Research integrity and misconduct
The University's research integrity and data governance policies, including researcher responsibilities and how to deal with research misconduct.
Researcher responsibilities
As a researcher, you are responsible for ensuring your research adheres to policies and best practice guidance relating to the conduct of research.
It is your responsibility to ensure:
- Your research complies with School, College, and University research integrity and ethics policies and procedures as well as those stipulated by funders.
- Your ethics application is submitted for review with sufficient time to receive an outcome before the research commences.
- You (and if you are the PI, your research team) have undertaken any necessary training.
- Changes to the project or protocol are communicated to the appropriate ethics committee before any changes take effect.
- You are aware of the full range of issues to be considered, including research data management and the Data Protection Act.
- You and your research team understand what constitutes research misconduct and what to do if an issue or problem arises.
All College researchers are expected to:
- Carry out research that contributes to public benefit.
- Respect free and informed consent from research people participating in research, and the right to total anonymity when working with routine data.
- Respect the privacy and confidentiality of research participants. This respect begins with the identification of research subjects and continues through analysis of data and dissemination of results.
- Minimise the impact and possible risks of research. This applies whether the impact is on individuals, communities, or environments. It is a strong obligation when research subjects may be vulnerable.
- Protect data to comply with UK regulations and agreed procedures regarding storage, archiving, and in some cases, destruction of data.
- Operate with honesty and integrity at all times.
Training and resources:
A comprehensive list of University of Edinburgh-internal and external training resources can be found on the Research Integrity website Training and Support Resources.
Research misconduct
A detailed definition of research misconduct and University policies and procedures are available on the research misconduct website and the University's research misconduct policy.
Research misconduct policy (643 Kb PDF)
UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) Procedure for the Investigation of Misconduct in Research
How to report research misconduct at CMVM
In the first instance, please complete this form:
For information on student academic misconduct, including procedures and key contacts, see the Academic Services website.
Information governance in research
Research involving obtaining data from people requires researchers to maintain high ethical standards. This includes considerations such as data protection legislation and obtaining informed consent from research participants.
Good data management in research is essential to ensure that research outputs are stored securely beyond the life of the project and are shared responsibly with others, increasing transparency of research and reproducibility. Increasingly, journals and funding bodies require data to be made publicly available, requiring further consideration of data protection and sensitive data management.
The University provides extensive support on all aspect of data governance through the Research Data Service and Data Protection Office.