Revised National Policy Statement on Ensuring Research Integrity in Ireland

20 Jan 2025

The National Research Integrity Forum have published the latest revision of the National Policy Statement on Ensuring Research Integrity in Ireland (December 2024).

First published in 2014, this Policy Statement commits Irish research organisations to uphold the highest integrity standards in conducting and sharing research, ensuring partners, the public, and the international community can have confidence in the outputs. It also guides knowledge users, the health system, industry, and the broader research community in maintaining integrity while conducting or utilising research evidence.

This revision aligns the Policy Statement with the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity-Revised Edition 2023, international norms and best practices in research integrity, and reflects national developments, keeping it relevant for the research community and organisations. 

The National Research Integrity Forum recommend that these revisions are  incorporated into institutional policies and practices across the research landscape to support Research Performing Organisations in nurturing a research environment that champions integrity through education, encourages positive research practices, and helps prevent misconduct and unacceptable practices. 

The revision process included extensive feedback from Forum member institutions, prompting some important changes: 

• The ‘Irish research community’ has been expanded to include the charity sector and PPI actors.
• The crucial contribution of mentors in shaping ‘responsible’ research practices is highlighted, along with the need for training in this domain.
• Initiatives to expand the outputs employed for evaluating research and researchers, such as membership in CoARA, are recognised.
• Expanded training and education modules on codes, frameworks, regulations, and AI use are encouraged.
• The recommendations on authorship practices now emphasise avoiding predatory journals and ‘paper-mills’, ensuring fair credit for contributions, and establishing collaborative agreements to prevent authorship disputes.
• Table 1, regarding unacceptable research practices, is significantly expanded to include additional practices deemed unacceptable in the European Code of Conduct on Research Integrity and other sources.

Following on from the publication of this revised National Statement on Ensuring Research Integrity in Ireland and other developments in the research integrity and culture space, UCC Research is currently in the process of updating our research policy & practices in this space. Accordingly, the UCC Code of Research Conduct v2.4, 2021 is currently being revised to reflect and align with important changes in the national research landscape and will be made available in due course.

In the meantime, we would strongly encourage all members of the UCC research community to familiarize themselves with the commitments, principles & practices as set out in the National Policy Statement on Ensuring Research Integrity in Ireland (December 2024), and seek to apply them to their processes and practices, as appropriate and necessary.