Concordat for Research Integrity - Public Statement 2023

Section 1: Key Contact Information

Section 2: Promoting high standards of research integrity and positive research culture. Description of actions and activities undertaken

2A. Description of current systems and culture

Responsibilities for research integrity are set out in the Policy and Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. An updated version of this policy, together with an updated Research Misconduct Policy, was approved and published in October 2022.  The University also has supporting policies on specific aspects of research integrity, including Ethics in Research and Scholarship, Research Data Management, and Responsible Use of Metrics.  Central services, including Research and Innovation Services and University Library, provide systems and guidance to support implementation of these policies.

The University provides a range of training, development and mentoring opportunities for researchers at different career stages. These include the Researcher Development Programme targeted to PGRs and ECRs, the Leading Researchers Programme for mid to late career researchers, online Research Integrity training modules (via Epigeum) and a range of tailored sessions and workshops on different aspects of research integrity.

Starting in 2021, the University dedicated additional resource to the development of a positive research culture, with the post of Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) largely dedicated to research culture, and the appointment of a Research Culture Manager.  This has resulted in the development of an overarching vision for Research Culture, Flourish@Durham, and a plan of investment and activity to achieve this vision. 

Information about this work has been widely disseminated via a range of channels and routes are signposted for staff and students to provide feedback or raise concerns relating to culture or integrity.  In addition, a range of workshops and surveys have enabled staff and students to provide feedback on matters relating to culture, support and training which has helped the University to identify and prioritise the activity to be undertaken. 

This work is overseen by Research Culture Committee, a sub-committee of University Research Committee, who receive regular reports on activity relating to Flourish@Durham, as well as specific activities relating to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Research Integrity Concordat.

2B. Changes and developments during the period under review

A number of changes to policies and related processes and guidance have taken place in 2022/23.  These include:

• Scheduled review- and update to many of the University’s research-related policies, including the Research Integrity Policy and Code of Good Practice, Research Misconduct Policy, Work with Outside Bodies Policy and IP Policy to ensure they meet current requirements.
• Update and relaunch of guidance for researchers on ethics, governance and integrity in the University’s online toolkits.
• Development and approval of a new Research Publications Policy, aligning with the N8 Universities’ statement on rights retention.
• Development and approval of an overarching University Conflicts of Interest policy. Further work will be done to define specific processes relevant to research.
• Implementation of new processes and clearer guidance for researchers relating to export controls and trusted research, following the appointment of an Export Controls and Trusted Research Manager.
• Review of the operation of the Animal Welfare Ethical Review Board, and subsequent changes to review processes to provide additional support and guidance to researchers undertaking licensed work with animals.
• Procurement of, and working towards implementation of a new online ethics system. This will go live in the coming academic year.

As part of the programme of work on research culture, during 2022/23 the University has introduced a number of initiatives to support research practice and researcher development.  These include:

• Increasing the development opportunities available to later career researchers through the launch of the ‘Leading Researchers’ programme. This is a collaborative interdisciplinary leadership development programme, designed for mid-career and senior academics and focussing on supporting the development of future research ideas and related large funding proposals.  
• Increasing access to training and development for fixed term research staff including PDRAs, through a dedicated source of funding.
• Recognising the contribution of technical staff to research through a relaunch of activities under the Technician’s Commitment and the introduction of a fund to support development activities for technical staff.
• Funding for a range of department and faculty-based initiatives focussing on supporting researcher development and developing a positive research culture.

In addition, the University has undertaken a review of research training across the institution.  Training is delivered by multiple departments and services across the institution, and the review identified the need for a consistent route for researchers to identify and access relevant opportunities, as well as identifying potential gaps and areas of overlap in current provision.  Work in this area will continue into the next academic year.  In the area of Research Integrity and Ethics, while the Epigeum modules provide an overview of key areas, the need for more tailored provision has been identified, and the University is in the process of developing a set of online courses targeted to different career stages and roles.

