Fostering Integrity in Research (2017) / Chapter Skim
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9 Identifying and Promoting Best Practices for Research Integrity
9 Identifying and Promoting Best Practices for Research Integrity
Pages 163-194
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From page 163... ...
. In addition, responsible research practices have constituted the primary subject matter for responsible conduct of research education activities, as illustrated by various educational guides (Gustafsson et al., 2006; Steneck, 2007; NAS-NAE-IOM, 2009b; IAP, 2016)
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From page 164... ...
has specified nine core areas of responsible conduct of research instruction. Given the extensive effort to formulate responsible research practices, what does this report hope to add to the discussion?
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From page 165... ...
The best practices outlined here aim to reflect best practices in the context of the entire system of research and the interdependence of researchers, research institutions, funding agencies, journals, societies, and other participants. Developing this updated framework of responsible research practices will help the research enterprise identify particular practices that should be better understood and adhered to and how such understanding and adherence might be promoted and fostered.
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From page 166... ...
The committee has aimed to describe best practices that are specific enough to be implemented but that may also encompass a number of detailed components. Responsible research practice checklists are provided to enumerate these components.
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From page 167... ...
The research process itself includes planning research, performing research, and disseminating results, and researchers have responsibilities at all points during the process. In planning research, they need to consider the effects of research, both positive and negative, on the broader society.
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From page 168... ...
They should take careful and timely action when a concern about research integrity arises. As a prerequisite, they should understand the definitions of, and policies to address, research misconduct adopted by their institutions and funding agencies.
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Be transparent when communicating with researchers from other disciplines, policy makers, and the broader public. Decisions about authorship of research publications are an important aspect of the responsible conduct of research.
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Because of this, authorship often becomes a fraught topic and can invite misconduct and detrimental research practices. In addition, authorship carries responsibilities.
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From page 171... ...
Here, the term mentor refers to a broader group that includes supervisors as well as other more senior researchers who are in a position to contribute to the professional development of trainees and junior researchers. Professional development encompasses the development of technical expertise, socialization in research practices, and adherence to the highest standards of research integrity.
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From page 172... ...
Peer reviewers of grants and journal submissions provide the guiding and corrective machinery that enables the research enterprise to progress. As in other contexts of their work, researchers who serve as reviewers are expected to be honest, objective, and accountable and to preserve confidentiality and protect the ideas of others during the review process.
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Understand and comply with relevant institutional and governmental regulations governing research, including those specific to a given discipline or field. Research often involves risks to human subjects and animals, to those in the lab, or to those in the buildings where the research takes place.
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From page 174... ...
multiple approaches adapted to the specific environments within each institution." (IOM-NRC, 2002) Specific responsibilities include the maintenance of policies and procedures to investigate and address research misconduct -- ncluding the re i sponsibility to notify the appropriate federal agency of misconduct investigations involving that agency's funds -- and the provision of educational and training programs for students and faculty to raise awareness of research integrity (IOMNRC, 2002; NAS-NAE-IOM, 1992; NSF-OIG, 2013; OSTP, 2000)
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From page 175... ...
In fulfilling their responsibilities to create an environment where the fundamental values of research are valued and reinforced, institutions need to consider organizational and management issues that have not traditionally been associated with research integrity and have not been traditionally seen as organizational responsibilities. In this regard, institutional leaders and others with research administration responsibilities need to demonstrate through their approach to oversight and implementation of policies that fostering research integrity is a central priority that supports the quality of research.
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From page 176... ...
. Another imperative is to regularly communicate relevant institutional policies -- such as the definition of research misconduct -- as well as the rights and responsibilities of researchers directly to young researchers.
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A baseline expectation is that institutions should create a climate for research integrity and institute supportive policies and practices. The 2002 report Integrity in Scientific Research explains that research organizations "engage in activities that help establish an internal climate and organizational culture that are either supportive of or ambivalent toward the responsible conduct of research" (IOM-NRC, 2002)
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Best Practice I-3: Performing Research Misconduct Investigations. Perform regular inventories of institutional policies, procedures, and capabilities for investigating and addressing research misconduct and address weaknesses that are identified.
