In May 2019, the Academy responded to the National Health and Medical Research Council consultation on the Research Supervision guide of the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (2018). The Academy welcomed the publication of this guide document and the opportunity to comment on the consultation. We believe that responsible conduct and research integrity are fundamental to research excellence and must be maintained to advance Australia’s world-leading health and medical research. Research supervision- at all levels- must set the right tone in these endeavours and in our response we stressed the importance of supervisory roles and adherence to research integrity.
In our response, we expressed support for the guide document and highlight the need to strengthen the supervisor’s role in setting the highest standards in research design and methodology. We also emphasised that the supervision at all levels is critical to ensuring that research work performed meets appropriate quality standards.