The policies of Lawson, LHSC, Western University, and of the KCRU govern our laboratory's code of conduct policies below. Do familiarize yourselves with LHSC/Lawson code of conduct found here: LHSC Code of Conduct.
Dr. Kharche is in his room ELL-126 (E block, KCRU, Victoria Hospital, phone: 56047) by 9:00 a.m. He may be in or out of the unit throughout the day as he has responsibilites within the hospital and in affiliated institutions. You are advised to email and make an appointment so that a dedicated meeting can be arranged. Email: Sanjay.Kharche@lhsc.on.ca .
The expectation of Dr. Kharche's team is that all involved should be in the unit by 8:30 a.m. and be present for 7.5 hours a day. Expect to check in with Dr. Kharche every morning for updates and current agenda. Time away must be reported to the office manager.
Your lab notebook is the group's property, and will remain so after you finish your placement/degree/internship. Lab notebook entries must be in English. They must be devoid of profanity, including grawlixes. Lab notebooks must include daily entries starting with a list of tasks to complete for the day. Include the date in the top right hand corner of each entry. Write in dark ink rather than pencil. Cut and paste loose prints, pages, and diagrams into your notebook. Any relevant information/documentation of work done during the day has to be recorded thoroughly. Do not tear out pages, but instead draw a line across the page if required. Do not use white out, rather you should cross out errors. Store your lab notebook in the laboratory so that Dr. Kharche or other lab members can reference it.
All your files must be stored in a folder called: your_name_project/ . Within this folder, make folders called pdfs/ , codes/ , data/ and docs/ to help you organise your electronic materials. All electronic material including codes, word documents, LaTex, bash scripts, html documents, anonymised data must be backed up. Backup methods will be provided at the beginning of your project. Once you receive the electronic material, it is expected that you will maintain an unaltered copy of what you have received. It will be used to assess progress.
It is vital that you record all details regarding imaging and experiments, as it is crucial for the next step in the work process.
As such, we are a high ability collection of individuals by definition. It is important to benefit from the group, as well as respect the opinions of other members of the group.
Confidentiality is the obligation of employees and affiliates to protect information entrusted to them and to use it only for the intended purpose. This obligation applies regardless of format of the information, i.e. verbal, written, and electronic. All subject data must remain anonymized at all times.
Safeguards are mandatory to protect personal information against loss, theft, unauthorized access, use, disclosure, and copying. Ensure that the door to the Student Office
is locked upon leaving for the day and all windows are closed. Never leave any data open/accessible electronically or physically. In addition, any device must not be left unattended and unsecured when containing sensitive information. Absolutely no personal email or downloading of any information not related to work is allowed.
Backups of your data, images and documents are your responsibility. There are some sets of backup data , but in the end if you crash, it is your responsibility to ensure that you are backed up. Try to establish good habits so that you have a regular backup schedule to hard media. If you are working on any data, backup your stuff onto an external storage device every week just in case and send a fresh copy to Dr. Kharche or another lab member.
Western University: Information & Privacy
- protect the personal information of all individuals who come into contact with the University, be they students, alumni, faculty, staff, or members of the general public
Study Documents, Confidentiality, Access and Ownership Form 2-G-017 at Research Western: Human Research Ethics.
Legal and ethical responsibility to protect the privacy of patients/residents/clients, their families, and staff/affiliates, and ensure confidentiality is maintained.
Never post confidential information on a social networking site, e.g. a personal blog, or Internet messaging sites. Send/transmit confidential information in a secure manner. Choose the method of sending/transmitting information appropriate to the confidentiality and sensitivity of the information. This may be through USB drive, Tunnelier, OneDrive, or the shared McIntyre Google Drive. In fact, keep your "social" social media and "work" social media completely separate. e.g. Use facebook for making friends, instagram for posting non-IP images of your work.
All staff and students who join KCRU in LHSC, which includes our Computational Biology laboratory, must attend a number of health and safety training courses related to the research they are conducting. Your attendance at such courses is mandatory and the list of courses required will established by your supervisor and human resources managers who are responsible for your safety. It is the responsibility of the supervisor and human resources to have on file both an emergency contact and medical history for each member of the team. Any updates to such information must be provided by the team member.
