“The UK Committee on Research Integrity’s January 2023 meeting was hosted by Dr Malcolm Skingle, GSK’s Director of Academic Liaison, at their research and development centre in Stevenage. GSK is a global leader in pharmaceutical research, development and manufacturing. The focus of attention by industry on quality, integrity and compliance provided a different perspective on Research Integrity beyond the usual lens of higher education institutes (HEIs). There is much that can be learnt from best practice in industry and the committee is keen to widen our engagement beyond the confines of an HEI horizon.
The committee had two stimulating presentations from guest speakers: Prof. Steven Curry, Chair of the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), gave an excellent overview of the perils of metric-driven behaviours in research and assessment of research and how DORA is providing a framework to a more balanced and holistic approach; Dr Robert Vandersluis, Vice-President of Artificial Intelligence at GSK, gave a fascinating talk on the ethical and public policy issues surrounding the development and deployment of AI systems in the pharmaceutical sector. The tremendous benefits were made clear as well as the potential pitfalls which must be carefully navigated. The scale of research and development at GSK is impressive and the committee visited one laboratory with an excellent presentation from Dr Carla Newman, Scientific Leader for Cellular Imaging and Dynamics, on ground-breaking research on single-cell multi-omics.
In our committee meeting, we identified our strategic focus for the year ahead and made decisions on our workplan on misconduct in research. We approved our Strategic Plan that was revised following a very helpful consultation exercise. The work of the committee is gaining momentum and there is attention to the need to deliver focused benefits to support the UK.“
Ian Gilmore, committee member
UK Committee on Research Integrity website
The UK Committee on Research Integrity is delighted to announce the launch of its new website.
On the website, users can find out about the committee’s role, remit and governance. The website provides transparency about the committee’s work.
We will continue to update and improve the website. We will add further resources, details on new projects, news items and blog articles.
Explore the website: https://ukcori.org/
Addressing poor research practice and research misconduct
The committee has launched a new workstream that will develop a comprehensive insight of the UK research landscape in relation to poor research practice and research misconduct. The workstream will make appropriate and informed recommendations to improve research quality and strengthen confidence across the system in how these issues are managed.
Led by committee members Louise Dunlop and Maria Delgado, the committee is bringing together a small working group who will work in partnership to examine:
- the scale of research misconduct and poor research practices in the UK
- the interrelationship between research culture and research conduct
- approaches for addressing research misconduct and reducing questionable and poor research practice
There is already activity underway across the sector, including UKRIO’s review of research misconduct. UKRIO and the UK committee on research integrity are working together. The committee is looking forward to the complementarity of the work.
The committee’s workstream will take a phased approach, and will run until Spring 2024. For more information, please see the website.
Analysis of research integrity annual statements
Research Consulting has been appointed by the committee to review annual integrity reports prepared by Higher Education Institutions and a small number of Independent Research Organisations.
The work will provide a novel understanding of the state of research integrity in the UK academic research system and act as a baseline from which trends can be monitored. Preliminary findings will be included in the committee’s first annual statement which is expected to be published in Summer 2023, with a full report to follow.
Research consulting may contact Higher Education Institutions and Independent Research Organisations for access to previous annual statements that are no longer available online. For more information on this work, please see the website.
Accountability for research integrity
In Spring 2022, funders, publishers, research integrity officers and active researchers attended the first committee event. The series of workshops aimed to enable participants to share diverse ways of thinking about accountability for research integrity, about who is accountable to whom, for what, and why through the research lifecycle.
Accountability is a key principle of the Concordat to Support Research Integrity, and yet there is little discussion about what it means in practice. The workshops opened a conversation among and between stakeholders.