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Molecular Structures Group (MSG) Policies on Access and
Priorities
1. The MSG exists, first and foremost, to provide services and
instrument access for faculty, students, postdocs, and other research
staff at the University of Kansas who are conducting publishable
research. They should receive the shortest possible turnaround times in
the labs. Broadly, "first come, first served," will apply, within
constraints such as short experiments may be turned around more quickly
than long ones, and lab operations may be streamlined by grouping
similar tasks which require an instrument to be set up in a particular
way. Lab staff are to ensure that different users are being treated
equitably, taking into account such factors as timely progress toward a
degree, preparing presentations, finishing papers, etc.
2. Visitors, such as REU students or faculty on sabbatical from another
university, will receive access to the MSG labs for projects intended
for joint publication or presentation with KU faculty and students.
Their faculty sponsors will be responsible for making sure the
necessary resources are available (ideally, before inviting the
visitor) and seeing that lab charges incurred by visitors are paid. But
in the event that the lab's capacities are stretched or exceeded (for
example, by a lengthy instrument breakdown), the priority order for
service will ordinarily be: graduate students, postdocs,
undergraduates, visitors, and users from outside the University.
However, lab staff will leave priority decisions within a research
group to the discretion of faculty.
3. Samples originating outside the University as part of a faculty
member's external collaboration, where lab charges are paid from KU
grant funds and joint publication of results is planned, will have the
same priority as samples originating inside the University.
4. The labs may accept samples directly from other universities or
colleges as long as there is sufficient instrument time available.
These services will be billed at standard rates for direct costs, but a
charge
equivalent to KU's indirect cost rate (currently 46%) will be added.
Some lab resources, particularly software with single-user or KU site
licenses, will be unavailable if the terms of the license prohibit such
use. Joint publication, when feasible, should be sought; otherwise, the
MSG should be acknowledged in any publications that result.
5. Samples from industry may also be accepted if time is available, and
if the industrial client's goals are compatible with ours. However, the
labs will not advertise for such work. Lab staff will be responsible
for setting charges in this case that do not undercut commercial
vendors of the same service. In addition to the software licensing
issues mentioned above, specific services may be unavailable to
industrial clients if KU received an academic discount when purchasing
equipment or licensing software and the vendor prohibits such use. For
lengthy projects, grant funding and/or publication rights are desirable
outcomes, and lab staff should try to negotiate for them with the
client.
6. Individuals without an academic or industrial affiliation will
ordinarily not be allowed to use the MSG laboratory facilities or
receive results from them. Under rare circumstances, exceptions may be
made, if no licensing or liability issues are raised, and there is some
compelling benefit to the University (such as recruitment of a
prospective student).
Approved by the MSG Steering Committee, Robert Hanzlik, Chair, 1/12/2000
Approved by the Center for Research, James Roberts, Vice
Chancellor
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