Our policy is embedded within Lawson policy: See LHSC Policy here. The policies of Lawson, LHSC, Western University, and of the KCRU govern our laboratory's code of conduct policies below. Do familiarize yourselves with LHSC/Lawson code of conduct found here: LHSC Code of Conduct
The laboratory is dedicated to providing a harassment-free study, work, and visit experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age or religion. We have zero tolerance for harassment of any kind. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for our premises and IT kit provided for research. The laboratory is dedicated to providing a harassment-free study, work, and visit experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age or religion. We have zero tolerance for harassment of any kind. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for our premises and IT kit provided for research. In addition, use of expletives to describe any person or persons (including colleagues) is absolutely unacceptable. Harassment includes, but is not limited to:
If an individual within the unit infringes any of the harassment codes above, see Compliance.
Members of the Computational Biology laboratory are ensured to be in a safe enviroment. They will not be exposed to toxic substances, code white behaviour, or any harrassment. To ensure that the policies in place are effective, members are obliged to pursue verbal and written directives. This applies more to the younger members of the group. In view of wellbeing, all members of the lab. are obliged to maintain a log of events (in addition to the work related log) every day. This log must be written, dated, and signed in English only without any other language characters. Further, both logs will remain property of the laboratory leaders (Drs Sanjay R Kharche and Prof. C W McIntyre). All logs must be maintained chronologically, either in paper format or as electronic documents.
KCRU employees often work with patients and other members of the public, and thus, business casual attire is appropriate. Please remember that you are the front-line representative for Dr. Chris McIntyre, Director, KCRU. The following is a general overview of appropriate business casual attire:
Slacks, Pants, and Suit Pants: Slacks that are similar to Dockers and other makers of cotton or synthetic material pants, wool pants, flannel pants, and nice looking dress synthetic pants are acceptable. Jeans are permitted: clean with no rips, tears or holes of any origin. Inappropriate slacks or pants include ripped/torn jeans, sweatpants, exercise pants, short shorts, leggings, and bib overalls. Shorts worn will not be higher than immediately above the knee cap. Leggings with short tops are not permitted and must be worn with long mid-thigh shirt/blouse, skirt or dress.
Skirts, Dresses, and Skirted Suits: Casual dresses and skirts, and skirts that are split at or below the knee are acceptable. Dress and skirt length must be at a length at which you can sit comfortably in public. Short, tight skirts that ride up the thigh are inappropriate for work. Mini-skirts, skorts, sun dresses, beach dresses, and spaghetti-strap dresses are not to be worn in the office. Dress straps are to be at least 3 fingers in width.
Shirts, Tops, Blouses, and Jackets: Casual shirts, dress shirts, sweaters, tops, golf-type shirts, and turtlenecks are acceptable attire for work. Most suit jackets or sport jackets are also acceptable attire for the office. Inappropriate shirt and blouse straps less than 3 fingers in width, tank tops, midriff tops, shirts with potentially offensive words, terms, logos, pictures, cartoons, or slogans, halter-tops, see-through shirts, ripped, low cut shirts/blouses, backless or see through shirt/blouses. Skin must not show through holes/gaps.
Shoes and Footwear: Conservative athletic or walking shoes (not running shoes), loafers, clogs (therapeutic; ie., Birkenstocks, Dr. Scholl), boots, flats, dress heels, and leather deck-type shoes are acceptable for work. Wearing no stockings is acceptable in warm weather. Flashy athletic shoes, running shoes, flip flops and slippers are not acceptable in the office.
Enforcement and reporting: At first instance, a confidential warning may be issued. If behaviour persists, a written warning through the managers will be issued.
Non-compliance: If worker expectations are consistently not met after warnings, the supervisor will have to take further action (e.g. if dress code is not followed, the individual will be sent home to change, unpaid). If a harrasment claim remains unresolved, it will be escalated to Lawson and Western anti-harrassment offices.
Complaints: Refer to direct supervisor, Sanjay.Kharche@lhsc.on.ca x 56047.
Questions: Refer to Laura Chambers or Office Manager.