“Honesty in the commitment to truth; independence in the preservation of freedom of action in relation to pressures outside the profession; and impartiality in the neutrality of professional practice in relation to private interests outside the research” is the definition of scientific integrity in which this year’s Code of Conduct for Research Integrity of the UB is inspired.
The UB Code of Conduct for Research Integrity involves specific chapters to fulfil the new requirements in the field of research, mainly promoted by the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, carried out by the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA), which the European Comission recognizes as a model document for European institutions. Also, the Code establishes the protocols to manage those cases of fraud, inacceptable practices and wrong conducts.
The main
objectives of the UB Code of Research Integrity –approved by the Governing
council on May 15, 2020–, are to improve the quality, impact and results of
research in all fields. It wants to establish mechanisms to guarantee
scientific integrity, provide good practices on research for the research
staff, and promote the research integrity culture.
The document is
based on six principles: honesty, responsibility and accountability,
reliability, rigour, respect and independence. In particular, it aims at the
professional honesty as a key value to identify and promote. In this sense, it
has a section dedicated to scientific and academic integrity, which treats
basic questions such as the respect for intellectual authorship of the academic
work. It refers to the cases of scientific fraud such as plagiarism,
falsification, invention or fabrication of results and appropriation of ideas,
work or data from other people without citing the original source.
This code affects all research structures and agents of the UB: teaching and research staff, research teams, in-training research staff and administration and service staff related to research, as well as departments and institutes and research centres.
