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

Streamlyne modules are now available for IRB submissions and Conflict of Interest (COI) functions.

PDF forms will no longer be accepted for IRB submissions, which are due in Streamlyne at least 10 business days ahead of the posted meeting date.

Accessing Streamlyne 

To access Streamlyne for IRB, 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.

Pre-Recorded Training Videos 

• Intro to Streamlyne (General)
• For Researchers: Intro to Streamlyne for IRB
• For Researchers: IRB Research Modification Application in Streamlyne
• For Researchers: Approving an IRB submission for Research Team Member

Streamlyne 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 for IRB User Manual  - This manual provides specific Streamlyne information for researchers requiring IRB review.​
• 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. 

For IRB meeting schedules and deadlines click Here. 

For IRB submission information and protocols click Here.

Questions related to 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 

Streamlyne point of contacts in the Office of Research:

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

Theresa Walton MPA, Director of Sponsored Research Administration
973-642-7322, theresa.walton@njit.edu

Conflict of Interest (COI)

The term “conflict of interest (COI) in research” refers to situations where reasonable observers would believe that an investigator’s outside financial interest/s or obligation/s have the potential to inappropriately influence his/her judgment or actions in designing or conducting or reporting research or cause harm to human subjects participating in a research project. Such situations could also affect how staff are hired and how materials are procured. Similarly, “conflict of commitment in research” refers to situations where the external activities, either paid or unpaid, interfere with an investigator's primary research obligation and commitment to the university. Both occur when university members are in a position to derive personal benefit from actions or decisions made in their official capacity. Conflict of interest/commitment situations are inevitable because NJIT community members often interact in their private consulting/public service capacities with industry, government, community groups, and professional organizations. Being in this situation is not unethical, but not recognizing and not reporting them is, and this could tarnish the reputation of the researcher, his/her department, the institution, and also result in fines and loss of funding/employment. To prevent actual conflicts of interest and commitment as well as to avoid any perceived conflicts, all NJIT researchers must disclose their external professional activities and any financial interests in entities that they or their immediate family members may have that are related to their institutional responsibilities. Additionally, NJIT researchers are not allowed to hire or directly supervise relatives, including but not limited to spouses, parents, children, siblings, in-laws, or any other family members, in order to uphold objectivity and prevent nepotism in the workplace.

Federal regulations require any investigator applying for or receiving funding from the Public Health Service (PHS) (including the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), sponsors adopting the PHS regulations, or the National Science Foundation (NSF) must submit a financial conflict of interest (COI) disclosure form at least once annually. NJIT also requires the completion of this information each time a research proposal is submitted for external funding. Additionally, NJIT researchers who are responsible for the design, conduct, or reporting of NIH funded research are required to take COI training at least every four years.

All researchers have an obligation to become familiar with, and abide by, the provisions of NJIT Financial Conflicts of Commitment and Interest (FCOI) on Sponsored Research Projects policy.

Reporting Conflict of Interest

The Office of Research is committed to ensuring that the personal interest/s of all NJIT researchers do not unduly influence his/her primary obligations to science, sponsors, university, colleagues or students. The purpose of the project specific and annual disclosure and certification processes are to confirm that the Office of Research has a complete, accurate, and up-to-date account of all NJIT researcher’s reportable outside activities and/or financial interests. As part of the disclosure process, researchers must certify that they are in compliance with all applicable NJIT policies and procedures. All NJIT researchers must complete an Annual Disclosure and Certification, and are also required to disclose, within 30 days of any change to their outside professional activities and interests.

The following activities are examples of potential conflict of interest situations:

• Accepting gratuities or favors (including equipment gifts or loans) from companies sponsoring your research or doing business with the University or that makes product/s that you are researching or developing;
• Accepting excessive honoraria for lectures at companies/entities that have an interest in your scientific or scholarly expertise and that also have the potential to benefit financially from your research;
• Working for or conducting any kind of research (including assigning your students) for a company/entity in which you have equity ownership or that has an interest in your research or that seeks to patent and license your invention;
• Assigning a textbook or text for which you receive royalties as “required reading” for a course;
• Representing the University for the purchase of materials/equipments from a company/entity in which you and your immediate family members have a financial interest or influencing NJIT business dealing with such company/entity in any way;
• Providing privileged information developed at NJIT to a company/entity in which you and your immediate family members have a financial interest;
• Accepting gifts from students/fellows who work on your research project and whom you must evaluate;
• Providing or receiving financial bonuses for recruiting a targeted number of research subjects;
• Holding any official or membership position on a board or committee of an company/entity that supports your research at NJIT or having any equity interests and/or stock options in that company/entity;
• Receiving royalties or other licensing proceeds from intellectual property that you invented at NJIT;
• Entering into a Materials Transfer Agreement or Human Tissue Agreement (MTA/HTA) to provide materials used in your research to an external company/entity; and
• Accepting a publication restriction condition in a research contract or imposing restrictions on disclosure of research findings and the actions of students/trainees at the request of a sponsor or a company/entity that has the potential to benefit from your research.

