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Make research integrity training mandatory say 73% of Australian researchers in first national survey

Springer Nature and the Australian Academy of Science release first national survey on attitudes towards research integrity in Australia

The results of the first national survey to investigate research integrity in Australia, a collaboration between the Australian Academy of Science and publisher Springer Nature, indicate broad support for mandatory research integrity training. The survey found that whilst 68% of respondents stated that their institution offered research integrity related training and 50% stated it was mandatory, 73% felt that such training should be mandatory for all those holding a research position. 

Key findings from the survey include:

  • When asked to describe Research Integrity, including practices related to it, 86% of the responses focused on positive research traits, the most popular being ethical, honest and transparent. Under 10% of responses made statements related to research misconduct. 
  • 68% of respondents indicated that their institution provided training on research integrity, with 88% of institutional management responding in the affirmative, as compared to 72% of senior researchers, 69% of midlevel researchers and 65% of early-career researchers.
  • Current training has a greater focus on policy and guidance than practical skills, yet eight of the top ten subjects that respondents felt would be most beneficial related to practical data related topics such as data storage and management.
  • A quarter of those surveyed felt that there was a research integrity problem in their field, but this concern was disproportionately distributed, with many more researchers from the life sciences indicating concern than those from the physical sciences.

Upon publication, a full summary of the results can be found here.

Professor Ian Chubb AC, Secretary for Science Policy at the Australian Academy of Science, said it is vital that research in Australia and globally is conducted ethically and with integrity, so that the public and government can have confidence in its outcomes.

“Greater consistency in the provision of research integrity training along with a greater uptake among those working in the sector, particularly among early career researchers is one way to meet that objective.”

Dr Ed Gerstner, Director of Research Environment Alliances at Springer Nature, added: “A smaller scale survey from 2019 that looked across multiple countries suggested that Australia was a world leader when it comes to delivering research integrity training at research institutions. These results look to support that, with both surveys finding around 68-69% of Australian institutions providing such training. Whilst these numbers are encouraging, it’s notable that awareness is lower for early career researchers, and that more detailed training focussed on specific needs would be welcomed.”

The survey was conducted between December 2020 and November 2021 and aimed to investigate perceptions of research integrity and good research practices and training at Australian research institutions. Questions were addressed to both institutional management and researchers/faculty members to deliver a baseline review of perceived levels of training in research integrity and good research practices at research institutions, including training in statistics, data management, data sharing and mentorship. Almost one thousand responses, including from 35 universities, representing 85% of universities in Australia, were received and analysed. 

Chris Graf, Research Integrity Director at Springer Nature concluded: “It’s interesting to note that 73% of respondents support mandatory training on research integrity, yet only 26% felt that there was a problem with lack of research integrity in their field. This very much supports our position that training in research integrity is absolutely about embedding good responsible research practices. 

“This survey continues Springer Nature’s work to support good practices internationally by understanding research integrity training and needs through national surveying. We hope to launch similar surveys in other countries soon to add more data to the evolving picture of training in research integrity globally.”

full summary of the report

Nature Masterclasses Online training made free to access for researchers in lower income countries

Springer Nature has made Nature Masterclasses’ on-demand online training content free to access for researchers in lower income countries through Research4Life.

Nature Masterclasses offers highly targeted courses designed to enhance the skills and boost the confidence of early career researchers, with over 60,000 researchers globally having benefited from the platform to date. The world-class training is delivered by editors from across the Nature Portfolio of journals as well as experienced researchers, funders and professionals via a subscription. 

Springer Nature is committed to contributing positively to the research, education and professional communities that we work with, partnering with others and making direct contributions to align with our aims. Research4Life offers no-cost or low-fee access to research published in any of our journals in low and middle income countries. The initiative invests in education and scientific research in places where it’s needed, but where people may not be able to afford it. Springer Nature are both founders of Research4Life, and inaugural donors to the Friends of Research4Life programme too. 

