Research integrity: nine ways to move from talk to walk
How can a European mandate support organizational reform without squashing grassroots enthusiasm? By supporting choices and offering tools that individual organizations can adopt. Examples include the UK Research Integrity Office’s procedure to investigate research misconduct and the European Network of Research Integrity Offices’ recommendations for doing so.
... read morePractices for Research Integrity Promotion in Research Performing Organisations and Research Funding Organisations: A Scoping Review
A comprehensive search of the existing RI promotion practices showed that initiatives mostly come from RPOs while only a few RI practices originate from RFOs. This study showed that more RI guidance documents are needed for natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities since only a small number of documents was developed specifically for these research fields. The explored documents and the gaps in knowledge identified in this study can be used for further development of RI promotion practices in RPOs and RFOs.
... read moreImportant Topics for Fostering Research Integrity by Research Performing and Research Funding Organizations: A Delphi Consensus Study
We conducted a three round Delphi survey study to explore which RI topics to address in institutional RI policies. A total of 68 RPO and 52 RFO experts, representing different disciplines, countries and genders, completed one, two or all rounds of the study. The topics that ranked highest for RPOs concerned education and training, supervision and mentoring, dealing with RI breaches, and supporting a responsible research process (e.g. through quality assurance). The highest ranked RFO topics concerned dealing with breaches of RI, conflicts of interest, and setting expectations on RPOs (e.g. about educating researchers about RI).
... read moreStrengthening research integrity: which topic areas should organisations focus on?
The work reports on a comprehensive focus group study with 30 focus group interviews carried out in eight different countries across Europe focusing on the following research question: “Which RI topics would researchers and stakeholders from the four main areas of research (humanities, social science, natural science incl. technical science, and medical science incl. biomedicine) prioritise for RPOs and RFOs?” The paper gives an overview of the priorities of the four main areas of research and provides six policy recommendations and a reflection on how the results of the study can be used in RPOs and RFOs.
... read moreEducation and training policies for research integrity: Insights from a focus group study
We conducted thirty focus groups, engaging 147 participants in eight European countries. Using a mixed deductive-inductive thematic analysis, we identified five themes: (1) RI education should be available to all; (2) education and training approaches and goals should be tailored; (3) motivating trainees is essential; (4) both formal and informal educational formats are necessary; and (5) institutions should take into account various individual, institutional, and system-of-science factors when implementing RI education. Our findings suggest that institutions should make RI education attractive for all and tailor training to disciplinary-specific contexts.
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