Research Viewpoints Gráinne McNamara, Author at Research Viewpoints

Research Integrity 2024: Navigating Challenges and Seizing Opportunities

Every two years the World Conference on Research Integrity (WCRI) gathers together the global community of individuals and organisations committed to upholding the integrity of research. This year’s conference covered topics ranging from researcher training on research integrity to the importance of diversity and inclusivity in research.

In this blog, I’ll delve into three recurring themes from the conference and share how Karger is championing integrity in each area.

Reproducibility and Research Integrity

At WCRI, we heard updates from the TIER2 project which has a goal of “Enhancing Trust, Integrity and Efficiency in Research through next-level Reproducibility”. Reproducibility is a topic we have written about previously in a blog on ‘Centring reproducibility and transparency in health science research’ and lies at the heart of Karger’s Open Science mission. Since this 2022 blog post, we’ve made significant strides in promoting reproducible, trusted research:

We now accept submissions for study protocols as methods articles across almost all Karger journals

We’ve published registered reports in two journals

By supporting authors in transparency in study and analysis design, our aim is to make research pre-registration standard practice.

Artificial Intelligence (AI): Friend or Foe?

Throughout the conference, we learned about how Generative AI is being used by students, researchers, and publishers, including a fascinating plenary session on ‘Perspectives on Research Integrity and Generative Artificial Intelligence’ where its dual nature was explored:

Many speakers and poster presenters told us about how Generative AI will make it easier for bad actors to fabricate images and data in papers and how it can be used to create text that contains hallucinations and confabulations. Since May 2023, Karger has had a public policy for authors on the responsible use of Generative AI in studies and manuscripts that highlights the importance of transparency and information verification.

The bright side: We also heard about how AI is being used to combat fraud from image duplication detection to inappropriate citation classification and beyond. At Karger, we have recognised the opportunity provided by AI to safeguard research integrity for some time. Imagetwin, an AI-powered image integrity software, was awarded the Vesalius Innovation Award by Karger Publishers in 2022 and at WCRI this year I presented a poster on our findings of the prevalence of image duplication in manuscript submissions, using Imagetwin.

Looking to the future, it is clear that AI and research integrity will be in constant interaction with AI both strengthening and posing a challenge to our efforts — a dynamic interaction that demands vigilance and innovation.

Combatting paper mills: strength in collaboration

A recurring theme that echoed through many conversations at WCRI was the challenge threat posed to the scholarly record by paper mills. I have discussed this challenge in a previous blog and at WCRI we heard about how this industry-wide problem is impacting researchers and publishers. From detecting patterns in the literature linked to potential paper mills to how publishers can collaborate and harness technology to detect paper mills before publication, this topic garnered substantial interest culminating in a plenary session on ‘Addressing the challenge of paper mills through research and policy’.

The United2Act against paper mills initiative (U2A) was mentioned regularly throughout the conference. Karger is a proud signatory of United2Act and an active contributor to U2A Working Group 2. As part of Karger’s commitment to tackling paper mills, I co-authored the initial report from this working group on ‘Recommendations for improving the process of making post-publication corrections’. Through such collaborations, we are addressing the collective challenge of paper mills in scholarly publishing.

A cornerstone of trust in research is research integrity; encompassing everything from research planning to publishing to translation into practice. The theme of WCRI 2024, ‘Catalysing the translation of research into trustworthy policy and innovation’, aligns perfectly with our mission at Karger. We are dedicated to our role throughout the cycle of knowledge in the transfer of trusted, innovative scientific findings to the scientific community, healthcare professionals, patients, and caregivers. By collaborating and harnessing technology and AI, we are ensure that our community has access to reproducible, trusted research when they need it.

Note: WCRI was sponsored in part by Karger Publishers.

Correcting the Scholarly Record and Dispelling Myths around Corrections

A core part of publication ethics is that when published research is affected by errors or misconduct, it must be corrected. This webinar explains both, the process of fixing errors and misconceptions about corrections, focusing on journal articles, and answering the questions:

Who decides what needs to be corrected?
What are the responsibilities of editors, journals, research institutions, and authors?
How are corrections done and what form do they take?
How do readers know when work has been corrected?
What are the barriers and solutions to correcting the scholarly literature?

Our expert speakers, including Gráinne McNamara (Research Integrity / Publication Ethics Manager, Karger) will draw on their experience in handling corrections and developing editorial policies.

Reviewing For Trust: Best Practices for Peer-Reviewers

Peer-reviewers play a crucial role in ensuring the trustworthiness, quality, integrity, and reproducibility of an article. Join Gráinne McNamara (Research Integrity / Publication Ethics Manager, Karger), as she talks about the latest best practices for peer-reviewers with a focus on trustworthiness, reproducibility, and Open Science. In this webinar you will:

Better understand the role of the peer reviewer in the decision-making process in a journal
Learn how to review a manuscript with trustworthiness in mind
Gain tips in writing a constructive review report for authors

Our webinar is aimed at Early Career Researchers and those with an interest in being a peer reviewer.

Promoting Reproducibility Through Peer Review

Research reproducibility exists hand in hand with research integrity and good research practices.

Learn more about how peer review can improve manuscript reproducibility and strengthen research integrity in our recent round table discussion. Our panellists, Professor Max Cenci (clinical researcher in Dentistry from the Radboudumc, The Netherlands), Gráinne McNamara (Research Integrity / Publication Ethics Manager, Karger) and Marco Casola (Publication Manager, Karger), highlight some of the challenges researchers face in accessing and replicating data due to inadequate reporting and lack of transparency. They also stress the importance of researcher training, promotion of open peer review practices, peer-reviewer recognition and the adherence to reporting guidelines to effectively evaluate reproducibility in manuscripts.

Quality Control: The Effect of Substandard Submissions on the Publishing Landscape

Would you like to learn more about quality and quality control in academic publishing?

Join Professor Raj Raghupathy (Editor-in-Chief of Medical Principles and Practice), Muna Tamara Kugler (Publication Manager, Karger) and Gráinne McNamara (Research Integrity/Publication Ethics Manager, Karger), as they explore this topic in our webinar case study.

Our speakers provide expert insights into what constitutes substandard submissions, identifying common shortcomings from research integrity and quality perspectives, with a focus on improving the standard of manuscript submissions. They also discuss initiatives to raise quality standards, such as providing clear author guidelines, editor education, and offering courses on scientific writing and impactful communication. Finally, they highlight the services Karger Publishers offer, such as language editing and author training, to further improve manuscript quality.

Gráinne McNamara

Gráinne was awarded a PhD in Integrative Neuroscience from Cardiff University in the UK. After that, she spent three years in academic research at Cardiff University and Imperial College London before moving to work in research integrity in book and journal publishing. She is now the Research integrity / Publication Ethics Manager for Karger Publishers and leads a team responsible for developing research integrity policies and conducting investigations for all Karger journals.