2020 Annual Statement on Research Integrity

The University of Stirling is an international university with a global reputation for high-quality teaching and research. Stirling is numbered among the top 50 new universities in the world; a reputation that has been gained through the quality of our research, the impact it has had on society and the skills and competencies of our graduates. The University of Stirling is strongly committed to ensuring the highest standards of research integrity in all aspects of its research activities and expects its researchers to maintain a similar commitment.

The University of Stirling welcomes the Concordat to Support Research Integrity and is committed to fulfilling its five commitments.

1. Upholding the highest standards of rigour and integrity in all aspects of research.
2. Ensuring that research is conducted according to appropriate ethical, legal and professional frameworks, obligations and standards.
3. Supporting a research environment that is underpinned by a culture of integrity and based on good governance, best practice and support for the development of researchers.
4. Using transparent, timely, robust and fair processes to deal with allegations of research misconduct when they arise.
5. Working together to strengthen the integrity of research and to reviewing progress regularly and openly.

Commitment 5 of the Concordat to Support Research Integrity requires employers of researchers to provide a short annual statement that includes:

• A summary of actions and activities that have been undertaken to support and strengthen understanding and the application of research integrity issues;
• A statement to provide assurance that the processes the institution has in place for dealing with allegations of misconduct are transparent, timely, robust and fair, and that they continue to be appropriate to the needs of the organisation;
• A high-level statement on any formal investigations of research misconduct that have been undertaken, which will include data on the number of investigations. If no formal investigations has been undertaken this should also be noted;
• A statement on what the institution has learned from any formal investigations of research misconduct that have been undertaken, including what lessons have been learned to prevent the same type of incident re-occurring;
• A statement on how the institution creates and embeds a research environment in which all staff, researchers and students feel comfortable to report instances of misconduct.

This report summarises the activities undertaken at the University of Stirling to promote a culture of research integrity. This Annual Statement summarises the actions and activities undertaken during the 2019/20 Academic Year to strengthen research integrity.

Named Person in accordance with the Concordat

The Named Person in accordance with the Concordat to Support Research Integrity is Professor Judith Phillips OBE, Deputy Principal (Research).

Queries or concerns about research integrity and/or reports of research misconduct should be made through Ms Rachel Beaton, Research Integrity and Governance Manager.

Contact ethics@stir.ac.uk

Activities Undertaken

• In November 2019 the University’s Research Ethics Committee approved the University’s Research Ethics Review Appeals Procedure.
• In November 2019 the University participated in the inaugural meeting of the Scottish Research Integrity Network.
• In March 2020 the University of Stirling signed the San Francisco Declaration on Open Research (DORA). The signing of DORA highlights the University’s concern over the use of quantitative indicators as a proxy for research quality and our commitment to putting forward a fair and transparent mechanism for monitoring and reporting research performance.
• In May 2020 the University Research Committee approved the updated Open Access and APC Fund Policy developed by the University Library to clarify the staff that are eligible to apply to the Fund.
• In May 2020 the University introduced our Research Culture Awards to celebrate people and groups who contribute towards a positive and vibrant research environment.
• In June 2020 the University procured an electronic ethics review system which will be rolled out to be used by all ethics applicants, from undergraduates to academic colleagues.

Training and Development

Training on research integrity are available to all of the University community through the University’s online learning environment on topics including: Introduction to Research Integrity and the responsible and ethical conduct of research; plagiarism and research outputs; authorship; collaborative research and data management and integrity; and peer review and publication ethics.

External Memberships

To ensure that the University keeps up to date of best practice related to research integrity it is a member of a number of external bodies including:

• UK Research Integrity Office
• Association for Research Managers and Administrators
• Understanding Animal Research
• The University is also a member of the Scottish AWERB Hub

Research Misconduct

The University has Guidelines for handling allegations of misconduct in research which are administered by the Research Integrity and Governance Manager and includes clear principles and mechanisms to ensure that investigations are conducted in a transparent, timely, robust and fair manner.

Research Misconduct Investigations The table below sets out the high level details of investigations and findings on any formal investigations of research misconduct that have been undertaken, including data on the number of investigations.

The University has not conducted any formal investigations of research misconduct during this period.