The con is on: Leveraging standards to combat research misconduct and ensure research integrity

• Published in: Information services & use Vol. 45; no. 1-2; pp. 66 - 74
• Main Author: Turner, David M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.05.2025
• Subjects: Research Organization Registry; standards in publishing; metadata; CREC; ORCID; ROR; academic fraud prevention; research integrity; research misconduct; Crossref; Ringgold
• ISSN: 0167-5265; 1875-8789
• DOI: 10.1177/18758789251341614

The proliferation of paper mills and unethical practices within the scientific community poses a significant threat to research integrity. The extent of this problem across the entire industry is recognized and yet is ambiguous, making it imperative for publishers to implement scalable solutions. Metadata, XML tagging, and industry standards offer a structured approach to scrutinizing journal articles on a large scale, empowering publishers to proactively identify potential integrity issues. This article, based upon a presentation at the 2024 NISO Plus Global conference, delves into the reasons behind the challenges and proposes ideas to make integrity checks more effective for publishing operations. It also promotes the importance of finding and remediating potential abuses early in the process to prevent further problems. Using available standards in concert with information from organizations such as ORCID, Ringgold, the Research Organization Registry (ROR), Crossref, and NISO, this article highlights powerful ways by which publishers can find and address crucial red flags before publication or peer review.