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Institutions also need to have policies and mechanisms in place that allow them to call in external sources of expertise, particularly when their financial, reputational, or other interests may be affected by an allegation. Incorporating external members on the institutional committees that undertake research misconduct investigations is one mechanism for accomplishing this.
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From page 180... ...
The development of RCR training and education programs and related issues -- including funder mandates, content, delivery mechanisms, and assessment -- are covered in detail in Chapter 10. The 1992 report Responsible Science noted that institutional RCR education programs were not very common at that time and that the research enterprise was ambivalent about such programs (NAS-NAE-IOM, 1992)
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From page 181... ...
The 1992 report Responsible Science mentions scientific journals and editors and contains a general recommendation that journals and societies support research integrity. Journal concerns and responsibilities related to research integrity have grown and shifted in recent years, as article retractions have increased, a series of high-profile cases of fabricated research published in several high-profile journals has come to light, and relatively new challenges such as image manipulation have prompted journals to develop new policies and approaches.
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From page 182... ...
• Share practices of strong departments and address shortcomings of weak departments. Performing Research Misconduct Investigations • Meet formal compliance responsibilities by ensuring that policies and capa bilities for performing fair, thorough, and timely investigations of research misconduct allegations are in place.
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Predicting the directions and extent of progress in information technologies is difficult, yet principles and best practices in publishing should be flexible enough to be applied as innovations in research practice arise. The Society for Neuroscience's recently revised ethics policy and guidelines for responsible conduct in scientific publishing are useful examples (SfN, 2010)
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Require openness from authors regarding public access to data, code, and other information necessary to verify or reproduce reported results. Require openness from authors and peer reviewers regarding funding sources and conflicts of interest.
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Journals should also take steps to safeguard the integrity of the peer review process. COPE's guidelines for peer reviewers include submitting a declaration of potential competing interests, respecting the confidentiality of the process, and not intentionally delaying the process (Hames, 2013)
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government's definition of research misconduct, practices such as honorary authorship and unacknowledged ghost authorship, as well as authorship disputes, pose challenges to research integrity. The Council of Science Editors points out that "problems with authorship are not uncommon and can threaten the integrity of scientific research" (CSE, 2012b)
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Box 9-3 provides a best practices checklist for journals and other scholarly communicators. Research Sponsors and Users of Research Results Sponsors and users of research occupy particularly important positions in the research enterprise.
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While specific recommendations to sponsors are developed in Chapter 11, this section identifies several specific best practices that research sponsors and users of research results can adopt to ensure research integrity. The 1992 report Responsible Science recommended several roles for government research sponsors related to integrity, including adopting a common framework of definitions of research misconduct and common policies, adopting policies and procedures that ensure appropriate and prompt responses to allegations of misconduct, and providing support for institutional efforts to discourage questionable research practices (NAS-NAE-IOM, 1992)
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Aligning funding and regulatory policies with the promotion of research integrity and research quality has several distinct aspects. For example, as described in Chapter 4, some funding agencies and regulatory bodies maintain policies on research misconduct and exercise oversight over how institutions address allegations of misconduct.
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. Chapter 6 explores whether changes in the level and structure of research funding might be associated with detrimental research practices or misconduct.
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. Still, since clinical trials are an important component of industry-sponsored research that is published in peer-reviewed journals, industry sponsors can make an important contribution by registering all of their trials, reporting all results in a timely way, and sharing data responsibly.
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BOX 9-4 Best Practices Checklist for Research Sponsors and Users of Research Aligning Policies with Research Integrity • Maintain clear policies on research misconduct, and implement them consistently. • Increase awareness of how policies and practices affect research integrity and quality, and act on that knowledge.
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. This points to the importance of regularly updating codes of conduct in order to keep pace with changing research practices within disciplines and new ethical issues.
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From page 194... ...
• Foster discipline-specific RCR education. the American Physical Society, which developed an extensive set of case studies in the mid-2000s following several high-profile cases of research misconduct in physics (APS, 2004)
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