Institutional Research Integrity

The National Center for Principled Leadership & Research Ethics (NCPRE) creates and shares resources to support the development of better ethics and leadership practices in academic and other professional contexts. In our model, leadership—and particularly ethical leadership—is a key component of setting an institutional tone and promoting healthy and productive professional interactions. Intentional leadership development and institutional integrity are linked. We create tools and resources to support both.

Institutions have a central role in protecting the integrity of research. This page features some helpful resources for creating and maintaining institutional integrity in research environments.

Featured Resources

Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Education

Our perspective on RCR education encompasses roles and responsibilities (who does what); best practices (essential elements of and common challenges to effective RCR training); resources to support faculty in delivering high-quality RCR education; and recommended formats and frequency.

• NCPRE’s Perspective on RCR Education
• RCR Education Materials 

Discussion on Research Misconduct

• C. K. Gunsalus. (1998). Preventing the need for whistleblowing: Practical advice for university administrators on Science and Engineering Ethics, 4(1), 75-94.
• C. K. Gunsalus. (1997). Rethinking Unscientific Attitudes About Scientific Misconduct on The Chronicle of Higher Education, 28, B4-5.
• C. K. Gunsalus, A. R. Marcus, & I. Oransky (2018). Institutional Research Misconduct Reports Need More Credibility on JAMA, 319(13), 1315-1316. Supplement materials:

  • Peer Review Form for Research Integrity Investigation Reports (discussed in the article)

  • AAAS Practicum Inquiry Checklist

  • AAAS Practicum Investigation To Do List

Measuring research integrity environments

• The Survey of Organizational Research Climate (SOURCE) provides universities with tools to assess their research ethics climates and benchmark themselves against institutional peers.
• The Academic Unit Diagnostic Tool (AUDiT) provides a way to create a snapshot of the vibrancy and challenges of an academic unit. The tool highlights for each unit notable healthy factors present while lays out warning signs that could present challenges. It was developed through extensive consultation with deans, provosts, and department heads at colleges and universities.

Talks on Research Integrity

• “Plenary: Challenges for Institutions and the Public – Advancing Research Integrity” by C. K. Gunsalus

• “Systems Matter: Research Environments and Institutional Integrity” by  C. K. Gunsalus

Contributed resources

Research Integrity materials

• Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. A new Code of Conduct that applies to fundamental, applied, and practice-oriented research developed by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centres (NFU), Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), Associated Applied Research Institutes (TO2), Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences (VH), and the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU). This new Code of Conduct describes clear standards that researchers in many research organizations can apply to their daily practices.
• Fostering Integrity in Research (2017). A report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that stresses the important role played by institutions, environments, and individual researchers in supporting scientific integrity (Free PDF available).
• On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research (third edition, 2009). Written for beginning researchers, this guide sought to describe the ethical foundations of scientific practices and some of the personal and professional issues that researchers encounter in their work. It was meant to apply to all forms of research-whether in academic, industrial, or governmental settings-and to all scientific disciplines (Free PDF available).

Discussion on Research Integrity

• T. Haven, J. K. Tijdink, B. C. Martinson, & L. Bouter. (2018). Perceptions of research integrity climate differ between academic ranks and disciplinary fields-Results from a survey among academic researchers in Amsterdam.