Last month saw the launch of the UK Committee on Research Integrity Annual Statement 2024  which describes the overall health of integrity in our UK research system. The 2024 statement highlighted five recommendations that individuals and organisations can adopt to retain and enhance research integrity.  We hope that you find the statement interesting and informative.

The UK Committee on Research Integrity extends warm thanks to colleagues across the research system who give their time to inform and challenge our endeavours. We depend on such input. If you would like the chance to be involved, please keep in touch.  

Exploring indicators of research integrity report

We are pleased to announce the publication of our report on the Indicators of Research Integrity. In this report, we present our work on the development of indicators of research integrity for use by higher education institutions (HEIs) in the UK.

Once again, thank you to everyone who generously took part in workshops and conversations about indicators of research integrity, particularly the many stakeholders and the project’s Advisory Group. We look forward to our continued collaboration with the sector as we work together to strengthen research integrity in the UK.

The Foundation for Science and Technology (FST) event: Safeguarding trust in science – the role of research integrity 9 July

Co-chairs of the committee, Professors Rachael Gooberman-Hill and Andrew George joined Professor Christopher Smith (AHRC), Cathy Alexander (GO-Science) and Sarah Jenkins (Elsevier) at an FST event on 9 July. The event focused on integrity and trust in science, including views from publishing, higher education, funding bodies and government. 

With a room at capacity and large online audience, the event was chaired by Rt Hon the Lord Willetts. Discussion centred on trust, evaluation, and AI in research integrity.  The committee thanks everyone who attended and took part in the conversation.

A recording of the evening can be found here: Events – FST (foundation.org.uk).

Prior to the event FST published Research Integrity: a current view from Wellcome, by Anne Taylor, Associate Director, Funding Operations and Guidance, The Wellcome Trust.

Our response to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2029 Open Access consultation

We provided our response to the Open Access consultation for REF 2029 in June 2024. In the response we reiterated the importance of the REF to assess research excellence and to drive change. We detailed the committee’s view about proposals in the consultation document and provided two recommendations:

• that the requirement for open access publication remains equivalent to that of REF 2021
• that Green Open Access continues to be sufficient to meet REF requirements.

You can read our response here: Our response to the REF 2029 Open Access consultation – UKCORI

Case study

We have published a new in-depth case in our series on approaches and initiatives from across the research system. This case from Open Pharma describes transparency in the communication of pharmaceutical research. You can read it on the resources page of our website.

Early Careers Researchers (ECR) Roundtable – Scotland

The committee extends warm thanks to the Early Career Researchers who attended the roundtable event on 28 June at the University of Dundee.

The committee was pleased to have the opportunity to understand the views of ECRs about how research misconduct is managed and to hear about the challenges to delivery of research with integrity that are faced by early career colleagues. The session generated great discussion and raised some excellent points that will inform our workstream: Addressing poor research practice and research misconduct – UKCORI

UK Committee on Research Integrity: Reflections, June 2024 meeting

The UK Committee on Research Integrity’s June 2024 meeting was held at the University of Dundee, hosted by Ralitsa Madsen, Principal Investigator within the School of Life Sciences and a member of the committee.

The committee were pleased to be joined for part of the day by members of the Scottish Research Integrity Network (SRIN) and other thought leaders on research integrity from across Scotland. Discussions centred around general issues of integrity. The committee was impressed with their enthusiasm and proactive approach to collaborating across the Scottish sector.

Colleagues updated on progress with the Committee’s various workstreams. Members working on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) workstream reiterated the importance of the committee’s contribution to the AI integrity agenda, recommending that AI integrity is both of upmost importance and of massive scale. Thus, overseeing integrity within AI requires dedicated effort.

The committee was updated on the work within the research misconduct workstream. The commissioning document for a report has been issued with intended completion due in summer 2025. A key outcome of the report will be information about the nature of regulation and the ways this is being formalised in other sectors from which we might learn.

The committee also reviewed and commented upon the research integrity indicators report which we have just published (see above). They thanked the project team, the advisory group and the secretariat for the significant work that have been required to deliver both the report and the underpinning workshops. The committee urged for the report to be published as soon as possible so that it has maximum impact on future sector discussions, including the forthcoming People, Culture and Environment (PCE) Phase 3 workshops to inform REF that will be held in the autumn.

In moving the agenda forward we remain cognisant and committed to the integrity of the attribution of ideas and acknowledgment of contributions of organisations and individuals.

The committee considered its future priorities. Within this context the committee discussed both the focus and breadth of issues, but also the modes of influencing and co-ordinating the sector. There was broad recognition that moving forward we need to pay more attention to research integrity in the non-HEI part of the sector. More generally, the committee recognised the importance of several issues facing the sector, and how these might frame our presentation. The committee also recognised that it has a key role to play on harmonisation and hence supporting the reduction in bureaucracy for institutions.

Miles Padgett, UK Committee on Research Integrity Member