Utilizing research assistants and maintaining research integrity.

The appropriate use and supervision of research assistants is essential to the success of a research study and the avoidance of academic misconduct. The focus of this article is to provide guidelines for the new principal investigator regarding hiring, contracting, orienting, monitoring, and evaluating research assistants. Particular attention is given to techniques that will avoid academic misconduct resulting from research assistants being uninformed or unsupervised.