Mission of the WCRIF

The World Conferences on Research Integrity Foundation (WCRIF) was established in July, 2017, as a non-profit organization with its official seat in the municipality of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The first five World Conferences on Research Integrity were convened before the creation of the Foundation. They were organized by co-chairs and planning committees.

The WCRIF fulfills this mission by:

• promoting the continuation of World Conferences on Research Integrity on a regular schedule;
• ensuring organizational continuity between conferences;
• maintaining a World Conferences on Research Integrity website; and
• publishing and disseminating guidance or policies agreed to at World Conferences on Research Integrity.

The WCRIF is managed by a Governing Board of at least five and at most nine members who serve four-year terms. The Governing Board elects from its members a Chair, a Secretary and a Treasurer, who constitute the Board's Executive Committee.

What do we mean when we talk about research integrity?

‘Research integrity’ refers to the principles and standards that have the purpose to ensure validity and trustworthiness of research. Research integrity is vital to realise the societal value and benefits of research. The consistent and coherent adherence to the principles of research integrity, such as honesty, accountability, professional courtesy, fairness, and good stewardship are the hallmarks of research integrity.

While research integrity applies to all parties in the research endeavour, it most importantly relies on the conduct of researchers. Behaviours by researchers can seriously undermine or strengthen research integrity. These behaviours are predominantly driven by the attitudes and professional values of the individual researcher, the institutional research climate, and the research system at large. Three groups of behaviours can be targeted by interventions aimed at drivers of research integrity.

First there is research misconduct or serious breaches of research integrity, which is usually subdivided in fabrication, falsification and plagiarism (FFP).

Second there are the more prevalent detrimental research practices (DRP). DRPs include behaviours that breach important principles of research integrity, such as inadequate supervision of junior colleagues, losing research data, or inappropriate assignment or omission of authorship. Similar concepts are, for example, sloppy science, cutting corners, and incomplete and unusable reporting, all leading to research waste. Being more prevalent, DRPs arguably do more damage to the quality and credibility of research than FFP.

Third there are responsible research practices (RRPs). These are the behaviours expected of researchers to achieve research integrity of their work. Examples include: the honest and accurate presentation of information in planning, conducting, and reporting research; participating in transparent and open research practices such as preregistration, open data and open access; being transparent about and managing competing interests; avoiding breaches of research integrity and helping others to do the same; providing good supervision and mentoring; responsibly managing and sharing research data and findings; correcting the research record if there are errors; and making active contributions to achieve an open, inclusive, and responsible research environment.