New call for joint effort to bolster research integrity

Paper outlines roles for every part of the research landscape to help improve trust in research – including journalists

2023-08-17

(Press-News.org) Who’s responsible for upholding research integrity, mitigating misinformation or disinformation and increasing trust in research? Everyone – even those reporting on research – says a new article published by leading research integrity experts.

In their paper published in the journal Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics, Dr Leslie McIntosh (Vice President Research Integrity, Digital Science) and Ms Cynthia Hudson Vitale (Director, Science Policy and Scholarship, Association of Research Libraries) call for improved policies and worldwide coordination between funding bodies, publishers, academic institutions, scholarly societies, policy-makers and the media.

“Scientific reputation requires a coordinated approach across all stakeholders,” they write.

“The burden of improving scientific integrity most naturally falls on those individuals conducting research; yet their work does not occur in a vacuum… the responsibility of upholding, fostering, and maintaining scientific integrity should rest on all stakeholders producing and consuming scientific information.”

Dr McIntosh says this sentiment is echoed by Dr Holden Thorp’s recent comments in Science when writing his editorial about Generative Approach to Research Integrity.

In their article, Dr McIntosh and Ms Hudson Vitale say: “Systematic change comes when all players in the ecosystem work toward a common goal. Organizational stakeholders must coordinate efforts to fortify science integrity: making science better, and better science easier.”

They say a global shift in culture will lead to advances in research integrity. To do this, responsibility must be shared, with “changes needed at the macro level in the scientific ecosystem”.

“The current ‘culture’ of science may be collaborative at the research level, yet is often disparate at the ecosystem level… disparate stakeholders and processes across the research integrity ecosystem need to increase coordination and communication,” they write.

Dr McIntosh and Ms Hudson Vitale have produced a table that summarizes the roles to be played and the changes required of each of the key stakeholder groups. This includes:

Funders – Funding agencies “hold critical keys in fortifying the ecosystem”; researchers and academic institutions, which are motivated to earn funding for research, will respond to agency policy requirements, including a tightening of research integrity.

Publishers – “…must further their push for research transparency and move beyond just data into the sharing of complete methods, interactive models, code, and software.”

Scholarly societies – Global coordination between societies and other stakeholders is needed. “Through coordination with other societies, publishers, and researchers, scholarly societies can support graduate students, faculty, and researchers in this critical research skill of the education and implementation of transparently reporting research. From an infrastructure perspective, this would be invaluable.”

Academic research institutions – They should assess their services available to researchers, and consider additional ways to support responsible collaboration on research integrity, while offering solutions to streamline and alleviate any unnecessary demands on researchers.

Journalists and Media – “Journalists are an integral part of the new public and scientific discourse necessary for a well-informed community,” Dr McIntosh and Ms Hudson Vitale write.

“Given the important role that journalism has in shaping and influencing public discourse (e.g., COVID pandemic public discourse), the integrity and factualness of news articles is critical to uphold a well-informed community and create checks on federal and local policies.

“News organizations and media platforms (including and especially social media) must support the resources and initiatives that can enhance trust in science communication and make journalism a trusted source of scientific information.”

Policy-makers – “More policy-makers must establish policies to increase trust and uphold the research integrity of science, and then follow up those policies with assessments, modifications, and refinement to support the research enterprise.”

See their full paper here: https://doi.org/10.3389/frma.2023.1134082

About Digital Science

Digital Science is a technology company working to make research more efficient. We invest in, nurture and support innovative businesses and technologies that make all parts of the research process more open and effective. Our portfolio includes admired brands Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, ReadCube, Symplectic, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, Overleaf, Ripeta, Writefull, and metaphacts. We believe that together, we can help researchers make a difference. Visit www.digital-science.com and follow @digitalsci on Twitter or on LinkedIn.

Media contacts

Simon Linacre, Head of Content, Brand & Press, Digital Science: Mobile: +44 7484 381477, s.linacre@digital-science.com

David Ellis, Press, PR & Social Manager, Digital Science, Mobile +61 447 783 023: d.ellis@digital-science.com

END

[Attachments] See images for this press release:

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New UCF project examines key role soils play in keeping the planet cool

2023-08-17

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA New UCF Project Examines Key Role Soils Play in Keeping the Planet Cool The research, funded by a grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, will examine a method to keep carbon from escaping soils and trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere. ORLANDO, Aug.17, 2023 – A new project from the University of Central Florida is looking to the soils for a way to cool the skies. Funded by a nearly $750,000 grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the research will examine a method to keep carbon from escaping soils and ...

