Our vision for a great science culture sets out what this looks like for the chemical sciences and describes its key qualities and foundations.
The links in the table below highlight resources from the RSC and other organisations. You will find tools, guidance, frameworks, funding and recognition opportunities, and other resources to support you in your efforts to improve science culture in your own setting.
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We know that many members of the science and innovation communities are involved in science culture initiatives in their own settings. If you are aware of a resource that would be valuable more widely, please do share it with us so we can consider including it here.
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Use the links in the table below to find resources, tools and guidelines to support your efforts to improve science culture in your own environment.
Quality 1 - Rigorous| Tool/Resource/Initiative | Link | Description/Use-case |
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Dilemma game app |
An app-based game on resolving research integrity dilemmas, to get researchers talking about issues they might previously have had to grapple with alone. |
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UKRIO resources |
Research Integrity Resources - UK Research Integrity Office (ukrio.org) |
Research integrity resources, collated by the UK Research Integrity Office. |
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UKRN resources |
Information and materials to support high quality research and reproducibility, collated by the UK Reproducibility Network. |
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Research Integrity Concordat |
The Concordat to Support Research Integrity (universitiesuk.ac.uk) |
Concordats on research integrity to ensure that science organisations’ work is underpinned by the highest standards of rigour and integrity |
| Tool/Resource/Initiative | Link | Description/Use-case |
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RSC bullying and harassment support line Wellbeing and listening service |
Bullying and harassment support (rsc.org) Wellbeing and listening service from the Chemists' Community Fund (rsc.org) |
Impartial support for anyone affected or concerned by bullying or harassing behaviour in the chemical sciences. Dedicated wellbeing and listening service for RSC members. |
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RSC health and safety resources |
Health and safety guides developed from existing good practice by the RSC, and material kindly supplied by UK university chemistry departments, primarily aimed at providing postgraduate students and university researchers with the basic knowledge needed to work safely in a chemical laboratory. |
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RSC career and professional development support |
Career and professional development support available to members of the Royal Society of Chemistry. |
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RSC chemistry job profiles |
Features a range of job profiles in the chemical sciences to highlight the wide range of options available with chemistry qualifications. |
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RSC actions in support of Technician Commitment |
Offer to support the career development of technicians in the chemical sciences. |
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RSC LGBT+ allyship guide |
An introduction to developing good allyship practices. |
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Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers |
Home - The Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers |
An agreement between universities, research institutes and funders to support the career development of researchers in the UK, including a commitment to enable researchers to dedicate 10 days a year to their professional development. |
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Mental health resources by Dr Zoe Ayres |
A set of resources collated by Dr Zoe Ayres to support researchers with caring for their mental health and raise awareness of the issues. |
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Pearn Kandola ‘How to be an active bystander’ podcast |
Season 1, Episode 2: How to be an active bystander (pearnkandola.com) Racism at work: how to be an active bystander by Pearn Kandola (diversityq.com) |
Podcast episode on how to be an active bystander. Blog summarising key recommendations from the podcast episode. |
| Tool/Resource/Initiative | Link | Description/Use-case |
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RSC ethical practice guide |
Guide for ethical practice. | |
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Minimum standards for inclusion and diversity for scholarly publishing |
Minimum standards for inclusion and diversity for scholarly publishing |
Set of minimum standards, developed by the RSC in collaboration with other scholarly publishers, upon which all members of teh publishing community can build to improve inclusion and diversity in the industry. |
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RSC framework for action in scientific publishing |
A framework with actions to ensure that no scientist is left behind in publishing their results. |
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RSC sustainable laboratory practice toolkit |
Resources to help your laboratory become more sustainable (rsc.org) |
A collection of useful materials for achieving sustainable laboratory practices from institutions around the world. |
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UKRIO/Royal Society "Integrity in practice" toolkit |
A series of case studies of positive interventions made by individuals and organisations from across the globe to improve research culture and integrity. | |
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COPE ethics toolkit (aimed at publishers) |
Ethics toolkit for a successful editorial office | COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics |
Comprehensive toolkit that explains expected ethical practices in scholarly publishing, and highlights resources for editorial offices to develop their codes of ethical conduct and practice. |
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Sustainable lab accreditation |
Make your lab sustainable with LEAF | Sustainable UCL – UCL – University College London |
Standard for sustainable laboratory operations. |
| Tool/Resource/Initiative | Link | Description/Use-case |
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| RSC open access resources | Information on how open access publishing works, why it matters, and how to implement it in practice with the RSC. | |
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RSC data sharing and archiving guidance |
Guidance for chemical scientists to achieve best practice, in both the sharing and archiving of research data. |
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RSC Horizon Prizes |
New prizes that recognise collaborations and teamwork. |
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ChemRxiv & ChemSpider |
ChemRxiv (pronounced ‘chem-archive’) is a free submission, distribution and archive service for unpublished preprints in chemistry and related areas. ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database providing fast text and structure search access to over 100 million structures from hundreds of data source. |
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Eurodoc Open Science MOOC |
Massive open online course (MOOC) for researchers to understand the basic principles and practices of open Science, educate and train early career researchers in open science, and inform and engage research stakeholders on the topic. |
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Open Access switchboard |
A mission-driven, community-led initiative designed to simplify the sharing of information between stakeholders about open access publications throughout the publication journey. |
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IUPAC FAIR Chemistry Cookbook |
An open, collaborative, community focused resource on working with FAIR data in chemistry. |
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Journal checker tool |
Tool to check which publishing options are supported by your funder’s Open Access policy. |
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Open Data Concordat |
