It’s the end of the first day of the World Conference on Research Integrity in Lisbon and there has already been a lot of talk about responsible research, misconduct, questionable behaviours by scientists and what to do about it all.

Some of the most interesting discussions at a meeting like this happen during Q&A sessions after talks and during gossipy coffee breaks. I’ve already met one attendee who got into research policy as a consequence of her advisor publishing her PhD work under his name. And the best excuse yet for an author not supplying the original data requested by a journal editor? White ants ate my data.

‘Talk’ is the main goal of the first ever world conference on research integrity: an opportunity to bring together 300-plus scientific managers, policy makers, funders, editors and academics for open and frank discussions of this difficult and sensitive topic. Supported by the US Office of Research Integrity and the European Science Foundation, the hopes are high for a meeting that, some say, could not have happened even 5 years ago. Whether any concrete actions will emerge is yet to be seen.

Indeed, since arriving in Lisbon the most direct action on integrity I’ve witnessed is the ‘zero tolerance’ policy on the city’s electric trams. Boarding a tram yesterday, several tourists made the mistake of forming a second queue, and so cutting in front of an unhappy Portugese matron. This lady began berating the hapless tourists – and you did not need to speak Portugese to understand that there were a few choice words about the Portugese way of doing things and having respect for your elders. The tirade did not end when the lady found a seat, or when the tram began lurching its way up the hill, continuing for another 10 minutes into the journey.

It’s not often you witness such an outspoken public defence of what is seen to be fair and right and I couldn’t help wondering if more researchers were to follow the example of this Portugese grandmother then perhaps the sloppy and fraudulent behaviour we were here to discuss would be less prevalent.

There is at least one concrete proposal making the rounds this week. The OECD’s Global Science Forum (GSF) has issued a draft report on Best Practices for ensuring Scientific Integrity and Preventing Misconduct. The report is a follow-up to a workshop held in Tokyo in February this year, and the report’s authors are hoping for feedback from this meeting before presenting the final draft for review by the Global Science Forum in 2 weeks time. They hope it will become a useful document for nations that are planning to review or modify their misconduct policies. You can read the current draft here.

Feel free to post your thoughts below.

It’s the end of the first day of the World Conference on Research Integrity in Lisbon and there has already been a lot of talk about responsible research, misconduct, questionable behaviours by scientists and what to do about it all.

Some of the most interesting discussions at a meeting like this happen during Q&A sessions after talks and during gossipy coffee breaks. I’ve already met one attendee who got into research policy as a consequence of her advisor publishing her PhD work under his name. And the best excuse yet for an author not supplying the original data requested by a journal editor? White ants ate my data.

‘Talk’ is the main goal of the first ever world conference on research integrity: an opportunity to bring together 300-plus scientific managers, policy makers, funders, editors and academics for open and frank discussions of this difficult and sensitive topic. Supported by the US Office of Research Integrity and the European Science Foundation, the hopes are high for a meeting that, some say, could not have happened even 5 years ago. Whether any concrete actions will emerge is yet to be seen.

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