In 2019 we hosted a webinar discussing allegations of misconduct, with a research institution perspective on research misconduct, and a discussion on the role of editors, journals and publishers in dealing with allegations of misconduct.
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Summary
Nancy Chescheir, COPE Council and Editor in Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology, introduced and moderated the webinar. Nancy reminded everyone of COPE's Core Practice Allegations of Misconduct, and what it means in its broadest sense: "Any practice that may affect the research record in terms of findings, conclusions or attribution".
Susan Garfinkel, Assistant Vice President for Research Compliance, Ohio State University. Susan talked about research misconduct from the perspective of the institution with a brief overview of what goes on. Every institution in the US is required to have policies to address allegations of misconduct. Susan described the process and the role of the Research Integrity Officer (RIO) and introduced the Association for Research Integrity Officers (ARIO) who are aiming to put together a directory of RIOs across the country so when journals have problems they know who to contact. What does the role of institutions mean to editors of journals? Susan discussed how to determine research misconduct and how communities can work together.
Tara Hoke, COPE Council (Chair of the Facilitation and Integrity Committee) and General Counsel for the American Society of Civil Engineers. Tara talked about COPE's Facilitation and Integrity Committee,; what it is, what it does and how that ties into the discussion of Allegations of Misconduct. The principles behind Allegations of Misconduct and the role of editors, journals and publishers. Tara introduced COPE's Core Practice Allegations of Misconduct and the responsibility to ensure that you have taken adequate steps before making a decision to ensure it is reasonable and to reduce the possibility that the decision is biased, arbitrary or fundamentally unfair. If you're looking at your processes it would be useful to look at the elements of "Due Process" (21mins into the recording).
There were more questions than we had time to answer on the day but we asked the speakers to answer them after the webinar: your questions answered