BEYOND Best Practices Manual: a complement to the BEYOND Guidelines for Preventing and Addressing Research Misconduct
From The Embassy of Good Science
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BEYOND Best Practices Manual: a complement to the BEYOND Guidelines for Preventing and Addressing Research Misconduct
Related Initiative
What is this about?
The BEYOND Best Practices Manual is a practical guide developed by the BEYOND project, “BEYOND BAD APPLES: Towards a Behavioural and Evidence-Based Approach to Promote Research Ethics and Research Integrity in Europe.” It complements the BEYOND Guidelines for Preventing and Addressing Research Misconduct by turning their broad principles into practical, context-sensitive recommendations, tools, and examples. The Manual takes an ecosystem approach, recognising that research misconduct and contestable research practices are influenced not only by individual behaviour but also by organisational cultures, incentives, structural conditions, psychological factors, and wider research environments. It covers the causes and impacts of research misconduct, ways to prevent and address it, whistleblower protection, building supportive research cultures, restoring trust, and research ethics and integrity training. It also uses case examples and implementation tools to help stakeholders apply its recommendations in real situations. Overall, the Manual aims to promote responsible research, strengthen research integrity, and reduce misconduct across the research ecosystem.
Why is this important?
The Manual is important because research misconduct can have serious consequences for researchers, institutions, businesses, policymakers, and society. Misconduct can waste research funding, time, and effort, produce unreliable or misleading findings, damage researchers’ and institutions’ reputations, reduce public trust in science, and potentially cause harm to health and society. The Manual is particularly valuable because it does not treat misconduct simply as the result of individual “bad apples.” Instead, it shows how organisational culture, publication pressures, incentives, leadership, power relationships, weak oversight, unclear policies, and inadequate training can contribute to unethical research behaviour. It therefore provides practical ways to prevent misconduct by improving research environments, supporting researchers, strengthening reporting systems, protecting whistleblowers, and developing effective research ethics and integrity training.
For whom is this important?
ResearchersStudentsPolicy Maker / RegulatorResearch Funding OrganizationResearch Ethics Committee Member
