Research misconduct has become a focus of federal funding agencies in the United States due to several public cases of egregious misbehavior by research faculty and staff. Institutions, including UNLV, that accept federal funding have an obligation to develop and appropriately implement a research misconduct policy (42 CFR Part 93).

Although federal policies technically apply only to federally funded research, UNLV, in compliance with state and Nevada System of Higher Education policies, applies federal research misconduct policies to all research.