General SRC Policies

As an Organized Research Unit of the University of California, Berkeley, SRC is governed by the general research and ethical standards of the University and its component parts.

• SRC cannot participate in any classified research, the results of which cannot be disseminated through conventional scholarly or public means.
• SRC services are available to non-profit organizations and/or other agencies that are prepared to waive proprietary interest in all phases of the research and its results.
• All results of a given project are available for public access within a reasonable period of time after completion of the research, in accordance with usual academic standards.
• All projects must follow appropriate standards for the protection of human subjects, including assurances of confidentiality as established by the UC Berkeley Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects.
• The principal investigator or the client project director has primary responsibility for a given project but should be prepared to negotiate specific mutual arrangements according to the type of SRC activities involved.
• SRC reserves the right to decline assignments it considers outside its areas of expertise, or that may require more staff time than is available, or that it deems likely to compromise academic standards.
• All clients should agree to give SRC appropriate credit for its role in a particular investigation, but must exempt it from responsibility for those functions it did not perform.

While SRC stands ready to serve its various constituencies within reasonable time frames, there may be periods when limitations of staff and other resources make certain priorities necessary. In general, priority is assigned to projects undertaken by faculty, students and staff at the University of California, Berkeley. Other things being equal, higher priority will be accorded projects involving significant methodological research and to scheduled commitments over new requests for services. Any priorities are, of course, subject to reconsideration if scheduled activities are postponed or delayed by the client.