Research Integrity Practice in Europe (RIPE) is a new open access bulletin dedicated to current practice-oriented topics, debates, and news in the field of research integrity. It is published by the European Network of Research Integrity Offices ENRIO, and this introductory article accompanies its launch in September 2023.
Research integrity – an umbrella term that defines practices that promote reliable and trustworthy research at an individual, institutional, and systemic level – has a history of several decades. Considerable amount of work has been done to develop guidelines and practical tools that foster research integrity, and to construct relevant comprehensive theoretical frameworks. While both streams of work are taking place simultaneously, there is an important consensus among stakeholders of the research enterprise that a lot of ground must be covered to achieve a coherent, consistent and all-encompassing conceptualization of research integrity, applicable to all disciplines and epistemological backgrounds, countries, and research sectors. In addition, work must be done to promote these practices across Europe and beyond.
Of equal importance is the realization that the environment within which research integrity strives to promote reliable research is highly dynamic. For example, the Open Science movement and current rapid technological advances result in the emergence of novel research communication practices and potentially disruptive technologies at an unprecedented pace. This puts considerable strain on the existing research integrity practices. The development of technology- and discipline-specific supplements to the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity by a number of projects funded by the European Commission (EC) is a recognition of the acute need of adaptable research integrity practices.
Such a dynamic environment calls for a systematic exchange of hands-on experience on the application of research integrity practices across Europe and beyond. The research integrity community has developed a number of grass-root initiatives for the exchange of such knowledge through the organization of research integrity conferences on a global and regional level and through the development of platforms that openly funnel outputs of EC-funded projects. The World Conferences on Research Integrity and the Embassy of Good Science are excellent examples. However, there is still a need for a sustainable platform for effective and efficient interaction that will cross-fertilize institutional practices in real time.
A contribution towards filling what we perceive as a ‘missing link’ is the creation of Research Integrity Practice in Europe (RIPE), an open-access bulletin that publishes brief and informative practice-oriented articles on research integrity and research ethics in Europe. This online journal is edited and published by ENRIO, a network with European members from more than 20 countries, combining considerable expertise in the field.
RIPE aspires to support research integrity practitioners in their work, to serve as a resource to the general public, and to complement the theoretical and scholarly-oriented discourse on research integrity, research ethics and good research practice. The first selection of articles include contributions presented at the first ENRIO congress of Research Integrity Practice, held online in 2021.
We welcome submissions, and look forward to developing RIPE together with the research integrity community.
Editorial Board
Hjördis Czesnick, German Research Ombudsman Office, Germany
Panagiotis Kavouras, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Ana Marušić, Center for Evidence-based Medicine, University of Split School of Medicine, Croatia
Anni Sairio (Lead Editor), Finnish National Board for Research Integrity TENK, Finland