Policies

After your usage of the facility, try to keep the facility and instrument setup to the status before your usage.

The user should be compliant with all IACUC (ACC at UIC) requirements for animal handling and procedures. The specific animal protocol for your study needs to be current and a copy must be brought to the PIC facility. An approved animal protocol or amendment for imaging should be updated to the director of the facility.

The user must be compliant with all the facility training policies.

All related procedures must be undertaken in the procedure room (B29). Animals can be kept in the animal room (B32) for 12 hours, and must follow the corresponding policies.

Make sure to follow the facility instructions to operate the anesthesia system (both the air and/or oxygen flowmeter and the isofluorane vaporizer).

Make sure to follow the facility SOPs for cryogen operations.

The user must clean the area they used. All waste must be disposed according to policies of UIC ESHO.

Billing cycle is done on the monthly basis. On the 2nd of each month the charges accumulated for the preceding month are sent to RRC finance for invoicing to the proper RRC account number.

The facility users will be awarded for certain un-billed time for their future studies, if their projects resulting from the facility are

1. Published on the peer-reviewed journal
2. Published on national or international academic conference
3. Patented
4. Funded by federal, society, or university.

The facility also supports limited pilot studies with certain un-billed time for all users, especially for graduate level trainees. The applicant is required to write the one-page proposal about the project to the director of PIC facility. The application is discussed at the academic committee meeting.

• Users for unassisted use of any instrument in the facility must first be trained or being checked out by a member of the facility staff. The facility staff has the final say as to whether a user is allowed unassisted access to a specific instrument during daytime hours Monday to Friday.
• When finished, instrumentation should be left clean and in a standard configuration.
• Each major instrument has a log book. The user must write down her/his usage information on the log book as instructed by facility staff.
• The user must stop her/his usage if she/he find anything wrong with any instrument in the facility; the user must NOT attempt to repair it yourself, and the user must notify a staff member as soon as possible.
• If something unusual happens, however small, the user must write details down in the log book noting what happened.

Users must finish the animal handling training by the BRL staff before the animal studies can be performed at the facility. The user must submit a permission from BRL to the facility staff before his/her studies related to animals carried out at the facility.

New users who have no prior experience must take the full training course for the instrument type they need to use.

• Two training courses –MRI basics and MRI safety must be finished for any new user.
• MRI operation training courses are offered for users who would like to perform MRI independently.
• Under no circumstances shall a user train or instruct another user, regardless of their experience.
• After training, all new users must start from the stage of assisted usage of the facility until she/he convince the facility staff that she/he can perform the study safely as an experienced user. Please note, the facility staff has the final say as to whether a user is allowed unassisted access to a specific instrument during daytime hours Monday to Friday.

All users who are performing MRI studies independently must finish a semi-annual refresher training offered by facility staff in order to keep his/her privilege for using the facility.

• The free refresher training usually will be held in January and July.
• The regular training rate will be applied for those who are absent from the free refresher training or who are not using the facility for more than six months.

After training, a certificate of the completion of the training will be issued and signed by the trainee and the staff who gives the training.

The user must retake the training in order to continue his/her study at the facility if he/she is considered as an unsafe user for any reason by the facility staff.

• Upon successful completion of training on an instrument, the User will be approved to book that instrument using UICore.
• The user must contact the facility staff to book the time before she/he is authorized to make the reservation.
• The user must notify the facility staff if special instrument setup is needed.
• The user must make sure an facility staff is available before she/he make the reservation if assisted usage of the instrument is needed.

• UICore allows Users to book, edit or cancel bookings up to the time of the reservation.
• Failure to cancel a booking will lead to a charge equal to the booked reservation.
• Cancellation should be at least 48 hours before the reserved time. A cancellation fee will be applied for the late cancellation.
• The user might need to contact the facility staff for cancellation if she/he is not authorized to use UICore yet.

• Once you have signed in on the instrument, the actual changes will be the time that is longer between actual instrument time used and time booked.
• The user can continue to use the instrument if no other users reserved the same instrument. However, the user must finish his/her studies before the time the instrument was reserved by other users.

Experienced Users only are allowed access to the MRI laboratory equipment after hours. Any User can ask for permission to use MRI after hours, however, not every User will be granted the right to work after hours. MRI staff will make the decision based on the individual User’s skill and experience.

• Nobody may use the computers for personal use. No software is to be downloaded onto any MRI computer without the written permission of the MRI Director.
• Web surfing is prohibited.

• Storage of data is the responsibility of the User.
• User data are suggested to transfer through internet (e.g. ftp, UIC box, drop box etc.)
• No USB drive are allowed to be used.
• Digital Images must be moved off instrument computers and archived in a timely fashion.
• Data over 3-week old may be removed without notice.
• The facility staff will remove any images more than three months old, when necessary, without notice.
• Data can be stored on the RRC Server for up to 6 months if you have your own account (e-mail ftp-help@mail.rrc.uic.edu to set up an account).

Publication of research data is one way of measuring the performance of the MRI. If a user has published any data acquired at PIC facility, please notify Dr. Weiguo Li at wli20@uic.edu so that it can be added to facility publications list. Accordingly, the user will be awarded certain un-billed  time for his/her future research projects based on the value of the publication.

Authorship of PIC facility staff should follow the recommendations from ICMJE.

In short, “The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content
3. Final approval of the version to be published
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.”

Publications which result from research that made use of the facility instruments should include the following acknowledgment:

“This work made use of instruments in the Preclinical Imaging Core Facility (Research Resources Center, UIC)”

No food and drink are allowed in the research areas of the facility at any time.

If you have questions in terms of the facility policies, please contact the facility staff