Core values on research integrity

Written by: Dian Luthfiana Sufyan

“He’s the same in the courtroom as he is on the public streets.”
-- Scout Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)

By stumbling upon this site, there is a considerable amount of certainty that you are a researcher, student, academician, government official involved in policy-making, or a professional engaged in empirical investigations. As the fundamental principle of ethics has been discussed here. In this article, I would like to introduce another crucial component of a trustworthy research process-research integrity.

Research is a journey into the new unknown. While it seeks answers, it often leads to new questions. Opening doors for further impending research, as it pursuits to expand the cycle of knowledge. To ensure that the whole research process is credible, research integrity must be upheld at every step.

Integrity in relation to research has been mentioned for at least 14 times in the Guideline and Ethical Standards published by Research Ethics Committee of the National Health Development, Indonesia Ministry of Health in (2021). But, what exactly does it mean?

UK Research and Innovation in 2020 defined research integrity as

“undertaking and conducting research in a way that ensures it is trustworthy, ethical, and responsible as well as carried out the core values of honesty, rigour, openness/transparency, care and respect, and accountability."

Or simply understood as value goes along with action.

Those five core values of research integrity are explained as follows

1. Honesty
   • Be truthful in all aspects of research, including adhering to research goals and intentions, accurately reporting methods and procedures, data collection, authorship, disseminating valid interpretations, and conveying sound claims based on findings.
2. Rigour
   • Maintain high standards and thoroughness throughout the research process. For medical and health research, adherence to the Declaration of Helsinki is indispensable.
3. Openness
   • Be transparent in any research aspect. Disclose any potential conflict of interest. Disseminate research findings to the public, even when negative or null results emerged, not an easy task, but required to be acknowledged as a process and valued as a contribution to the state of the art.
4. Care and respect
   • Treat research subjects with care and respect, be they human, animal, or other objects. Data obtained from research activities also needs to be kept with care to avoid potential data breaches.
5. Accountability
   • Hold yourself accountable, be it as funders, employers and researchers to actively and collectively empowered research environment, including when unexpected circumstance shows up.

Understanding and embracing these core values is not a solitary task. Building a trustworthy research culture requires collective commitment of many actors- individual researcher, supervisors, institutions, funders, ethics committees, government, publishers, and other research-related stakeholders.

Dian Luthfiana Sufyan is a lecturer and researcher at Nutrition Department of UPNVJ, reviewer board member of Research Ethics Committee UPNVJ, 2020 SEAMEO RECFON affiliated researcher, DAAD alumnae and currently a Postgraduate Research Student at Human Nutrition Department, University of Glasgow 

REFERENCE

UK Committee on Research Integrity, (2025). The Concordat to Support Research Integrity.

World Medical Association. World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. JAMA. 2013 Nov 27;310(20):2191-4. doi: 10.1001/jama.2013.281053. PMID: 24141714.

Research Ethics Committee and Health Development Agencies, 2021. Guideline and Standards on Research Ethics and National Health Development. Indonesia Ministry of Health, Jakarta