is a rare human phenomenon and even a single case could have potentially disastrous consequences for individual researchers, institutions, funding agencies, scientific communities, and entire societies. At worst, it pollutes the scientific record, shakes public confidence in the integrity of science, wastes taxpayer dollars and faculty/staff time, erodes trust among colleagues and between researchers/institutions and funding agencies/publishers, tarnishes institutional reputation, and could also result in fines and/or the imposition of additional reporting requirements and/or restrictive regulations.

New Jersey Institute of Technology is committed to ensuring the highest ethical and professional standards in scholarly endeavors, and all members of the NJIT research community have a responsibility to read and understand NJIT’s Policy on Integrity in Scholarship. This policy complies with federal regulations regarding the investigation and resolution of research misconduct issues, is applicable to all NJIT researchers, and is maintained by the Office of Research. Each member of the NJIT research community has a responsibility to foster an environment that promotes intellectual honesty and integrity as well as report confidentially any observed or suspected misconduct in research to the Research Integrity Officer at 973-596-5462, or by email at researchintregrity@njit.edu, or by using our anonymous tool. NJIT does not tolerate retaliation against those who make allegations of research misconduct in good faith and is strongly committed to assuring confidentiality throughout the process.

NJIT defines research misconduct, in accordance with federal policies, as fabrication, falsification or plagiarism in proposing, performing or reviewing research or in the reporting of research results.

• Fabrication means making up data or results, and recording or reporting them.

• Falsification means manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record.

• Plagiarism means the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results or words without giving appropriate credit.

Research misconduct does not include honest error or differences of opinion and authorship disputes. A finding of research misconduct made under the PHS and NSF Regulations require that:

• there is a significant departure from accepted practices of the relevant research community;

• the misconduct is committed intentionally, or knowingly, or recklessly; and

• the allegation is proven by a preponderance of the evidence.

NJIT takes research misconduct and other non-compliance issues very seriously and the institutional response to research misconduct will vary on a case-by-case basis. If an allegation of research misconduct is substantiated, the Provost shall impose appropriate sanctions on the individual/s.

NJIT’s detailed research misconduct procedures can be found here.

While pedagogical and technical issues make the shift from in-person to online teaching challenging, copyright is not a big additional area of worry! Most of the legal issues are the same in both contexts. If it was okay to do in class, it is often okay to do online, especially when your online access is limited to the same enrolled students. 

Recording video of yourself, live-casting lectures, etc.

Slide Images

If it was legal to show slide images in class, it is likely legal to show them to students via live video conferencing or in recorded videos.  This may be a surprise if you have heard that there is a big difference between class lecture slides and online conference slides - but the issue is usually less offline versus online, than a restricted versus an unrestricted audience. As long as your course is being shared through course websites limited to the same enrolled students on Canvas, the legal issues are fairly similar.

Many instructors routinely post a copy of their slides on Canvas for students to access after in-person course meetings, which also likely does not present any new issues after online course meetings.

In-lecture use of audio or video

Here, the differences between online and in-person teaching can be a bit more complex. Playing audio or video off of physical media during an in-person class session is presumptively legal under a provision of copyright law called the Classroom Use Exemption (17 U.S.C. §110(1)). However, that exemption does not cover playing the same media online even if access is limited to students enrolled in your course.

If you can limit audio and video use for your course to relatively brief clips, you may be able to include those in lecture recordings or live-casts under the copyright provision called fair use (see the section on fair use below).  For media use longer than brief clips, you may need to have students independently access the content outside of your lecture videos.

Fair Use

Fair use may be used as a defense against a claim of copyright infringement in certain limited circumstances.  The following four factors should be assessed in determining whether a use is a fair use:

• the purpose and character of the use
• the nature of the copyrighted work
• the amount and substantiality of the portion used, and
• the effect of the use upon the potential market.

The fair use doctrine does not provide clear-cut rules to ascertain whether a certain use qualifies as fair use.  The courts evaluate fair use on a case-by-case basis.  Fair use is highly subjective and context specific.   There is no known formula to ascertain whether a certain predetermined percentage or amount of a work may be used without specific permission from the copyright owner. NJIT recommends that fair use should be used only as a last resort given that the outcome in a case is difficult to predict.

Some factors that weigh against fair use would be, for example, (i) where the substantiality of use is extensive (e.g., an entire annual report of a company, an entire product catalog of a retailer, or more than an insignificant portion of a video game), or (ii) where the owner/proprietor has established a market for the material to be used (e.g., making copies of a commercially available work, such as a textbook, is generally not considered fair use).  

The best practice is to seek explicit written permission (not just attribution) from the copyright owner when possible.