Rotman professors and Ph.D. students honored at academic conferences

2023-08-17

August 17, 2023 Rotman Professors and PhD Students Honoured at Academic Conferences Toronto – Faculty and doctoral students at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management were honoured at recent academic conferences for their research and contributions. At the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association last week in Denver, Jee-Eun Shin, an assistant professor of accounting, received the Best Early Career Researcher in Management Accounting Award sponsored by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. ...

University of Colorado data researchers connect diet to changes in the microbiome

2023-08-17

“Should I be taking a probiotic?” is a question that Maggie Stanislawski, PhD, assistant professor in the University of Colorado Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI), gets asked often. The answer is complicated. Every person’s gut microbiome is unique, and many probiotic supplements sold in grocery stores may not effectively bolster gut health for everyone, she says. The researcher, who specializes in the role of the gut microbiome in obesity and cardiometabolic disease, instead points to the importance ...

Largest genetic study of brain structure identifies how the brain is organised

2023-08-17

The largest ever study of the genetics of the brain – encompassing some 36,000 brain scans – has identified more than 4,000 genetic variants linked to brain structure. The results of the study, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, are published in Nature Genetics today. Our brains are very complex organs, with huge variety between individuals in terms of the overall volume of the brain, how it is folded and how thick these folds are. Little is known about how our genetic make-up shapes the development of the brain. To answer this question, a team led by researchers at the Autism Research ...

Discovery of chikungunya virus’s “invisibility shield” may lead to vaccines or treatments

2023-08-17

August 17, 2023—(BRONX, NY)—Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have found that the virus responsible for chikungunya fever can spread directly from cell to cell—perhaps solving the longstanding mystery of how the virus, now emerging as a major health threat, can manage to escape antibodies circulating in the bloodstream. The findings, published today in Nature Microbiology, could help in developing effective vaccines or treatments for chikungunya fever, a debilitating and increasingly common mosquito-borne disease. A Possible Explanation ...

Immunotherapy drug combo helps extend the lives of patients with metastatic melanoma

2023-08-17

A research team co-led by UCLA investigators has shown that an immunotherapy drug combination can be an effective second-line therapy for patients with an aggressive and deadly type of melanoma that is resistant to the widely used immunotherapy drugs known as PD-1 inhibitors. In clinical trials, the investigators found that the combination therapy can extend the amount of time patients live without their cancer worsening, known as progression-free survival, and helps overcome resistance to prior immunotherapies, allowing more patients to benefit from the treatment. The ...

Towards organ preservation: Animal resistance to cold reflected in stem cells

2023-08-17

Researchers led by Genshiro Sunagawa at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) in Japan have shown that an animal’s stem cells possess the same level of cold resistance as the animal itself. Published August 17 in Cell Reports, the study focuses on mice with different hibernation-like characteristics, showing that those with the best resistance to cold temperatures have stems cells that generate energy differently than others. Beyond these immediate findings, the study establishes mouse stem cells as a practical model ...

Anti-obesity drug improves associative learning in people with obesity

2023-08-17

To control our behaviour, the brain must be able to form associations. This involves, for example, associating a neutral external stimulus with a consequence following the stimulus (e.g., the hotplate glows red - you can burn your hand). In this way, the brain learns what the implication of our handling of the first stimulus are. Associative learning is the basis for forming neural connections and gives stimuli their motivational force. It is essentially controlled by a brain region called the dopaminergic midbrain. This region ...

Association between health insurance and primary care vision testing among children and adolescents

2023-08-17

About The Study: In this survey study, the primary care physician vision testing rate was low and differed by insurance status among persons ages 3 to 17. Despite recommendations of yearly testing for children ages 3 to 5, less than half of those with private insurance received testing, with lower rates among those without private insurance. Authors: Olivia J. Killeen, M.D., of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2023.3644) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional ...

Augmented reality for perioperative anxiety in patients undergoing surgery

2023-08-17

About The Study: In this randomized clinical trial that included 95 patients, a preoperative walkthrough of a patient’s day of surgery using augmented reality decreased preoperative anxiety compared with traditional perioperative education and handouts, but there was no significant effect on postoperative anxiety, pain levels, or narcotic use. These findings suggest that augmented reality may serve as an effective means of decreasing preoperative patient anxiety. Authors: Michael G. Rizzo Jr., M.D., of the University of Miami, is the corresponding author. To ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Radiopharmaceutical therapy offers promise for people with tough-to-treat meningioma brain tumors

American Academy of Pediatrics promotes shared reading starting in infancy as a positive parenting practice with lifelong benefits

Unexpected human behaviour revealed in prisoner's dilemma study: Choosing cooperation even after defection

Distant relatedness in biobanks harnessed to identify undiagnosed genetic disease

UCLA at ASTRO: Predicting response to chemoradiotherapy in rectal cancer, 2-year outcomes of MRI-guided radiotherapy for prostate cancer, impact of symptom self-reporting during chemoradiation and mor