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Research Integrity in Science Publishing
The slide set "Research Integrity in Science Publishing" was presented
in the joint session of the FEBS Education Committee and Publications
Committee at the FEBS Congress in Jerusalem in September 2017.
In the first part of my talk I emphasized how reproducibility
of research results is critically important in maintaining trust
in science and described recent efforts of resilience in the publishing
world (increasing transparency and reliability) as well as in the
scientific community (checking and verifying published data).
The number of retracted papers is increasing and a large proportion of
them are withdrawn because of research misconduct, such as falsification and sometimes even fabrication of data. These are obviously the most serious, sanctionable violations but there are other unacceptable practices (some are listed in the presentation) which may influence the quality of science to a large extent and every effort must be made to prevent, discourage and stop them through training, supervision and mentoring.
The recently updated European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity,
which this year became the official document of the European Commission,
details good research practices and explains how various forms of misconducts violate research integrity. One of these is establishing or supporting journals that undermine the quality control of research (‘predatory journals’)which recently has become a serious issue (see also Moher et al. Nature 549, 23-25, 2017).
Some of the ethical problems in science publishing are related to the
still widespread practice of quantitative assessment of scientific outputs and researchers in spite of the almost general consensus about the opposite summed up in the text of the San Francisco Declaration of Research Assessment in 2013.
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professor, University of Debrecen
I became an MD in 1972, then decided to do research in biomedical sciences and received my PhD in immunology in 1978. I spent 3 years as a postdoctoral fellow at NIH, USA, then started a university carrier in Debrecen where became professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in 1988 at the Faculty of Medicine, then chairman of this department between 1993 and 2013. My research group has focused on molecular mechanisms in cell death, structure and function of transglutaminases with clinical implications, inflammation, differentiation and functions of white and brown adipocytes.
I was visiting professor at the University of Texas and the University of Rome, coordinated major European projects of COST, ESF and EU-Frame Work programs.
I was rector (1999-2001, 2007-2010) and president of the Medical and Health Science Center (2001-2007) of the University of Debrecen.
Elected to chair the Hungarian Accreditation Committee for Higher Education (2004-2007), the Hungarian Biochemical Society (2005-2015) and became a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1998 where chaired the Science and Ethics Committee and currently chair the Biology Section of the Academy.
In 2010 I was elected to be the member of the Committee on Science and Ethics of All European Academies (ALLEA) and participated in the drafting group of the recently published new European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. .
Since 2012 I chair the Publications Committee of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies and I am member of FEBS Executive Committee.
