Report released by the European Science Foundation (ESF) shows that most countries in Europe have established mechanisms to promote good research practices which safeguards research integrity
Instances of serious research misconduct such as the Hwang case in Korea are fortunately rare but the case does beg the bigger question of whether national research organisations in Europe have adequate policies and practises to safeguard research integrity.
The report Stewards of Integrity provides for the first time an overview of approaches of major national research organisations promoting good research practice and handling allegations of suspected cases of research misconduct.
The report is based on a survey conducted by the ESF in 32 European countries.
A variety of materials such as guidelines, codes of conduct for researchers or descriptions of mechanisms to report and investigate research misconduct were collected and analysed.
"One can only be pleased to see that in most countries research organisations have taken the responsibility to act as stewards of Integrity' by developing clear codes of conduct and establishing sound mechanisms to handle allegations of wrongdoing," commented John Marks, ESF deputy chief executive, who oversaw the exercise.
At the time of compilation of the materials four countries reported ongoing initiatives to establish research integrity structures while other 18 countries have explicit institutional mechanisms in place to promote research integrity, according to the report.
"We are witnessing a tremendous dynamics in the development of research integrity structures.
"While some countries established the mechanisms or seriously updated their systems in reaction to major research misconduct cases, (this was the case in Germany in the 90s and in Norway more recently).
"We see today more and more countries and organisations embarking pro-actively in developing frameworks to encourage research integrity," said Marks.
"It seems that the efforts to stimulate debates on best practices standards such as the OECD Global Science Forum on research Integrity and the World Conference on Research Integrity are bearing fruit," he added.
The First World Conference on Research Integrity, held in Lisbon in September 2007, was initiated by the European Science Foundation (ESF) and the Office of Research Integrity of the US Department of Health and Human Services (ORI).
It gathered about 300 participants from 47 countries to discuss strategies for fostering responsible conduct in research and harmonizing research integrity policies.
In a follow up, ESF is launching an ESF Member Organisation Forum on Research Integrity.
The Forum, which will involve ESF member organisations and other relevant institutions, will serve as a platform to continue the dialogue on how to cooperate on promoting good research practice.
It will also support and encourage organisations which do not yet have appropriate structures (but are interested in developing them) to learn from experiences of others, and to initiate debates in their respective communities on adequate models with the view of establishing them.
The Forum will also provide input to the preparation of the second World Conference on Research Integrity, which will be held in 2010 in Singapore.
The report Stewards of Integrity: Institutional approaches to promote and safeguard good research practice in Europe can be downloaded from the ESF website.
