Washington

Proposed guidelines for federally funded US researchers, recommending more detailed accounting of how they spend their time, will, if approved, draw howls of protest from labs across the United States.

The office of the inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services, parent department to the main US biomedical-research agencies, released the draft guidelines on 28 November.

The guidelines set out general principles for a programme to prevent and catch fraud, and identified three risk areas: time reporting, sloppy accounting between grants, and not reporting financial support from other sources. Comments will be accepted until 28 December.

In the section on time reporting, the guidelines say, “Many researchers have multiple responsibilities — sometimes involving teaching, research, and clinical work — that must be accurately measured and monitored. In the course of a researcher's workday, the separation between these areas of activity can sometimes be hard to discern, which heightens the need to have effective timekeeping systems.”

Most US researchers do not keep daily time logs, but estimate in advance what percentage of their time they will spend on a project. That estimate is used to determine how much of their salary and benefits the grant pays for.

The spectre of a punch-clock in the lab appals many scientists. “I think it would be a major impediment to American science,” says Beth Levine, a specialist in infectious diseases at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

“There is some very prescriptive language in there that gives us concern,” adds Tony DeCrappeo, president of the Council on Government Relations, a Washington DC-based association of research universities working to shape agency policy.

The guidance also calls for a compliance officer and compliance committee for each institution.

The guidelines are not mandatory, but the inspector general and the US Department of Justice might use them in judging fraud cases.

Glenn Baly, spokesman for the inspector general's office, says not to fret. “These are general guidelines. The details would be worked out by the agencies and organizations involved.”