Research with integrity – making a statement – Cancer Research UK

What does an annual assertion on analysis integrity say?

We have now progressed from the early days of transient summaries and considerations over confidentiality or perceived detrimental connotations to the publication of detailed narrative annual statements. These now embody areas reminiscent of:

• Institutional methods for fostering constructive analysis cultures.
• Coaching in greatest practices.
• Analysis integrity insurance policies.
• Consciousness-raising, monitoring and auditing.
• Sector engagement.
• Processes for coping with allegations of analysis misconduct and conducting investigations.
• Reflections on how these experiences are used to repeatedly enhance analysis practices.

I’ve written four annual statements for the CRUK Scotland Institute and used guidance from UKRIO to construction them. I’ve discovered placing the annual statements collectively to be invaluable for contemplating and consolidating our analysis integrity actions over the yr, figuring out examples of excellent apply, and figuring out gaps in our apply and potential areas to develop and concentrate on within the following yr.

Why would possibly you need to learn your organisation’s annual assertion on analysis integrity?

I believe the statements reveal how organisations embed analysis integrity practices and what insurance policies underpin these actions. Additionally they present an excellent place to begin for guiding you to what help and coaching can be found.

As well as, transparency over investigating allegations of analysis misconduct allows you to consider how vital analysis integrity is to an organisation, providing you with confidence that analysis integrity is on the forefront of their strategic priorities.

Can annual statements inform us something about analysis requirements within the UK?

The UK Committee on Analysis Integrity (UKCORI) and the Concordat signatories wished to reply this query and appointed Analysis Consulting to survey the UK’s 134 higher education institutions that obtain funding from UKRI.

Analysis Consulting’s report, printed in July 2023, confirmed that almost all of those organisations now produce an annual assertion and that they “consider research integrity to be a strategic priority”. Evaluation of statements confirmed that while organisations are rising their analysis integrity actions, these are heterogeneous and context dependent. Additionally they discovered that the content material of annual statements had been left as much as particular person organisations.

Different key findings have been that organisations are incorporating discussions on analysis tradition and classes discovered from analysis misconduct investigations into their analysis integrity actions, and that help and coaching is principally targeted on early profession researchers.  Nevertheless, this evaluation was sophisticated by the dearth of a constant construction and format to annual statements, as every establishment might decide their very own strategy to writing them.

Subsequent steps for annual statements on analysis integrity

This various info in narrative annual statements prompted the Concordat signatories to pilot the usage of a template to standardise reporting and to strengthen the concentrate on sharing good apply. The template, produced on behalf of the Concordat signatories by the UK Analysis Integrity Workplace (UKRIO) divides the report into sections together with steerage on finishing them.