There are a bewildering number of acronyms, and their representatives, at the research integrity meeting in Lisbon. Many I had never heard of. So during a more pedestrian session I started playing conference bingo: could I construct the words ‘research integrity’ from the organisations in attendance?

After all, one goal of the conference is more joined-up thinking and dialogue between attendees. Could they, by getting together (even just fleetingly on my notepad), address the challenges of research integrity more effectively? Let’s see how I did.

We have the conference organisers: ORI and ESF. Plus their supporters and partners: EMBO, ICSU (the international council for science), UKRIO (the UK integrity office) and COPE (committee on publication ethics).

Indeed, when it comes to publishing organisations there were more than I could imagine: as well as COPE, there is EASE (european assoc of science editors), CSE (council of science editors), WAME (world assoc of medical editors) and STM (the international assoc of scientific, technical and medical editors). Phew!

At the global level, where some attendees are looking for leadership on questions of harmonization and setting community standards, there is ICSU, but also UNESCO and its commission on the ethics of science and technology (COMEST). At the European level there is ALLEA (all european academies) and EUROHORCS (the research councils).

How am I doing? I still need a G and a Y. Well there is that report from the OECD’s Global Science Forum (GSF) perhaps they can provide the ‘why’ for future activity by all these groups…

There are a bewildering number of acronyms, and their representatives, at the research integrity meeting in Lisbon. Many I had never heard of. So during a more pedestrian session I started playing conference bingo: could I construct the words ‘research integrity’ from the organisations in attendance?

After all, one goal of the conference is more joined-up thinking and dialogue between attendees. Could they, by getting together (even just fleetingly on my notepad), address the challenges of research integrity more effectively? Let’s see how I did.

We have the conference organisers: ORI and ESF. Plus their supporters and partners: EMBO, ICSU (the international council for science), UKRIO (the UK integrity office) and COPE (committee on publication ethics).

Indeed, when it comes to publishing organisations there were more than I could imagine: as well as COPE, there is EASE (european assoc of science editors), CSE (council of science editors), WAME (world assoc of medical editors) and STM (the international assoc of scientific, technical and medical editors). Phew!

At the global level, where some attendees are looking for leadership on questions of harmonization and setting community standards, there is ICSU, but also UNESCO and its commission on the ethics of science and technology (COMEST). At the European level there is ALLEA (all european academies) and EUROHORCS (the research councils).

How am I doing? I still need a G and a Y. Well there is that report from the OECD’s Global Science Forum (GSF) perhaps they can provide the ‘why’ for future activity by all these groups…