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This paper reports the results of a workshop held in January 2013 to begin the process of establishing standards for e-learning programmes in the ethics of research involving human participants that could serve as the basis of their evaluation by individuals and groups who want to use, recommend or accredit such programmes. The standards that were drafted at the workshop cover the following topics: designer/provider qualifications, learning goals, learning objectives, content, methods, assessment of participants and assessment of the course. The authors invite comments on the draft standards and eventual endorsement of a final version by all stakeholders., (Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.)

The Korea National Information Center for the 3Rs was established in August 2011, to enhance humane science and animal welfare in Korea. It is a national Three Rs platform, with the goal of exchanging knowledge and sharing examples of best practice, in order to help replace laboratory animal use in education and training. This paper briefly summarises the progress made and the challenges that have become apparent during the initial operation of the collaborative project. There is a need to recognise and manage the challenges resulting from policy changes, especially misinterpretation of the objectives by the decision makers at the participating academic institutions and the government. The collective power of this type of collaborative project can be used to leverage an ongoing commitment to essentials such as consistent funding for operational and support staff, as well as allocation of the required space., (2013 FRAME.)

Since 2000, the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) program has evolved into an international resource for education in human subjects protection and the responsible conduct of research (RCR). More than 600,000 people at more than 715 institutions in dozens of countries have made use of CITI's online curricula. Although this Web-based resource was created in response to federal requirements for education in human subjects protection, the author's evaluation suggests that learners value and respond to the content in ways that transcend mere compliance. Recent expansion of the CITI model to address the RCR is motivated by such evidence, despite the absence of global federal requirement for RCR training. The authors give an overview of the CITI project, report and analyze evaluation data, and discuss the very idea of online education in research ethics. Although the authors exercise extreme caution in suggesting that CITI or any other four-hour curriculum will be causally related to any reduction in misconduct, they submit that when all members of the team are educated about common moral standards and appropriately mentored, the temptation for misbehavior by any one member is reduced, better science is promoted, and the public trust is preserved. At the very least, providing RCR education is a positive and useful means of reminding taxpayers and others that the same investigators who are spending their billions on research are simultaneously striving to ensure that integrity is woven into the fabric of the scientific enterprise.