A number of other initiatives are looking at the development of research culture and supporting positive culture in the institution more broadly.  These include

• A working group looking at the development of a forward- thinking vision for Open Scholarship at Durham.
• A working group looking at sustainability in research, in the context of the anticipated UKRI concordat on sustainability.
• A working group looking at workload in the institution, with separate strands looking at workload for academic staff, including issues around time for research, and workload for professional services staff.
• Following a commissioned report from Advance HE on Leading an Inclusive Culture in summer 2022, the University has identified a number of priorities for action in this area, including developing a pan-institutional EDI strategy, embedding an inclusive approach across all areas of activity, and developing information and resources for staff.  As part of this work, refreshed and expanded learning and development programmes relating to EDI have been developed, including courses on raising awareness and developing behaviours that support an inclusive culture.

2C. Reflections on progress and plans for future developments

A key area of progress this year has been development of the Flourish@Durham research culture vision, which has in turn helped to focus and prioritise our areas of activity.  In some cases, the emergence of new priorities from this work has meant that planned work identified in the previous report has been adjusted or has proceeded at a slower pace.  There are currently several significant programmes of work relating to institutional culture more broadly, and this work also involves identifying ways of better integrating work on related initiatives.

Timescales for work involving academic colleagues has also been impacted by industrial action during this academic year, and timescales for system developments have been additionally impacted by delays in processes and technical complexities.  Among the areas of development previously identified we have

Completed

• Major review of research integrity and ethics toolkits. Improvements and updates will be ongoing.
• Approval and publication of revised Research Integrity and Research Misconduct policies. The latter is likely to undergo further review in the near future in the light of experience and the revised procedure published by UKRIO.
• Development of an overarching Conflicts of Interest policy, although work remains to be done on defining processes for research-specific considerations.

Progressed

• Implementation of a new online ethics system. We had also planned to develop a research governance dashboard to provide a one-stop overview of relevant risk areas.  We are now looking at integrating this into the ethics system in the first instance, and will trial additional checklist-style questions to identify areas of and signpost researchers to relevant processes.
• Development of a research training framework – the review undertaken has laid the groundwork for further work in this area.
• Development of a university vision for open scholarship with the establishment of the working group to look at this.

Priorities in the next year will be

• A regular awareness campaign around signposting University research integrity related policies and guidance throughout the academic year.
• Continuing work relating to improving access to and provision of research training. This will include work with the N8 Universities on a cross-institutional mentoring programme for established researchers.
• Initial roll out of the new online ethics system, including gathering user feedback to inform a process of continuous improvement to meet both user requirements and those in the sector as these change.
• Review of existing processes related to ethics and integrity to ensure that these are enabling researchers and to allow a high level of positive engagement.

Section 3: Addressing research misconduct

3A. Statement on processes that the organisation has in place for dealing with allegations of misconduct

An updated Research Misconduct Policy approved and published in October 2022. Next review is scheduled for 2024, however lessons learned in the course of recent cases and the publication of UKRIO’s update Research Misconduct Procedure means that review may take place earlier.  Related policies include the Public Interest Disclosure Policy (Whistleblowing), last updated 2021 and the Staff Concerns Policy, which covers Bullying and Harassment as well as other concerns, approved in February 2022.

The Research Integrity Policy and Code of Good Practice highlights informal routes for raising potential issues of poor practice or inadvertent error, while also signposting the formal routes available where needed.  Similarly, the ‘Staff Concerns Hub’ provides guidance on both informal and formal avenues for raising concerns, and supporting information for those involved in these processes, whether they are raising a concern, having a concern raised about them, or involved in a management role. In survey of our researchers in 2023, a majority of respondents indicated that they would feel comfortable reporting incidents of research misconduct.

While we have details on the policies and processes available online we are aware that we need to socialise this across the University to ensure our research community know how to report allegations of potential misconduct and this is part of our forward planning around integrity.  This was reinforced in our recent survey where a number of respondants indicated that they were not familiar with the mechanisms for reporting misconduct should they ever need to do this.

Key lessons from research misconduct investigations carried out this year (none of which progressed beyond the informal investigation stage), include

• the need to streamline processes, ensuring that the most senior individuals are involved at appropriate points without creating a bottleneck in the process.
• The need for additional guidance around cases which do not fall clearly under a single established procedure.
• The need for additional guidance to PhD students around acknowledgement of supervisory contributions.

3B. Information on investigations of research misconduct that have been undertaken