RGS

Research Integrity at Keele

Research integrity is defined as maintaining high quality and robust research practices throughout a research project.  It is about ensuring that, from idea conception through design, conduct, collection and recording of data, reporting and dissemination of findings, to the application and exploitation of findings, all practices are conducted in an honest and transparent manner.  For a more detailed definition of research integrity please see page 6 of the revised Concordat to support research integrity.

Reproducibility

Reproducibility is a key component of robust research in many disciplines and is one of the drivers of Open Research. It features initiatives such as open access and making protocols and datasets available for others to review or use.  Keele University is a formal institutional member of the UK Reproducibility Network.

Research integrity and publications

Public and academic trust in publications has been eroded over time due to poor practice and integrity. The China’s Publication Bazaar article (Science 2013 (342) 1035-39) and other articles have highlighted the practices of ghost writers, authorship, data and papers for sale as some of the main issues. In some countries large financial rewards have been provided to authors of high-impact articles as described in a Nature article. Dr Irene Hames gave a presentation, at a UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) event, which covereds publication ethics. The majority of issues which arise are related to authorship, peer review and images. This PubMed report has a useful figure (figure 2) describing misconduct in relation to publications. 

Expand the sections below for further information and resources on particular topics.

Research talks

The Research Talks series is a regular series of presentations on a variety of research topics, ranging from individual research projects to research processes and insights into different research teams.  Presentations will be delivered by a mixture of internal and external academic colleagues and professional services colleagues.  All staff are welcome to attend, and academics, PGR students and PSS staff working in research will in particular find these presentations useful.

For more information, or to speak to someone to arrange a presentation please contact raise.admin@keele.ac.uk