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Abstract:

‘The Embassy of Good Science’ is a European initiative to make the normative framework informing research ethics and research integrity (RE+RI) easily accessible, share RE+RI knowledge and experiences, and foster active participation of the scientific community.

The development of The Embassy platform is underpinned by a stakeholder consultation, which consisted of a series of focus groups in three EU countries with diverse levels of research and innovation (The Netherlands, Spain and Croatia, n=59) and an online community discussion with participants from across Europe and beyond (n=52). Participants included researchers, editors, RE or RI committee members, policy-makers, and funders.

I will describe the thematic results of the consultation and how they have influenced the scope, content and design of The Embassy. Five themes emerged: 1) Laws, policies and guidance; 2) Context; 3) Support; 4) Individual disposition, values, and knowledge; 5) Funding and publishing.

This applied research reveals varied RE+RI experiences of researchers and other stakeholders in Europe. The results underline the need to investigate implicit norms that structure local RE+RI practice in order to understand how more explicit rules are, or are not, applied. They also highlight the need for more structural support and education, and the influential role funders and publishers have in upholding and fostering RE+RI.