The primary goal of the research integrity podcast is to bring research integrity topics to a wider and broader research audience, by stepping “out of the research integrity bubble”. In doing so, we hope that research integrity will become a more mainstream topic that researchers of all backgrounds and disciplines feel comfortable in engaging from within their own research environments. Our hope with this series, is that the podcast will serve as a source of information to spur interest and create awareness among researchers on research integrity matters.

Additionally, we will try to let general stakeholders like funders, policy makers and the general public, get more acquainted with research integrity: what it means, and why it is important in safeguarding research quality. Again, with the purpose of reaching an audience “out of the research integrity bubble”. As we step increasingly into the open science era, we believe informing a wider audience on research integrity and the research process is an important effort to make.

This podcast series is an idea of Marino van Zelst and Gowri Gopalakrishna. Marino van Zelst has a background in organization science and infectious diseases and works on the intersection of infectious disease and strategic complexity. He studies policy responses to infectious disease outbreaks through quantitative modeling and empirical research. He hosts various podcasts on topics related to infectious diseases and healthcare. Gowri Gopalakrishna is an epidemiologist by training who has spent the last four years working on the Dutch National Survey on Research Integrity. She is currently assistant professor at Maastricht University where she teaches research integrity, ethics and open science and conducts meta research on these topics. She is also research fellow at the Department of Epidemiology and Data Science, Amsterdam University Medical Center where she works on the same topics.

In the first episode of Research Integrity Matters, Gowri and Marino talk with Cassidy Sugimoto about intersectionality and diversity in research. Why and how does striving for more diverse research teams improve research integrity and why does a lack of diversity affect research quality?

In the second episode of Research Integrity Matters, Gowri and Marino talk with Inge Stegeman and Jeroen Sondervan about open science and recognition, valuation, and effectiveness:

How does open science/access relate to research integrity when we look at recognizing and valuing researchers’ efforts in terms of opening up research? Does it benefit researchers, does it foster research integrity and how effective are all these interventions in academic practices actually?

In the 5th episode of Research Integrity Matters, Gowri and Marino talk with Lyn Horn and Sandra Alba about the recent Cape Town Statement on Fostering Research Integrity through Fairness and Equity. The Statement advocates for fair practice from conception to implementation of research and provides 20 recommendations aimed at all involved stakeholders.

Nature published a commentary on this in March 2023 and we are looking forward to discussing the Statement as well as the Nature commentary today with Lyn and Sandra. You can find the Cape Town Statement here and the Nature article about the statement here. The BRIDGE statement (co-authored by Sandra) can be found here.