UK Research and Innovation, Cancer Research UK and GuildHE sought to investigate potential indicators of research integrity, working on behalf of the sector to explore indicators that could help research organisations, funders of research and research infrastructures, researchers, publishers and others to identify and promote high levels of research integrity, building on the principles and commitments in the UK Concordat to Support Research Integrity. The present discussion document was developed by Research Consulting and seeks to collect and summarise existing evidence around integrity indicators, to set out the landscape in the UK and internationally and, where possible, to identify some points where progress might be made toward identifying high integrity in research. This document is intended to inform further discussions across the research system and recognise the potential challenges, benefits and risks in adopting indicators in the area of research integrity, with the ultimate aim of improving partnership, collaboration and ways to achieve research integrity. Our mindmap of facets of research integrity is also available to download alongside the discussion document (see below). Find more outputs of this project in the dedicated Zenodo community.

This study has been funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and GuildHE. For more information, contact UKRI at: researchintegrity@ukri.org.