Concordat on open research data to ensure that the research data gathered and generated by members of the UK research community is made openly available for use by others wherever possible. |
| Tool/Resource/Initiative | Link | Description/Use-case |
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RSC LGBT+ toolkit |
Provides tools and resources for guidance and support in making a real difference towards LGBT+ inclusivity in science. |
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RSC Broadening Horizons programme |
Pilot programme to support chemistry students and graduates from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds to pursue careers in chemistry. |
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RSC lnclusion & Diversity resources |
Reports, digital packs, videos and information to help promote inclusion and diversity in your organisation, group or network. |
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RSC Inclusive committees resource |
Information on how to make your committees inclusive and diverse. |
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RSC Inclusive communications resources |
how-to-make-your-communications-inclusive.pdf (rsc.org) how to make spoken communication accessible for disabled people (rsc.org) |
Information on how to make your communications inclusive. Information on how to make spoken communication accessible for disabled people. |
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RSC Inclusive events resource |
Quick guide on what to consider before and during your event to make it inclusive and diverse. |
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RSC ChemCareers disability webinars |
Series of webinars providing information, advice and practical tips for disabled chemists who are job seeking or in employment, and for those supporting a disabled employee in the workplace. |
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RSC Grants for carers |
Grants of up to £1,200 toward caring costs to enable individuals attend a chemistry-related meeting, conference or workshop or professional development event. |
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RSC Accessibility grants |
Grants up to £1,200 to reduce accessibility challenges when attending professional events. |
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RSC Inclusion and Diversity Fund |
Inclusion & Diversity Fund - Royal Society of Chemistry (rsc.org) |
Financial support for innovative products, activities and research projects that help make the chemical sciences community more inclusive and diverse. |
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RSC Raising awareness of gender inequality promotional pack |
Ready-made promotional items to raise awareness of gender inequality in chemical sciences. |
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Unconscious/implicit bias awareness resources |
Videos raising awareness of implicit bias to encourage fair decision making. |
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Inclusive conferencing resources |
Embedding equality, diversity and inclusion into university events |
Guidelines and advice on running inclusive events and conferences that are accessible to all. |
| Tool/Resource/initiative | Link | Description/Use-case |
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RSC Horizon Prizes |
The RSC Horizon prizes come as part of a major overhaul of our recognition structures to better recognise teams and collaborations. |
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RSC Inclusion and Diversity Prize |
The RSC Inclusion and Diversity Prize recognises an individual or team's contribution and impact in promoting and improving the accessibility, inclusivity and diversity of the chemical science community. |
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RSC Education Prizes |
The RSC Education prizes come as part of a major overhaul of our recognition structures to better recognise contributions to teaching and education. |
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RSC approach to rethinking recognition |
Re-thinking recognition: Science prizes for the modern world (rsc.org) |
Approach to review of a recognition programme to make sure that the recognition of modern scientific excellence is fit for today’s needs. This could be applied to other recognition programmes or portfolios. |
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RSC Journal Lectureships Awards and Outstanding Paper Awards |
See our individual journal pages for details of each lectureship |
Lectureships offer that ranges across career stages and awards that recognise the team contribution to a research article. |
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RSC actions in support of Technician Commitment |
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RSC offer to support the recognition of technicians in the chemical sciences. |
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RSC professional awards |
Professional awards from the Royal Society of Chemistry (rsc.org) |
Professional awards that centre transferable skills and recognise competences and commitment to professional development. |
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RSC chemistry job profiles |
Features a range of job profiles in the chemical sciences, highlighting and recognising various chemistry roles and careers and how they each make a difference. |
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UKRI 101 jobs that change the world |
Campaign to highlight some of the many roles that contribute to the success of the research and innovation system. |
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CRediT |
Taxonomy that can be used to represent the roles typically played by contributors to research outputs, to enable the description of each contributor’s role in producing a scholarly output. |
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Technician Commitment |
A sector-wide initiative to help address key challenges facing technical staff working in teaching and research. |
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Guidance and resources on the use of narrative CV formats |
Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) guidance – UKRI Using Narrative CVs: Process optimization and bias mitigation | DORA (sfdora.org)</> |
Guidance on the use of UKRI’s Resume for Research and Innovation, a CV template to encourage recognition of broader contributions to research. Report consolidating the key learnings from a workshop on the adoption of narrative CVs for funding organisations. |
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HiddenREF |
The hidden REF – Celebrating all research outputs (hidden-ref.org) |
Competition that recognises all research outputs and every role that makes research possible. |
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More than our rank |
Initiative that provides an opportunity for academic institutions to highlight the many and various ways they serve the world (that are not reflected in their ranking position). |
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DORA case studies |
Reimagining academic assessment: stories of innovation and change | DORA (sfdora.org) |
Case studies of universities and national consortia highlighting key elements of institutional change to improve academic career assessment. |
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DORA project TARA |
Tools to Advance Research Assessment (TARA) is a project to facilitate the development of new policies and practices for academic career assessment. |
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Manifesto for research metrics |
Manifesto setting out 10 principles for research evaluation, focused on the responsible use of metrics. |
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Framework for research evaluation |
A five-stage model for evaluating research responsibly. This practical step-by-step process is designed to help research managers, or anyone involved in conducting research evaluations, in planning new evaluations as well as checking existing evaluations. |
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A Values Framework for the Organisation of Research |
A Values Framework for the Organisation of Research - Science Europe |
A set of shared values to serve as a reference and to be further embedded as part of the research system. |