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. 2020 Jul 16;18(7):e3000737.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000737. eCollection 2020 Jul.

The Hong Kong Principles for assessing researchers: Fostering research integrity

Affiliations

The Hong Kong Principles for assessing researchers: Fostering research integrity

David Moher et al. PLoS Biol. .

Abstract

For knowledge to benefit research and society, it must be trustworthy. Trustworthy research is robust, rigorous, and transparent at all stages of design, execution, and reporting. Assessment of researchers still rarely includes considerations related to trustworthiness, rigor, and transparency. We have developed the Hong Kong Principles (HKPs) as part of the 6th World Conference on Research Integrity with a specific focus on the need to drive research improvement through ensuring that researchers are explicitly recognized and rewarded for behaviors that strengthen research integrity. We present five principles: responsible research practices; transparent reporting; open science (open research); valuing a diversity of types of research; and recognizing all contributions to research and scholarly activity. For each principle, we provide a rationale for its inclusion and provide examples where these principles are already being adopted.

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Conflict of interest statement

I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: A-MC works for Wellcome. Through this, the organization and she are engaged in a lot of advocacy work to promote a more positive research culture. The guidance asks about advocacy work so I include this for completeness. VB was involved in the creation of a Research Integrity course at QUT. QUT licenses this course to other institutions and provides a proportion of any income to the creators. VB is employed by QUT and the Australasian Open Access Strategy Group. She sits on and is paid for work on the NHMRC’s Research Quality Steering Committee. She is an unpaid advisor to a variety of open access and scholarly communication initiatives, including DORA.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Indicators of responsible research practices.

Comment in

References

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