This latest move sees free access expanded so all training that was previously behind a paywall will now be available for researchers in registered institutions in lower income countries.

Researchers can learn at their own pace, in their preferred format, as the online courses are delivered in bite-size lessons and practical tasks with over 45 hours of training available. Topics covered range from persuasive grant writing, scientific writing and publishing, to data analysis, presentations and more. 

Hazel Newton, Director, Researcher Professional Development Solutions from Springer Nature said:

“The driving motivation behind Nature Masterclasses is to support researchers to develop their careers and to navigate the research process, helping them strategically plan, execute and disseminate their work. We want to help level the playing field for researchers from lower income countries by widening access to these resources, offering key insights from Nature Portfolio journal editors and other global experts. ”

Andrea Powell, STM’s Outreach Director and Publisher Coordinator for Research4Life said:

“It is very clear that the users of Research4Life are increasingly producers of their own research outputs and we are committed to supporting them as they develop their skills as authors, editors, reviewers and equal participants in the research communication ecosystem.  Resources such as Nature Masterclasses, as well as our own series of webinars focusing on the research lifecycle, are tremendously valuable tools that will help the partnership to improve global equity and capabilities across the board.”

Karger Publishers and Molecular Connections Collaborate to Enrich Metadata and Build Decision Support System

Karger Publishers and Molecular Connections have entered a technical collaboration to enrich metadata and build a future ready decision support system.

Molecular Connections Pvt. Ltd. and Karger Publishers have entered into a technical collaboration to enhance search and retrieval of Karger content, build an analytics dashboard to support business decisions, and improve editorial efficiency by machine learning applications. The platform will help Karger make better and faster decisions in terms of content recommendation, identify content gaps, improve editorial workflows, and boost sales. 

Several technologies will be embedded by Molecular Connections in developing the platform: Molecular Connections’ award-winning artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology that builds custom ontologies, disambiguates institutions, and recommends a manuscript to the right journal. The platform will be able to accommodate updates and content changes both in terms of type and volume. In addition, it will include services that are inbuilt with due diligence, data security, usage policies, and more.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Jignesh Bhate, CEO of Molecular Connections Pvt. Ltd., mentioned, “Molecular Connections has a strong track record of helping publishers leverage their content assets and improve content discoverability, content recommendation, and build editorial efficiencies. This is a very exciting collaborative venture which will digitally transform and help Karger leverage the power of latest developments in AI and ML to the fullest.”

Marc Schindelholz, Lead Strategy, Innovation & Ventures at Karger Publishers adds “We are delighted to have an experienced partner such as Molecular Connections at our side to semantically enrich scientific content. In doing so, we not only expect to better analyze content and improve editorial workflows, but also to create tailored offers and a better experience for researchers, medical practitioners, and industry professionals worldwide.”

Cochrane releases RevMan Web software for non-Cochrane systematic reviews

Cochrane is delighted to announce the availability for the first time of RevMan Web, its popular, web-based systematic-review production software, to the wider community beyond Cochrane – to support evidence synthesis development and evidence-based medicine education. Cochrane expects interest in use of the tool from those in guideline and Health Technology Assessment organisations, universities and medical schools, and many other research sectors.

RevMan Web facilitates the creation of meta-analyses, forest plots, risk-of-bias tables, and other systematic review elements. It is acknowledged to be easy-to-use – and is also widely used in learning or training about systematic review production.

Cochrane is making RevMan Web available for use by institutions or individuals for their own systematic review development work. The product is presented on a Software-as-a-Service basis: Cochrane offers a hosted service, comprising the software and cloud storage of all review data uploaded.

Charlotte Pestridge, Cochrane’s Director of Publishing and Technology, says this is a hugely exciting opportunity: “Making RevMan Web more widely available is an important element in Cochrane’s contribution to healthcare research and our mission to deliver evidence-informed policy and practice through the production of systematic reviews. It is important for Cochrane to be able to support the production of high-quality reviews using Cochrane standards and methodologies. Many review-producing organisations, including key Cochrane stakeholders, already use RevMan.”

