What is Research Integrity

Integrity characterizes both individual researchers and the institutions in which they work. For a scientist, integrity embodies above all the individual's commitment to intellectual honesty and personal responsibility. It is an aspect of moral character and experience. For an institution, it is a commitment to creating an environment that promotes responsible conduct by embracing standards of excellence, trustworthiness, and lawfulness and then assessing whether researchers and administrators perceive that an environment with high levels of integrity has been created.

— National Academies of Sciences, Integrity in Scientific Research (2002)

Adherence to professional values and practices by individuals and institutions when conducting, reporting, and applying the results of scientific activities ensures objectivity, clarity, and reproducibility, and that provides insulation from bias, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, inappropriate influence, political interference, censorship, and inadequate procedural and information security.

— U.S. Department of Agriculture, Scientific Integrity and Research Misconduct

Roles in Research Integrity

Researchers

For the individual scientist, integrity embodies above all a commitment to intellectual honesty and personal responsibility for one's actions and to a range of practices that characterize responsible research conduct. These practices include:

  • intellectual honesty in proposing, performing, and reporting research;
  • accuracy in representing contributions to research proposals and reports;
  • fairness in peer review;
  • collegiality in scientific interactions, including communications and sharing of resources;
  • transparency in conflicts of interest or potential conflicts of interest;
  • protection of human subjects in the conduct of research;
  • humane care of animals in the conduct of research; and
  • adherence to the mutual responsibilities between investigators and their research teams.
Institutions

Institutions seeking to create an environment that promotes responsible conduct by individual scientists and that fosters integrity must establish and continuously monitor structures, processes, policies, and procedures that:

  • provide leadership in support of responsible conduct of research;
  • encourage respect for everyone involved in the research enterprise;
  • promote productive interactions between trainees and mentors;
  • advocate adherence to the rules regarding all aspects of the conduct of research, especially research involving human subjects and animals;
  • anticipate, reveal, and manage individual and institutional conflicts of interest;
  • arrange timely and thorough inquiries and investigations of allegations of scientific misconduct and apply appropriate administrative sanctions;
  • offer educational opportunities pertaining to integrity in the conduct of research; and
  • monitor and evaluate the institutional environment supporting integrity in the conduct of research and use this knowledge for continuous quality improvement.

Compliance Areas

Conflict of Interest in Research
Responsible Conduct of Research
Research Misconduct

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