Research integrity means conducting research according to the highest professional and ethical standards, so that the results are trustworthy.
It concerns the behavior of researchers at all stages of the research life-cycle, including declaring competing interests; data collection and data management; using appropriate methodology; drawing conclusions from results; and writing up research findings.
Research integrity expert, Professor Lex Bouter, recently shared his insights on responsible research conduct at an event for Taylor & Francis editors. Catch up on his keynote presentation on Editor Resources with this simple introduction to research integrity.
During the presentation Lex Bouter also highlighted the problem of selective reporting; one type of bias which undermines the integrity of academic research.
Selective reporting bias is when results from scientific research are deliberately not fully or accurately reported, in order to suppress negative or undesirable findings. The end result is that the findings are not reproducible, because they have been skewed by bias during the analysis or writing stages. Find out more about selective reporting bias.
Further reading
- Ethics for authors
- Ethics for editors (Taylor & Francis Editor Resources)