RevMan Web is now available by subscription to government and commercial organizations. Availability for academic institutions and individual subscribers is expected to come on stream before the end of 2022.

Free access will be available in Research4Life Hinari low and middle-income countries (https://www.research4life.org/access/eligibility/).

To find out more: W: https://links.cochrane.org/revman E: RMWsubscriptions@cochrane.org

The 2022 OASPA Online Conference on Open Access Scholarly Publishing issues call for contributions

The OASPA annual conference brings the open access community together to discuss new developments and innovations in scholarly publishing, and unite in our shared goal to enable research around the world to be openly accessible. 

The 2022 online conference will encourage participants to think Beyond Open Access to equitable open scholarship and science practices and will address many timely and fundamental topics relating to open scholarly communication.

The Program Committee invites organisations and individuals to submit a proposal to us for ‘Poster Lightning Talk’ presentations. These are short talks showcasing new projects, ideas or initiatives accompanied by a poster (guidelines will be provided).  There will be a brief q & a and a mechanism for online engagement during poster sessions.

We particularly welcome submissions from beyond North America and Europe. Please share this call widely within your networks.

All proposals should be submitted by June 17, 2022 via this form which asks for a brief description (up to a maximum of 300 words) of your proposal. Registration costs for the authors of successful proposals will be waived.

Registration information, recordings, slides and posters from previous conferences, as well as information on how to register, can be found on our website here.

We look forward to receiving your suggestions!

Clarivate Annual Sustainability Report Highlights 2021 Milestones, Establishes Sustainability as Strategic Business Imperative

Clarivate Plc (NYSE:CLVT), a global leader in providing trusted information and insights to accelerate the pace of innovation, today published its second annual sustainability report. The interactive report outlines the progress Clarivate made in 2021 in the areas of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG), and presents ambitious long-term goals for the business.

Jerre Stead, Executive Chair and CEO of Clarivate, said: “At Clarivate, sustainability isn’t something we do, it’s everything we do. Our solutions and deep domain expertise help our customers solve some of the world’s most complex challenges, from climate change to disease management and sustainable resource use. Our second annual sustainability report provides data-driven examples of what we have achieved so far and lays out our ambitious plans for the future – including achieving carbon neutrality by 2024 with sights on a net-zero future, aligning executive pay to performance against ESG goals and getting listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and FTSE4GOOD Index.”

Some of the key findings in the 2021 Clarivate sustainability report include:

  • 46% of Clarivate revenues are attributable towards achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • 51% of companies ranked in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index work in partnership with Clarivate
  • 80M+ patients were supported through chronic diseases by improving understanding of their medicines
  • 130M+ students use Clarivate solutions to enhance their learning and research experience
  • 4M+ citations in the Web of Science™ are related to SDG research areas
  • 5M+ inventions in the Derwent World Patent Index relate to green energy technologies
  • 70+ health technology assessments supported expediting the approval of life-changing drugs (2019-2021)
  • 26K+ public and academic libraries rely on Clarivate solutions
  • 22K+ non-profit and for-good domain names are protected by the MarkMonitor Domains for Good program
  • 48/50 of the top R&D companies work with Clarivate to accelerate innovation

This year’s report outlines significant progress towards quantifying contributions and mapping solutions to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through a ‘materiality mapping’ exercise. This initiative provides a clear view of the current state of sustainability efforts at Clarivate, including specific case studies and customer stories. It identifies four key focus areas where the company makes the biggest impact today – SDG 3: Good health and well-being, SDG 4: Quality education, SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure, and SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production.

Tiffani Shaw, Chief of Staff and Sustainability executive sponsor, Clarivate said: “One of our most valuable milestones when it comes to driving responsible business practices at Clarivate is our framework for quantifying our contribution towards the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This highlights our product portfolio’s contribution to SDGs, helps us focus on where we can drive maximum impact now and enables us to further accelerate our contributions by embedding sustainability into our culture and long-term business strategy.”

