Research Integrity

As a world-leading, research-intensive institution, King’s College London is committed to ensuring that the research conducted by our staff and students is consistently of the highest quality and conforms to the most rigorous standards.

The proper conduct of research requires all our researchers to uphold certain principles and professional responsibilities to ensure integrity in the work they do.

This is important to instil confidence in academic communities, funding bodies, and the public that the data, findings, and results produced by our researchers are reliable and trustworthy.

Research integrity is fundamental to all areas of research at King’s and across all career levels, from undergraduate and taught postgraduate research through to doctoral level and beyond into the professoriate.

As a university community, we are committed to supporting honesty and transparency in all aspects of research, the adherence to any relevant disciplinary norms and standards, and ensuring that the wellbeing, dignity, and safety of research participants and our researchers are protected, alongside the reputation of the university.

The Research Integrity Office is committed to the promotion of good conduct and integrity in research and to supporting the university’s research community through the provision of training and guidance, as well as the development of policies and procedures, in order to safeguard public trust in all King’s research.

We expect that all research undertaken at King’s is conducted with the core values of research integrity in mind, to produce research of the highest standard. The following principles are key to maintaining research integrity at King's:

Honesty in all aspects of research, including in the:

• Presentation of research goals
• Reporting of research methodology
• Gathering of data
• Appropriate acknowledgement of others
• Communication of sound interpretations of research findings

Rigour in:

• Following disciplinary standard and norms
• Using appropriate research methods
• Adhering to agreed protocols
• Drawing interpretations from results
• Communicating results

 Transparency and open communication in relation to the:

• Declaration of competing interests;
• Reporting data collection methods;
• Analysis and interpretation of data;
• Availability of research findings (to include the publication or sharing of negative or null results); and
• The presentation of work to other researchers and the public.

Care and respect for:

• All participants, subjects, users and beneficiaries of research
• The integrity of the research record.

Accountability for:

• All those engaged in the research process to collectively create an empowering and enabling research environment
• To take action when behaviour falls short of accepted standards of good practice in research.

These core values are aligned to the research integrity commitments of several national frameworks and organisations, which King's proudly embeds alongside our own:

The Concordat to Support Research Integrity (2019)

King’s College London is a signatory of the Concordat to Support Research Integrity (2019) and adheres to its five commitments. As an institution with research at the heart of what we do, we are committed to:

• Upholding the highest standards of rigour and integrity in all aspects of research
• Ensuring that research is conducted according to appropriate ethical, legal and professional frameworks, obligations and standards
• Supporting a research environment that is underpinned by a culture of integrity and based on good governance, best practice and support for the development of researchers
• Using transparent, timely, robust and fair processes to deal with allegations of research misconduct when they arise
• Working together to strengthen the integrity of research and to reviewing progress regularly and openly

Code of Good Conduct in Research

To ensure our commitment to the highest quality and standards as applied to the conduct of research and the dissemination of research results, King's has adopted the UKRIO Code of Practice for Research. We are in the process of developing a College Code of Good Conduct in Research, and will expect all our researchers to adhere to this code.

UK Reproducibility Network

King’s College London is a formal institutional member of the UKRN. This reflects our commitment to embed strategies for research improvement, in order to maintain and develop the highest standards of academic practice in our pursuit of research excellence. Prof Tim Newton acts as our Academic Lead and contact with the UKRN.

Commitment to fair and responsible research assessment

King's College London is committed to using fair and responsible research assessment practices to inform any recruitment, promotion, and funding decisions. Our commitment to fair and responsible research assessment is detailed in the statement below, which outlines the organisation's plan to embed open, fair, and inclusive approaches to evaluating research productivity throughout our institution. For more information on these efforts, please contact Michael Murphy, Research Information & Intelligence Specialist in the Research Management & Innovation Directorate: michael.s.murphy@kcl.ac.uk

Sorbonne Declaration

Through our membership of the Russell Group, King’s College London is a signatory of the international Sorbonne Declaration on Research Data Rights, published in January 2020.

The Sorbonne Declaration affirms universities' willingness to share data as much as possible, to enable the development and advancement of new knowledge for the benefit of society and economic progress.

It recognises the need to ensure data aligns with the FAIR data principles, that is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable so that information from different sources can come together in exciting and innovative ways.

The declaration acknowledges that pursuing this vision requires appropriate funding and clear legal frameworks to facilitate the sharing of data, so seeks support from funders and governments to enable this.