Research with integrity – making a statement

As we start a new year it’s time for me to reflect on the actions we’ve taken at the CRUK Scotland Institute (formerly the CRUK Beatson Institute) to ensure we conduct robust and high quality cancer research.  And to summarise these actions in an annual statement on research integrity.

So, what is an annual statement on research integrity?

The annual statement on research integrity is a mandated high-level report under the Concordat to support research integrity summarising the activities that UK research organisations have undertaken to promote, facilitate and support best research practices.

It includes numerical data on any research misconduct investigations that have been conducted. In addition, organisations use the statement as a positive opportunity to highlight lessons learned, areas for improvement and actions in development, as well as a demonstration of their commitment to research integrity and compliance with the Concordat to support research integrity.

Who produces an annual statement on research integrity, and why?

Annual statements on research integrity should be produced by all UK research organisations.

Back in 2012, the first iteration of the Concordat recommended the publishing of a short summary on research integrity activities and misconduct investigations. However, adoption of this proposal was not widespread, with statement content being variable and often not very comprehensive. Indeed, the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee’s 2018 inquiry into research integrity reported that only about half of University UK members had published an annual statement between 2015 and 2017. Universities voiced concern over confidentiality and drawing attention to problematic research.

This changed when in 2019, the revised Concordat was published. It mandated that all employers of researchers and the Concordat’s signatories had to produce an annual statement on research integrity. As a funder of research, CRUK became a signatory in 2021 and since then has published three annual statements on its website.

What does an annual statement on research integrity say?

We have progressed from the early days of brief summaries and concerns over confidentiality or perceived negative connotations to the publication of detailed narrative annual statements. These now encompass areas such as:

• Institutional strategies for fostering positive research cultures.
• Training in best practices.
• Research integrity policies.
• Awareness-raising, monitoring and auditing.
• Sector engagement.
• Processes for dealing with allegations of research misconduct and conducting investigations.
• Reflections on how these experiences are used to continually improve research practices.

I have written four annual statements for the CRUK Scotland Institute and used guidance from UKRIO to structure them. I have found putting the annual statements together to be invaluable for considering and consolidating our research integrity activities over the year, identifying examples of good practice, and determining gaps in our practice and potential areas to develop and focus on in the following year.

Why might you want to read your organisation’s annual statement on research integrity?

I think the statements demonstrate how organisations embed research integrity practices and what policies underpin these activities. They also provide a very good starting point for directing you to what support and training are available.

In addition, transparency over investigating allegations of research misconduct enables you to evaluate how important research integrity is to an organisation, giving you confidence that research integrity is at the forefront of their strategic priorities.

Can annual statements tell us anything about research standards in the UK?

The UK Committee on Research Integrity (UKCORI) and the Concordat signatories wanted to answer this question and appointed Research Consulting to survey the UK’s 134 higher education institutions that receive funding from UKRI.

Research Consulting’s report, published in July 2023, showed that the majority of these organisations now produce an annual statement and that they “consider research integrity to be a strategic priority”. Analysis of statements showed that whilst organisations are increasing their research integrity activities, these are heterogeneous and context dependent. They also found that the content of annual statements had been left up to individual organisations.

Other key findings were that organisations are incorporating discussions on research culture and lessons learned from research misconduct investigations into their research integrity activities, and that support and training is mainly focused on early career researchers.  However, this analysis was complicated by the lack of a consistent structure and format to annual statements, as each institution could determine their own approach to writing them.

Next steps for annual statements on research integrity

This diverse information in narrative annual statements prompted the Concordat signatories to pilot the use of a template to standardise reporting and to strengthen the focus on sharing good practice. The template, produced on behalf of the Concordat signatories by the UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) divides the report into sections along with guidance on completing them.

It’s going to be interesting to see how widely the template is used, whether it increases readership of the statements and awareness of research integrity in the UK’s research organisations. These are just some of the questions the Concordat’s signatories are considering and will be gathering data on over the next year.

Personally, I think the template is a really useful tool. I like the section-by-section steer on how to structure the content and the depth of information to include.

The template gives more prominence to research culture than our previous statements, which required me to get input from the Head of HR (now the Head of People and Culture) and the Head of Research Management. This was very helpful – it made me think about how areas such as EDI, sustainability, and researcher evaluation can impact research integrity and how I might incorporate more about research culture into the CRUK Scotland Institute’s research integrity service.

Detailed reporting on allegations of research misconduct and investigations is still potentially contentious, and clarity is needed to interpret different organisations’ definitions and investigation procedures while ensuring confidentiality.

Despite the template taking longer to complete than producing your own version, I think it is a positive step for the annual statements and will certainly foster consistent reporting across organisations. I will be using it to write my 2023 annual statement. So, watch this space!