In 2012 Universities UK published the Concordat to Support Research Integrity and the five commitments set out the UK's responsibility to maintain high standards of rigour and integrity in its research:
- highest standards of rigour and integrity
- conducting research according to appropriate ethical, legal and professional frameworks
- providing a research environment which is underpinned by a culture of integrity
- transparency, robustness and fairness in dealing with allegations of research misconduct
- working together to strengthen research integrity and reviewing progress regularly.
Universities in the UK are required to report on their compliance with the concordat in an annual statement. UCL divisions and institutes should be prepared to report on steps they have taken to promote good practice and nurtutre a culture of research integrity in order to feed into the UCL annual statement.
To support UCL's School of Life and Medical Sciences divisions and institutes, the Joint Research Office has been working with the Office of the Vice Provost (Research) to provide materials for introductory seminars. If you would like the JRO and the Office of the Vice Provost to work with you on arranging an introductory seminar on Research Integrity please contact Dr Susan Kerrison s.kerrison@ucl.ac.uk.
UCL statement on Research Integrity
UCL considers high standards of research integrity across all of its activities to be of the utmost importance which is reflected in the UCL Statement on Research Integrity. The statement sets out the standards expected by all those involved with research at or in collaboration with UCL, including adherence to the Code of Conduct for Research and the principles of integrity contained within the statement.
The research integrity website provides advice and guidance on good practice throughout the research life cycle, from design and ethical approval through to publication and authorship, as well as new guidance on collaborative working, research outside the UK and guidelines for external researchers who wish to recruit UCL staff and students.
UCL key policies on Research Integrity
- Code of conduct for Research
- Publications policy
- Research Ethics Framework
- Reporting misconduct
These and other relevant UCL policies can be found in the governance section on UCL's website.
Click here to view UCL's Declaration of Interest
Publications on Research Integrity
- The number of scholarly articles retracted for fraud or suspected fraud has increase nearly ten-fold since 1975 (Fang 17028-17033 PNAS Oct 16, 2012 vol. 109, no 42).
- A series of articles published recently in the Lancet (January 8, 2014 (13)62678-1), expressed concerns that a significant number of published scientific findings that cannot be repeated.
- World conference on Research Integrity and their statements Lisbon 2007, Singapore 2010 and Montreal 2013.
- Retraction watch http://retractionwatch.com/