Parliamentary inquiry on research integrity – contribute to our response

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee are conducting an inquiry on ‘Research  integrity’, following on from a recent Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology POSTnote on the topic, and the Committee’s 2011 inquiry into ‘Peer review in scientific publications’.

The POSTnote discusses trends and developments on fraud, misconduct and mistakes in research and the publications of research results. The inquiry is broad ranging and invites submissions on these topics, including:

• The extent of the research integrity problem
• Causes and drivers of recent trends
• The effectiveness of controls/regulation (formal and informal), and what further measures if any are needed
• What matters should be for the research/academic community to deal with, and which for Government

We will be responding to the inquiry, and will primarily focus our response on research integrity issues related to scientific publishing. We are keen to receive members’ views to shape our response, particularly on issues of:

• Integrity within peer review
• Incentives for researchers
• Improving openness and transparency in scientific publishing
• Effective data management

If you would like to contribute to our response, please contact Ben Connor, Policy Manager by Monday 20 February with any key points or answers to the questions above.