Luxembourg's approach to research integrity during the COVID-19 pandemic

• Published in: Accountability in research Vol. 27; no. 6; pp. 396 - 400
• Main Author: Bramstedt, Katrina A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Taylor & Francis 17.08.2020; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Betacoronavirus; Bioethics; Biomedical Research - ethics; Biomedical Research - standards; Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Decision making; Ethics; Human error; Humans; Integrity; Luxembourg; Medical research; pandemic; Pandemics; Pneumonia, Viral - epidemiology; Reproducibility of Results; Research ethics; research integrity; Researchers; Robustness; SARS-CoV-2; Luxembourg; COVID-19; pandemic; research ethics; bioethics; research integrity
• ISSN: 0898-9621; 1545-5815
• DOI: 10.1080/08989621.2020.1778473

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of research from its routine marathon to a sprint, and this can increase the risk of both human error (mistakes) as well as research misconduct. In an effort to save time, researchers can be tempted to "cut corners", discount ethical complexity, or use methods and approaches that fall outside of good research practice. Ethically, it is vital that research outputs during a pandemic be robust because clinical decision-making may reflect on these research results. Luxembourg, while a small European nation, is known for its well-ranked global research and innovation. Accordingly, Luxembourg's national organization for research integrity has taken several proactive measures to help researchers nationally and globally, foster robust research. This paper reports on these measures and encourages other nations to similarly assist the research community.