Where to post your videos

There may be some practical differences in outcomes depending on where you post new course videos - on the Kaltura platform, it is easy to control access at the level of individual videos, and to connect to your course in Canvas.  

Course readings and other resources

Hopefully, by mid-semester, your students have already gotten access to all assigned reading materials.
If you want to share additional materials with students yourself as you revise instructional plans, or if you want students to share more resources with each other in an online discussion board, keep in mind some simple guidelines:

It's always easiest to link!

Linking to publicly available online content like news websites, existing online videos, and other publicly available content is not normally a copyright issue. (Better not to link to existing content that looks obviously infringing itself - Joe Schmoe's YouTube video of the entire "Black Panther" movie is probably not a good thing to link to. But Sara Someone's 2-minute video of herself and her best friend talking over a few of the pivotal scenes may be fair use.)

Linking to subscription content through the NJIT Library is also a great option - a lot of our subscription content will have DOIs, PURLs, or other "permalink" options, all of which should work even for off-campus users. 

Sharing copies

Making copies of new materials for students (by downloading and uploading files, or by scanning from physical documents) can present some copyright issues, but they're not different from those involved in deciding whether to share something online with your students when you are meeting in-person. It's better not to make copies of entire works. Copying limited portions of works to share with students may be fair use.  But the fair use factors described above must be applied before relying on fair use.  

Alternatives

Before considering reliance upon the fair use defense, you may wish to consider the following alternatives:

1. Open Access – Peer-reviewed scholarly research and literature that is openly licensed     for sharing.  See the searchable database of open access books at https://www.doabooks.org/
2. Open Educational Resources- http://researchguides.njit.edu/?b=s
3. Licensed in Creative Commons – a standardized way to grant copyright permissions for creative and academic works (https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org-search engine)
4. ArtStor- an image resource for educational use.  Only export or download its content to a password-protected, access-restricted site.

 General Guidelines

1. One generally needs to obtain explicit written permission (not just attribution) to use a third party’s copyrighted material
2. Limit access to the material to course participants only and make the work available for a limited time
3. Post only allowable portions of the material
4. Use several sources, and not just one source
5. Use the material in a transformative way
6. Do not use the same material repeatedly each semester or each year- using a work repeatedly may imply that you have sufficient time to obtain permission
7. Give attribution for every item used
8. Use a copyright disclaimer, such as “The materials in this course are only for the use of students enrolled in this course for purposes associated with this course and may not be retained or further disseminated. They may be protected by copyright; any further use of this material may be in violation of federal copyright law.”

Adapted from “Rapidly shifting your course from in-person to online” by Nancy Sims, University of Minnesota Libraries, and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License. 

(This document is evolving and subject to change. Last updated July 14, 2020.)

About Streamlyne for COI

Conflict of Interest (COI) disclosures and screenings will now be submitted via Streamlyne, the system that also supports both Proposal Submission and the NJIT Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Accessing Streamlyne 

To access Streamlyne, click here.

Bookmark the Streamlyne URL: https://research.njit.streamlyne.org

To login, use your NJIT UCID and password for NJIT Highlander Pipeline. 

•    Username: UCID
•    Password: The same password to log into NJIT Pipeline

Streamlyne Training Materials

Various user support materials such as pre-recorded video, downloadable manuals and live training sessions are available for Streamlyne.

Live Training Sessions and Office Hours

Register Here for any of these upcoming Live Training Sessions (all times EST) via Webex.

Pre-Recorded Training Videos 

• Intro to Streamlyne (General)
• Streamlyne for COI

Web-Based Training Guide

• Web-Based Training: This online manual provides a step-by-step guide on using the modules in NJIT's Streamlyne System.

Streamlyne User Manuals (PDF)

• Streamlyne COI for Researchers - This manual provides guidance on how to use Streamlyne for disclosures and screenings.
• Streamlyne New User Manual  - Common Elements - This manual provides a reference to all the common elements of Streamlyne Research.  This user manual is a good document to review each module’s functionality. 

Questions related to training sessions and Streamlyne software should be directed to the college/school representative:
 

John McCarthy, NCE Director of Research
(973) 596-3247; john.p.mccarthy@njit.edu 

Cristo Leon, CSLA Director of Research
(973) 596-6426; cristo.e.yanezleon@njit.edu 

Monuel (Manny) Aulov, YWCC Associate Director of Research
973-596-6452; aulov@njit.edu

Iris Pantoja, Assistant Director for Sponsored Research Administration (and interim CoAD and MTSOM project manager)
973-596-4483; irp3@njit.edu

Streamlyne Point of Contact in the Office of Research:

Jesus Novoa, Director, Pre-Award Services
973-642-4074; jesus.novoa@njit.edu