If a situation raising questions of conflict of interest arises, a researcher should discuss the situation with his or her department Chair or lab/division head or with the assistant director for research compliance and integrity or the executive director of sponsored research at the Office of Research. 

All COI disclosures must be submitted via Streamlyne. For Streamlyne COI training and access information,  go here. 

While most disclosures of conflict of financial interests and conflict of commitment will be deemed de minimus or not significant in terms of potential effects on the individual’s ability to perform his or her NJIT duties without any undue influence, financial interests and commitments above thresholds will automatically be deemed significant and will require closer scrutiny and possible management, mitigation, and/or elimination.

Significant Financial Interests

Financial interest means anything of monetary value, including but not limited to compensation, equity, gifts, and intellectual property of an investigator or the immediate family member of an investigator, whether or not the value is readily ascertainable. It refers to financial interests related to the institutional responsibilities of an investigator and becomes "significant" if it meets ANY of the following conditions:

• All income from a publicly-traded entity received during the 12 months prior to disclosure plus the value of any equity interest in the entity as of the date of an annual disclosure, when combined, exceeds $10,000 or represents more than 5% ownership interest in any single entity. Examples of income include consulting fees, honoraria, or paid authorship. Equity interest includes any stock, stock option, or other ownership interest;
• ANY equity interest held in a non-publicly traded entity, or more than $10,000 in income from a non-publicly traded entity received during the 12 months prior to disclosure; or
• Income from intellectual property rights and interests received from an entity other than NJIT that exceeds $10,000 during the 12 months prior to disclosure.

If NJIT determines that a conflict of interest situation could unduly influence the research, the conflict will either be managed or mitigated or eliminated according to a management plan provided to the researcher by the Office of Research. Other administrative actions, such as embedding a financial interest disclosure in the publication and public talks to allow the audience to form their own opinions may be required. Some common strategies for managing, mitigating, or eliminating conflicts also include:

• Training on conflicts of interest and commitment for all involved researchers
• Monitoring and oversight of the research activity by an impartial third-party
• Modifying research design to either remove the conflicted researcher from participation in all or a portion of the research
• Divestiture of significant financial interests
• Prohibiting unacceptable levels of commitment/private interests
• Creating, implementing, and enforcing effective conflict of interest management plans
• Instituting a process to review the outcome or product produced by the researcher/s and the research by non-conflicted experts

US Public Health Service (PHS)

Please note that the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) and its agencies define a "significant" financial interest (SFI) at a lower level than do other federal agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, and the university’s longstanding level of $10,000 described above.

Specifically, if you have worked on PHS funded research in the past year, or expect to work on PHS-funded projects this year, a financial interest becomes “significant” if it meets ANY of the following conditions:

• All income from a publicly-traded entity received during the 12 months prior to disclosure plus the value of any equity interest in the entity as of the date of an annual disclosure, when combined, exceeds $5,000. Examples of income include consulting fees, honoraria, or paid authorship. Equity interest includes any stock, stock option, or other ownership interest;
• ANY equity interest held in a non-publicly traded entity, or more than $5,000 in income from a non-publicly traded entity received during the 12 months prior to disclosure; or
• Income from intellectual property rights and interests received from an entity other than NJIT that exceeded $5,000 during the 12 months prior to disclosure.

PHS agencies include the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Indian Health Service (IHS), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), or Administration on Aging (AOA).

If NJIT makes a determination that PHS agency funded investigators have a Financial Conflict of Interest, it will implement a management plan and report it (along with the management plan) to the PHS funding agency within 60 days.

NJIT is also required to make information regarding Financial Conflict of Interest reported to PHS accessible to the public upon PHS request.

Federal regulations and university policy do not require you to disclose the following types of financial interests:

• Reimbursement or payment of travel paid by NJIT, or covered by a sponsored program agreement managed through the Office of Research;
• Royalties received from NJIT for intellectual property owned by the university;
• Royalties resulting from traditional academic publishing activities such as the publication of text books or other educational materials;
• Any salary or other remuneration paid to you by NJIT.

Faculty, staff, and students are required to disclose the occurrence of any reimbursed or sponsored travel paid for directly or reimbursed by an external entity.

However, this disclosure requirement does not apply to:

• Any travel reimbursed, sponsored or paid for by a U.S. government agency, a U.S. higher education institution, a U.S. academic teaching hospital, medical center, or a U.S. research institute affiliated with a U.S. higher education institution; and
• Any travel reimbursement or payment of travel made by NJIT, a university college, department or unit, or travel covered by a sponsored program agreement managed through the Office of Research.