Read the full 2021 Clarivate sustainability report.

Plan S Journal Comparison Service is now open for publishers to register and deposit price and service data

cOAlition S is excited to release today the Journal Comparison Service (JCS), a secure, free and long-anticipated digital service, that aims to shed light on publishing fees and services.

Starting from today, publishers can register with the JCS publisher portal. After signing a service agreement, publishers can share information, at journal level, highlighting the services they provide and the prices they charge in line with one of the Plan S approved price and service transparency frameworks. These data are then made available to librarians via a secure online system.  Examples of data that will be made available through the service include information about the publication frequency, the peer review process, times from submission to acceptance, the range of list prices for APCs, subscription prices, and how the price is allocated over a defined set of services.

JCS: benefits to publishers

By depositing price and service data through the JCS, publishers can communicate the nature and price of their services in a transparent, practical, and insightful way. Such information will allow libraries, library consortia, and funders to understand better how the fees they pay are commensurate with the publication services they receive. In time the JCS will enable conversations and comparisons that will build confidence amongst customers that these prices are fair and reasonable.

Robert Kiley, Head of Strategy at cOAlition S, welcomed the release of the publisher portal, saying: “We encourage all publishers to register for an account on the JCS.  Sharing data through this service will enable publishers to build understanding and trust with customers, respond to customer requests for more standard, transparent, and granular price and service information and build better awareness of and appreciation for their services and value”.

This new service is being developed to help fulfil an unmet market demand for service and price transparency, and to implement Plan S principles calling for fair and transparent pricing of publisher services. Librarians, library consortia and funders who are involved in negotiating Open Access agreements with publishers will be able to register to use the service from autumn 2022.

To further explore the JCS, please visit https://journalcomparisonservice.org and https://www.coalition-s.org/journal-comparison-service.  Any questions should be sent to info@coalition-s.org.

De Gruyter launches not-for-profit foundation: De Gruyter eBound

De Gruyter, independent scholarly publisher and founder of the University Press Library distribution model, is launching De Gruyter eBound, a not-for-profit foundation, in the United States. The initiative’s goal is to support the publishing, sustainability, and accessibility of mission-driven scholarly monographs for not-for-profit and Open Access publishers.

Among other planned activities, De Gruyter eBound will offer grants for new publications as well as fund original studies that help key actors in the industry to develop new solutions for and insights on the future of the mission-driven scholarly monograph.

De Gruyter’s eBound Advisory Board consists of leading figures in the academic library and scholarly publishing community: Curtis Brundy (Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Communication and Collection, Iowa State University), Jane Bunker (Director, Cornell University Press), Steve Fallon (Vice President, Americas and Strategic Partnerships, De Gruyter), Mary Francis (Director, University of Pennsylvania Press), Alan Harvey (Director, Stanford University Press), Bill Maltarich (Head, Collection Department, New York University), Frances Pinter (Executive Chair, Central European University Press and Founder, Knowledge Unlatched), Emily Poznanski (Director, Central European University Press), Nicola Ramsey (CEO, Edinburgh University Press), and Brigitta van Rheinberg (Associate Director and Director of Global Development, Princeton University Press).

“Mission-driven scholarly publishing comes with its own challenges and there are many open questions around how to solve them. I am excited to collaborate with our outstanding Advisory Board on the innovative ways we will address these challenges,” said Linda McGrath, Senior Manager, Publisher Partnerships, De Gruyter and Executive Director of eBound.

“Sustainability does not happen without community and a like-minded community is not dependent upon corporate status,” said Steve Fallon, Vice President, Americas and Strategic Partnerships, De Gruyter. “I’d like to thank our headquarters in Berlin for their initial funding to kickstart the foundation and our University Press Library stakeholders for their openness, encouragement, and support in making this initiative possible.”

