The Institutional Policy on Good Practices and Research Integrity was approved by the Unicamp University Council (Consu). The measure aims to promote the ethical integrity of research carried out at the University through educational actions and the definition of technical criteria for investigating and judging cases that do not comply with established ethical principles. The deliberation also foresees the creation of the Research Integrity Commission (CIP), which will be responsible for receiving complaints and investigation procedures from a strictly technical point of view. The CIP will also have the role of encouraging a culture of ethical integrity through awareness campaigns and the creation of materials aimed at University researchers.
The adoption of the policy comes in a period of growing public visibility of scientific research, especially that aimed at combating the coronavirus pandemic. In June this year, the case of a article with signs of scientific misconduct published by the Lancet magazine and later retracted by the periodical, drew attention to the need for universities and research institutes to make their internal mechanisms for controlling these problems clear. According to Munir Skaf, Pro-Rector of Research at Unicamp, science is a human activity that awakens in researchers the desire to surpass results already achieved by other studies. Science is a global activity that involves, at the same time, competition and cooperation. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a research culture based on ethical principles in all spheres of the scientific environment.
"This is the result of a movement that began in Europe and the United States a few decades ago and that today permeates the entire world. The whole issue revolves around the idea that universities, which use public money, should strive to conduct its research activities in a more open and responsible way. It does not mean that other research is irresponsible, but as public resources are invested, it is believed that it would be very good, as a practice of 'compliance', to institute policies that guide research in terms of ethics and integrity", assesses the dean.
The policy defines concepts and measures related to good research practices in three dimensions: academic relations of research production, with reference to laboratory environments and interactions between researchers where science is produced; the theoretical, methodological and technical research procedures and their publication, designed in relation to the necessary care with data and the prevention of potential problems; and the relations between the academic and public spheres of research production, going beyond the University's own bodies. Within the three dimensions, ways of combating typical problems are highlighted, such as plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of data, as well as issues involving relationships between researchers, such as situations ranging from conflicts of interest to cases of harassment.
Munir points out that, in this aspect, the policy established by Unicamp was designed precisely to cover the entire ecosystem of scientific production and go beyond just receiving and investigating reports of misconduct. "We created a more comprehensive, very well-structured policy, and within this policy of good practices and integrity, we also instituted the data management and intellectual production policy", he comments.
"It's a way to make science more reliable"
In addition to the integrity and good practices policy, the Institutional Policy for Open Access to Intellectual and Scientific Production at Unicamp was also approved. It provides for actions that facilitate access to articles, theses, dissertations, monographs and other types of research published, free of charge, through the Repository of Scientific and Intellectual Production at Unicamp, a digital tool already in use by the University. In it, publications are made available in full, or in a version made possible by periodical copyrights, to any user. "This makes our production more visible, you don't need to buy a subscription to a magazine to read work produced with public resources. This is done all over the world, by the National Institutes of Health, the United States, the European Union, Australia and in several other places", explains Munir Skaf.
The innovation brought about by the open access policy is the inclusion of raw research data in the information that becomes available to the public. Users who wish will be able to consult software, digital data, audio and video recordings, questionnaires, images, spreadsheets and other inputs collected to carry out research through the Research Data Repository (REDU), a digital platform that is also open access.
Skaf explains that concern with data management when carrying out research is an increasingly common demand, required by the world's main scientific journals and large funding agencies. Therefore, the discussion about this in São Paulo took place through a Fapesp Working Group, coordinated by professor Claudia Bauzer Medeiros, from the Computing Institute (IC) from Unicamp, with the purpose of creating a repository where data could be stored and easily found.
The systems developed at universities communicate with a search engine developed by the University of São Paulo (USP), which facilitates the exchange of research information between institutions. At Unicamp, the development and implementation of REDU is in charge of professor Benilton de Sá Carvalho, from the Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Scientific Computing (IMECC). With the system, researchers will have a resource that facilitates the generation of research data management plans required for publications, in addition to storing the data in the cloud.
According to the Dean of Research, in addition to providing more transparency to research production processes and facilitating the investigation of possible problems, the availability of data also increases the visibility gained by studies carried out at the University. "This data receives a DOI, a Digital Object Identifier. With this, Google Scholar can find this data and the researcher now has citations for the data. So you not only have citations for the published article, but also for the data that is made available, which helps with research visibility", highlights Skaf.
Munir also points out that the two policies adopted, good practices and integrity in research and open access to intellectual and scientific production, have in themselves the importance of reinforcing in researchers the awareness of their responsibility as producers of science, through encouraging good practices and mechanisms for technically investigating problems. According to him, this is a cultural change with long-term positive effects on the science produced by the University. "People need to gradually become aware, particularly young postgraduate students, that this is a healthy practice. Just as, some time ago, the practice of wearing seat belts was incorporated. No one questions the importance of this today", he concludes .
