Designing and implementing a research integrity promotion plan: Recommendations for research funders

Abstract

Various stakeholders in science have put research integrity high on their agenda. Among them, research funders are prominently placed to foster research integrity by requiring that the organizations and individual researchers they support make an explicit commitment to research integrity. Moreover, funders need to adopt appropriate research integrity practices themselves. To facilitate this, we recommend that funders develop and implement a Research Integrity Promotion Plan (RIPP). This Consensus View offers a range of examples of how funders are already promoting research integrity, distills 6 core topics that funders should cover in a RIPP, and provides guidelines on how to develop and implement a RIPP. We believe that the 6 core topics we put forward will guide funders towards strengthening research integrity policy in their organization and guide the researchers and research organizations they fund.

Recent trends: Retractions of articles in the oncology field

“…There are many underlying reasons behind scientific misconduct, including the lack of ethical self-discipline of some researchers, insufficient research training for a significant number of researchers and clinicians, inadequate research management in the organization, and problems in assessment and evaluation. In this regard, the relevant departments have taken some targeted institutional measures [ 19 , 20 ]. First, all parties should strengthen the education and training of researchers in integrity.…”

Why research integrity matters and how it can be improved

“…Identifying and handling potential conflicts of interest among reviewers and committee members is one of them. The SOPs4RI consortium recommends that funding agencies should also develop a research integrity promotion plan (Horbach et al 2022). For funding agencies there is a toolbox available on the SOPs4RI website (https://sops4ri.eu/), which currently contains 29 guidelines.…”