OA content up 40% across Springer Nature’s Transformative Journals

More Springer Nature journals meet requirements than other publishers combined

Data released today shows that in 2021 Springer Nature’s Transformative Journals (TJs) published 40% more gold open access (OA) research articles than in 2020.

730 Springer Nature journals also met cOAlition S’s challenging TJ requirement targets, meaning that more Springer Nature titles achieved the required metrics than those from all other TJ publishers put together[1].

In addition:

●        The articles were used on average 2.8 times[2] more than subscription articles in the same journals, demonstrating the value to authors of publishing OA. 

●        Springer Nature TJs saw OA research article volume growth of 40% compared to growth of 8.4% for subscription research articles in the same titles

●        24 journals in the Nature Portfolio, all newly on their path to OA, also met the tough targets set. Nature Portfolio TJs overall also saw an 8 percentage point growth in the proportion of OA research articles published in 2021. 

●        Six TJ’s achieved 75% OA uptake in 2021 and will become fully OA titles in 2023, in addition to four titles that have already committed to flip to OA in 2023

Commenting Steven Inchcoombe, Springer Nature chief publishing officer, said:

“In 2020 we made a bold commitment and signed up the overwhelming majority of our hybrid journals to be recognised by cOAlition S as Transformative Journals. I am delighted that the data shows we were right to do so and am very proud of the progress these journals are making in supporting the transition to a fully OA world.

“This success has in part been made possible by our focus on securing new transformative agreements around the world[3], and by us putting the benefits of publishing immediate gold OA front and centre in our journal workflow and author communications.  We have also supported the OA transition through research for authors that shows the impact publishing OA has on the reach of their work[4], and for funders that shows the value researchers place in having the final version of record immediately available[5].

“We are however not complacent and, working together with cOAlition S and non-cOAliton S funders, we believe we can build on this in 2022 by collectively make the case for gold OA.” 

[1] 730 Springer Nature journals met the required TJ metrics. Collectively all other publishers submitted 608 titles.

2 2021 usage of papers published in 2021

3 Springer Nature’s national agreements, which alongside its institutional deals, now support researchers from over 2,650 affiliated institutions to publish OA, totalling an expected 41,400+ OA articles to be published a year, 10% more than any other publisher”

4 https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-research/about/oa-effect-hybrid

5 https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-research/version-of-record

American Chemical Society CEO announces his retirement

The American Chemical Society (ACS) today announced that Thomas Connelly, Jr., Ph.D., will retire from his position as ACS chief executive officer at the end of the year after more than seven years of serving in this role. In addition to effectively navigating the organization through the unprecedented challenges of a global pandemic, he has led the organization as it strengthened its core values, transformed its membership and launched new initiatives.

“Tom has provided strong leadership for ACS throughout his tenure, especially over the past two years as we experienced a once-in-a-lifetime challenge due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With his guidance, ACS has weathered the pandemic and is now stronger than it’s ever been,” says Paul W. Jagodzinski, Ph.D., chair of the ACS Board of Directors. “We look forward to Tom’s continued leadership through the rest of 2022 and wish him all the best as he enters the next chapter of his life in 2023.”

Connelly joined ACS in 2015. He has overseen the refinement and expansion of ACS core values, which define the principles that guide the organization. During his tenure, the core value of professionalism was expanded to include safety and ethics. Additionally, the core value of diversity, inclusion and respect added equity as a key principle. He also guided a transformation of membership by increasing the focus on growing ACS’ international efforts as well as supporting the development of a new membership model, which launched this year. Most recently, Connelly led the effort to establish four strategic initiatives designed to have a transformational impact on the chemistry enterprise. The more than $50 million multiyear effort embodies ACS’ commitment to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people.

“It has been an honor to serve as ACS CEO for more than seven years,” Connelly says. “ACS continues to advance its Vision and Mission through the efforts of our dedicated staff and wonderful volunteers. I look forward to continuing my service to ACS from within its membership ranks.”

