Teaching research integrity as discussed in research integrity codes: A systematic literature review

ABSTRACT

Presented here is a systematic literature review of how RI teaching is discussed in national and international research integrity (RI) codes. First, we set out to identify the codes that exist, and performed some generic analysis on them. Following a comprehensive search strategy, which included all 193 United Nations member states, we identified 52 national and 14 international RI codes. RI teaching is addressed in 46 national and 10 international codes. We then examined how the codes address RI teaching under the following headings: the aims, the target audience, the ethics approach proposed, the assessment and/or evaluation strategy, and any challenges identified in relation to RI teaching. There is considerable overlap between the aims of RI teaching in the various codes, for example, promoting awareness of RI. Most codes claim RI teaching is for all researchers, but without any in-depth guidance. While educational programmes, training, and mentorship/supervision are proposed for RI teaching, there is insufficient detail to identify the ethics approach to be used in such teaching. Lastly, only few address assessment and/or evaluation or challenges in RI teaching. Here, we analyzed how current codes address RI teaching; we identified some shortfalls, and in our discussion we advance recommendations.

KEYWORDS:

• Research integrity (RI)
• RI codes
• teaching
• education
• evaluation

Acknowledgments

We are thankful to the Reviewers for their critical review and recommendations, which improved this manuscript immensely. One of the reviewers, Professor Lex Bouter, opted not to remain anonymous through the reviewing process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2023.2282153

Notes

1. The link to the Portuguese code found in our search on the ENRIO website was inactive (ENRIO). We therefore contacted the authors, Desmond and Dierickx, who kindly supplied an active link for the code they had found in their study (Desmond and Dierickx 2021).

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded through a PhD scholarship for Daniel Crean by the School of Theology, Philosophy, and Music, Dublin City University, Ireland.