When published, bad data can have long lasting negative impacts on research and the wider world. In this post Rebecca Sear, traces the impact of the national IQ dataset and reflects how its continued use in research highlights the lack of priority give…
Category: Research Ethics
How to navigate the challenges of corporate-academia research partnerships
Many research projects draw on sources of funding from the corporate world. Fola Adeleke discusses the challenges inherent to this kind of research and outlines three key considerations for researchers engaging with corporate partners. Corporate-acad…
The gap between AI practitioners and ethics is widening – it doesn’t need to be this way
The application of AI technologies to social issues and the need for new regulatory frameworks is a major global issue. Drawing on a recent survey of practitioner attitudes towards regulation, Marie Oldfield discusses the challenges of implementing eth…
Double-anonymous review is an effective way of combating status bias in scholarly publishing
Discussions around improving peer review often focus on openness as a mechanism to reduce bias. Drawing on a recent study of double and single anonymisation at the British Ecological Society, Charles Fox argues for the benefits of double anonymisation …
Making retraction data freely accessible – Why Crossref’s acquisition of the Retraction Watch database is a big step forward
Since its launch Retraction Watch has done much to highlight the value of research integrity and publishing standards. Discussing the recent acquisition by Crossref of Retraction Watch’s database of retracted articles, Ivan Oransky and Rachael Lammey h…
The benefits of Open science are not inevitable: monitoring its development should be value-led
Open science is increasingly becoming a policy focus and paradigm for all scientific research. Ismael Rafols, Ingeborg Meijer and Jordi Molas-Gallart argue that attempts to monitor the transition to open science should be informed by the values underpi…
What is Responsible Knowledge Exchange, Engagement and Impact?
Drawing on findings from The Responsible Knowledge Exchange, Engagement and Impact (2021-23) project, Alis Oancea, Aileen Marshall-Brown and Juliet Scott-Barrett outline six factors to consider when designing policies and practices to promote responsib…
Who should take responsibility for integrity in research?
Reflecting on comparisons with the US and the results of the recent International Research Integrity Survey (IRIS), George Gaskell, Nick Allum, Miriam Bidoglia and Abigail-Kate Reid argue that robust research integrity cultures depend on support from d…
AI paper mills and image generation require a co-ordinated response from academic publishers
The role of AI in the production of research papers is rapidly moving from being a futuristic vision, towards an everyday reality; a situation with significant consequences for research integrity and the detection of fraudulent research. Rebecca Lawren…
Just how important is the problem of predatory publishing?
The phenomenon of predatory publishing is well known following the work of Jeffrey Beall and others in highlighting and popularising the issue. In a new book titled The Predator Effect, Simon Linacre draws on his experience in tackling deceptive publis…