Prior to joining ACS, Connelly had a 37-year distinguished career at DuPont, where he held the roles of chief science and technology officer and chief innovation officer during his tenure. Connelly holds chemical engineering and economics degrees from Princeton University. As a Winston Churchill Scholar, he received his doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Cambridge. In 2016, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. He has served in advisory roles to the U.S. Government and the Republic of Singapore.

De Gruyter and Jisc Collections sign scholarly monographs Purchase-to-Open agreement

Jisc Collections and De Gruyter have signed an agreement to publish up to 30 eBooks in immediate Gold Open Access, crowdfunded by participating libraries.

The Purchase-to-Open agreement is a pilot project between JISC and De Gruyter to support sustainable academic book publishing through a crowdfunding model.

Pledging institutions pay a one-off fee to get unlimited access for up to 30 titles in 3 subject packages in Business & Economics, Classical Studies, and Linguistics. The offer focuses on key series from De Gruyter’s core international frontlist program, with all titles published in English.

If the funding target per collection is met, the corresponding amount of titles will be transformed to Gold Open Access on publication within the publishing window of 12 months following the offer closing date. If the funding target is not met, the number of titles published in Open Access will be reduced. If the minimum funding level per collection is not reached, the titles are not transformed to Open Access. Pledging institutions keep perpetual access to all titles in their chosen packages irrespective of whether the minimum global threshold is met.

The offer is open for institutions and consortia globally to join until 31 July 2022.

The agreement between De Gruyter and Jisc Collections reflects the inclusion of scholarly monographs in the UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) new open access policy. Jisc Collections works on behalf of the United Kingdom higher education sector to negotiate and license high-quality digital content that meets the requirements of institutions to support academic research, teaching and learning.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Jisc to enable more researchers to publish Open Access with us. This pilot project with Jisc is an important step towards finding more sustainable approaches to open access transformation for monographs,” said Christina Lembrecht, Senior Manager, Open Research Strategy at De Gruyter.

Landing page: “Purchase to Open eBook Pilot”

BMJ joins STM Integrity Hub, an industry initiative to protect research integrity

BMJ collaborates with over 15 leading publishers to safeguard the integrity of science  

BMJ is pleased to announce that it is an official participating member of the  STM Integrity Hub, a potentially powerful platform being built to detect integrity issues in manuscripts submitted for publication to scholarly journals.

BMJ joins the initiative as a participating publisher alongside more than 15 leading publishers, including SAGE, Oxford University Press, Wiley, and Elsevier. Representatives from BMJ are currently part of the collaboration group looking at Image Manipulation Detection, and play a key role on the Governance board for the project.

STM Solutions, the operational arm of STM (The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers), will house the STM Integrity Hub. Through a combination of shared data and experiences and harnessing technological innovation, the Hub will offer a holistic approach to detecting manuscripts offending research integrity principles. It provides a cloud-based environment for publishers to check submitted articles for research integrity issues, the technology will be supported by current industry best practices, and fully respects the laws and ethics of data privacy and competition/ anti-trust laws. In this environment, publishers may collaborate with other parties of their choosing to develop and operate screening tools for the benefit of the entire scholarly ecosystem. 

“’One of the aims of the collaboration hub is to ‘spark and sustain collaboration,’ is a great message. There is a limit to what any publisher can achieve alone in the fight against unreliable or counterfeit science. It is essential that we work together to uphold the integrity of the scientific record. The collaboration hub is a promising step in the right direction. Simone Ragavooloo, Research Integrity Manager, BMJ 

“At BMJ, we are excited to help facilitate knowledge exchange by helping to develop a reliable think tank for publishers to safeguard research integrity in science. This living library of infrastructure and tools harnesses technological innovation to offer a holistic approach to detect research-integrity-offending manuscripts.” Ian Mulvany, Chief Technology Officer, BMJ

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