Research integrity is a relatively new and constantly developing body of knowledge, which tends to become an autonomous research field. It aims to codify good research practices, as well as to study and understand the causes for the production and publication – in some cases – of unreliable research results. Although a significant number of guidelines and tools that have the potential to promote research integrity has been compiled, a coherent, consistent, and comprehensive understanding of research integrity that can be relevant across epistemological traditions, across countries, and across different types of research organizations still eludes us. The potential wide application of open science practices supports the efforts of research integrity practitioners to increase transparency in research practice, to ensure the production of reproducible research results, to save resources, to responsibly communicate research, to researchers and to lay people, and to promote societal trust in science. The discussion on research integrity and open science is directly related to the ethical norms of the research enterprise – a highly complex topic studied by research ethics. The aim of the workshop is to present a “bird’s eye view” of the field of research Integrity, its significant overlaps with open science, and its necessary links to research ethics.
The workshop will have the following agenda:
1. An introduction to research integrity (P. Kavouras) - 20 min
2. The necessary links to research ethics (E. Spyrakou) - 20 min
3. Q&A – 20 min
4. Are we amidst a reproducibility “crisis”? (P. Kavouras) - 20 min
5. Measures to support research integrity: A constellation of EU-funded projects (P. Kavouras & E. Spyrakou) - 20 min
6. Q&A - 20 min
Panagiotis Kavouras is a senior researcher at the School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens and a researcher (20% position) at the Institute of Health and Society, Centre for Medical Ethics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo. Panagiotis Kavouras is a physicist, with an MSc and a PhD in Physics. For several years he had been involved in research on the synthesis of glass-ceramic materials with tailored properties and on the characterization of physical and engineering properties of various types of materials. During the last seven years he has been focused on research on research integrity through his participation in several relevant projects funded by the European Union. He was member of the local organising committee of the 8th World Conference on Research Integrity and he is member of the programme committee of the series of the ENRIO Congresses on Research Integrity Practice.
Eleni Spyrakou is a senior researcher at the School of Chemical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (https://r-nano.gr/personnel/eleni-spyrakou-2/ ). She has studied Philosophy (BA Hons, University of Patras), and she holds an MPhil in Philosophy focusing on Ethics and Political philosophy (King’s College London, UK) and a PhD (Hons) in Political Philosophy (University of Ioannina, Greece). Her main research interests include applied ethics (bioethics, environmental ethics, business ethics, research ethics and integrity), the ethics-politics relation and its epistemological problems, the methodology/ies of social sciences. During the last 6 years her research has been focused on research ethics and research integrity through her participation in a number of Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe “Science with and for Society” projects. She was a member of the local organising committee of the 8th World Conference on Research Integrity (Athens, 2-5 June 2024).