What is this about? (Is About)
From The Embassy of Good Science
A short summary providing some details about the theme/resource (max. 75 words)
- ⧼SA Foundation Data Type⧽: Text
I
In line with European and International Open Access initiatives, this document highlights Open access as a tenet of good research practice. Moreover, it confirms the researcher's freedom to publish their research output, ensures that publications are visible and supports the free flow of information in Ireland and worldwide. +
Irish Universities Quality Board's Good Practice for Institutional Research in Irish Higher Education +
This document elaborates good management, quality assurance and collaboration practices among Irish universities, in order to encourage and foster excellence in research and education. +
This article provides context and information about a case of suspected self-plagiarism that led to an investigation by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) in Canada. The investigation resulted in three retractions. +
This TED talk video presents some of the main causes of the so-called "reproducibility crisis", i.e. the innability to reproduce or replicate results that have been reported in peer-reviewed scientific publications, by other than the original writters researchers. +
This document is the Italian National Research Center (Centro Nazionale delle Ricerche) guidelines on research integrity (Linee guida per l'intergrita nella ricerca). A first version was published and updated in 2019. +
The National Research Council (CNR) is Italy's largest public research organization, which promotes excellence in research, collaboration and innovation. Performing and supporting research across seven disciplines, this organization also produces guidelines and position papers to guide affiliated research institutions and researchers. +
This is a factual case of a professor who had several of his publications retracted because of claims of plagiarism and faked affiliations. +
The paper highlight an often non recognized form plagiarism that occurs in multiauthored textbooks undergoing serial editions. The case presents a detailed description of this specific form of plagiarism. The cases study authors develop an ethical analysis from a wide stakeholder perspective of the production of textbooks. +
Dalmeet Singh Chawla from LSE questions the way forward for those committing violations of research ethics as well as the universities' responsibility for investigating such allegations. The author uses the case of a Canadian researcher whose medical license was reinstated. +
J
JST Policy on Open Access to Research Publications and Research Data Management (2017), Science Council of Japan +
The JST Policy on Open Access to Research Publications and Research Data Management (2017), issued by the Science Council of Japan, promotes open science by making openness the default while allowing exceptions for ethics, privacy, intellectual property, and security. It requires open access to publications via repositories with minimal embargoes, Creative Commons licences, and persistent identifiers, and encourages FAIR data practices supported by data management plans. The policy defines responsibilities for researchers, institutions, and funders, and stresses infrastructure such as repositories and discovery services to ensure compliance. Monitoring focuses on the quality of openness metadata, reproducibility, and data or code sharing rather than publication counts. Equity is emphasized through zero-embargo access, reduced costs for authors, and multilingual communication, while responsible openness is supported by safeguards for sensitive data and governance oversight. Overall, the policy provides practical guidance for Japan’s research community while aligning with international open science efforts. +
This is the factual case of a researcher who was caught manipulating calibrations in pre-clinical data;these manipulations resulted in making data appear safe for use in clinical trials when they might not have been. The researcher, who was working at an American pharmaceutical company based in Scotland, was jailed for 3 months as a result of the investigations. +
Investigations highlight need for a national, independent body to oversee research ethics. It has been a rough year for materials scientist Akihisa Inoue, the president of Tohoku University in Japan. Last March, an earthquake crippled his campus (see [https://doi.org/10.1038/483141a Nature 483,141–143;2012]). Since then, he has had to retract a series of papers because they contained text that had appeared in his previous publications, and has faced continuing calls for his resignation from the university, which he has rejected. His critics, mostly professors at his university, claim that some of his work cannot be replicated, and that there are irregularities in the data in some of his papers (see [https://doi.org/10.1038/470446a Nature 470, 446–447;2011]). +
This factual case describes the story of a teenage boy who died during a clinical trial in which a gene therapy for a rare metabolic disorder was tested. The story is told in great detail from the perspective of the boy's father. Following his son's death, he discovered that the researchers leading the trial had conflicts of interest and that he and his son were not properly informed of the risks of the trial. +
Joint Guidelines on the Interplay between the Digital Markets Act and the General Data Protection Regulation +
This document is a draft policy guideline produced jointly by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and the European Commission to explain how two major EU laws the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) should work together in practice. The DMA regulates large digital platforms (“gatekeepers”) to promote fair competition, while the GDPR protects personal data and privacy rights. Their goals, scope, and legal bases differ, but in many cases they overlap for example when gatekeepers process or share personal data in ways that affect competition and data protection. These guidelines clarify how DMA obligations intersect with GDPR requirements on consent, data processing, portability, access rights, interoperability, and anonymisation. The aim is to ensure both sets of rules are applied consistently and coherently, reducing legal uncertainty for companies and protecting individuals’ data rights. The document was open for public consultation until 4 December 2025, with the final version planned for adoption in 2026. +
This document, available in German, recognizes that the pre-existing procedures for the recognition and handling of scientific misconduct are not uniform. At the same time, it emphasized that science requires more rigorous self-governance rather than external intervention. It then lays down principles for good self-governance, including the rights and duties of researchers. +
In this factual case, a paper claiming that there might be a link between pigmentation and aggression/sexual violence was retracted following a petition against its publication. +
These infographics and flowcharts present the whole journal peer review process. Besides providing definition and types of peer review, they describe the basic principles and give tips to researchers and editors on how to respond to peer review and how to conduct it. +
This blog post is about a famous journalist who made up quotes, people, and even entire stories. His fabrication resulted in the retraction of his article in the Harpers magazine. +
A '''wicked problem''' is a type of problem that is '''very complex, hard to define clearly, and has no single correct solution'''. These problems are tricky because every attempt to solve them can change the problem itself.
This Micromodule introduces sustainability as a wicked problem and highlights the importance of Perspective Taking, Systems Thinking, and Negotiation in engineering. Through interactive exercises, participants will evaluate environmental and social impacts, make informed material and design choices, and reflect on engineers’ broader responsibilities in creating sustainable solutions. +
<span lang="EN-US">Through short podcasts and interactive activities, learners get familiar with different forms of justice – recognition, distributive, spatial, temporal and epistemic – and how these ideas show up in real environmental conflicts.</span>
<span lang="EN-US">A central part of the module looks at the Saami experience with the Fosen wind project. The case shows how renewable energy initiatives, even when well-intended, can overlook indigenous rights if they are pushed forwards without proper consultation or consent.</span> +
