Research integrity
Abstract
Research Integrity (RI) involves conducting ethical research to the highest standards. Core principles include reliability, honesty, care, and transparency. RI varies culturally and disciplinarily. Transparent practices include Open Access, proper data management, and adherence to ethical standards. Institutional responsibility, especially for Institutional Publishers and Service Providers (IPSPs), is vital in promoting a culture of RI, providing training, and establishing policies to prevent and address research misconduct.
Main Text
Research integrity (RI) is the commitment to conducting research ethically and in accordance with the highest standards of professionalism and rigour, as defined by organisations like Science Europe (2015). It involves upholding core values and principles that guide the responsible conduct of individuals involved in scientific research, including those who perform, finance, or evaluate it, as well as the institutions that publish and disseminate research.
Adhering to principles, values, professional ethics, and standards ensures the quality of research by promoting honest, accurate, efficient, and objective reporting in publication and dissemination channels. This commitment enhances the reputation of science and fosters public trust, contributing significantly to societal advancements.
Fundamental principles of RI, outlined by organisations such as ALLEA (2023) and the Universities UK Concordat to Support Research Integrity (2023), include reliability and rigour in research performance, honesty in all aspects of research, care, respect, and fairness in interactions with various stakeholders, accountability throughout the research process, and transparency and openness in reporting methods and findings.
These values may vary across cultural, historical, national, political, and economic contexts. Other accepted principles encompass accuracy, efficiency, objectivity, impartiality, independence, openness, good research stewardship, and responsibility for future researchers.
RI also involves transparent practices and actions such as facilitating Open Access and Open Science, proper data management, scrutiny in drawing conclusions, authorship and contributorship statements, reproducibility, adherence to ethical, legal, and professional standards, promotion of equal opportunities and diversity, and compliance with best research and publishing practices.
RI's responsibility extends to the entire research community, including individual researchers, institutions, research funders, academies, learned societies, editors, publishers, and relevant bodies. Institutional policies, such as those of Diamond OA publishers, play a crucial role in fostering a culture of research integrity, promoting values like equity, diversity, and inclusion, and supporting infrastructure for the generation, management, and protection of research materials.
Diamond OA publishers support ethics and RI training to ensure that researchers and editors are well-versed in relevant codes and regulations and possess the necessary skills to apply them effectively. For this purpose, the wider scholarly community's resources, e.g., those offered by HEIs, academic libraries, departments/schools/and other Diamond OA publishers, can be used. Additionally, Diamond OA publishers should establish robust policies on research integrity to prevent and address misconduct at all stages of research, thereby upholding the quality of scientific publications and public trust in research findings.
Research misconduct, including fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, and other unethical actions, is explicitly outlined and regulated by publisher policies. This includes addressing conflicts of interest, misuse of seniority, manipulation of statistics, and various other actions that compromise the integrity of research. The Diamond OA publisher ensures that all its publications have clear policies making them available on its website:
- Editorial policies and procedures are transparent and easily accessible
- Policies on research integrity and publication ethics, authorship and contributorship, complaints and appeals, data sharing, ethical oversight, intellectual property, post-publication discussions, corrections and retractions clearly stated
- Policy on chatbots and other writing assistance tools in line with industry best practices
This commitment contributes to maintaining the highest standards of research ethics within the scientific community.
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Related Guidelines
Related Training Materials
References
- ALLEA. (2023). The European code of conduct for research integrity. Revised Edition. https://doi.org/10.26356/ECOC
- Science Europe. (2015). Research integrity: what it means, why it is important and how we might protect. https://www.cnr.it/sites/default/files/public/media/doc_istituzionali/ethics/Science-Europe-Working-Group-on-Research-Integrity--Briefing-Paper-Research-integrity--What-it-Means-Why-it-is-Important-and-How-we-Might-Protect-it.pdf
- Universities UK. (2019). The concordat to support research integrity. https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/sites/default/files/field/downloads/2021-08/Updated%20FINAL-the-concordat-to-support-research-integrity.pdf
Further reading
- Anon. (2018). Research Integrity. Science with and for society, policy brief. 4 https://era.gv.at/public/documents/3744/Policy_brief_Research_Integrity__SiSnet.pdf
- Bouter, L. (2020). What research institutions can do to foster research integrity. Science and Engineering Ethics. 26: 2363–2369. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-020-00178-5
- European Commission. (2018). MLE on Research Integrity. https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/statistics/policy-support-facility/mle-research-integrity
- European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Hermerén, G., Zwart, H., Marušić, A. et al., (2019). Mutual learning exercise on research integrity. Final report. https://doi.org/10.2777/72096
- ENRIO http://www.enrio.eu/
- European Science Foundation. (2000). Good scientific practice in research and scholarship. http://archives.esf.org/fileadmin/Public_documents/Publications/ESPB10.pdf
- Godecharle, S., Nemery, B., & Dierickx, K. (2014). Heterogeneity in European research integrity guidance: relying on values or norms? Journal of empirical research on human research ethics, 9(3): 79–90. https://lirias.kuleuven.be/retrieve/275827
- Lerouge, I., & Hol, A. (2020). Towards a research integrity culture at universities: from recommendations to implementation. LERU publications. https://www.leru.org/files/Towards-a-Research-Integrity-Culture-at-Universities-full-paper.pdf
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2017). Fostering integrity in research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/21896
- Resnik, D.B. (2020). What is ethics in research and why is it important? https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis
- Ščepanović, R., Labib, K., Buljan, I. et al. (2021). Practices for research integrity promotion in research performing organisations and research funding organisations: a scoping review. Science and engineering ethics. 27(4). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-021-00281-1
- Science Europe. (2016). Research Integrity Practices in Science Europe Member Organisations. Zenodo.https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5060197
Glossary
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are my research integrity obligations as a member of the academic/research community?
- Does my institution/founder/publisher have a policy on research integrity, research misconduct and/or responsible research?
- Do funding sources influence editorial decisions?
- How can I manage conflicts of interest?
- When and how should I make a report of possible research misconduct?
Licensing
This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License