Beyond Bad Apples

Work packages

The mission of the Horizon Europe project BEYOND is to support adherence to the highest standards of research ethics and research integrity and by doing so prevent research misconduct and questionable research practices. This work is carried out in BEYOND's Work Packages (WPs).

Research misconduct is not caused by bad apples in the research community.

The main goal of BEYOND is to explore and advance individual and institutional responsibilities in the promotion of research ethics and research integrity, with particular focus on the prevention of research misconduct through guidance and educational instruments. The project contributes to ensuring that the work carried out in the EU to tackle research misconduct relies on evidence-based foundations, moving beyond simplistic notions such as the 'bad apples' framework.

The BEYOND project

Investigates

reasons behind research misconduct and reviews validated misconduct measurement instruments

Develops

methodologies to measure the impact of training on attitudes and behaviours

Designs

informed interventions to address research misconduct and promote good research practices

Supports

the research ecosystem in its adherence to the highest standards of research ethics and research integrity through a best-practice manual, guidelines and a roadmap

This work takes place in Work Packages (WPs) presented below.

WP1

Establishing a knowledge base for understanding the current state of research ethics and research integrity

WP1 of the BEYOND project works to establish a knowledge base for understanding the current state of research ethics (RE) and research integrity (RI) at both the individual, institutional, national and supra-national levels. The work of WP1 includes carrying out a state-of-the-art literature review on institutional, environmental and individual factors that contribute to research misconduct (RM), as well as the promotion of RE/RI; monitoring and reviewing cases of real-life experiences with RM and questionable research practices (QRPs); carrying out foundational work to identify research outcomes and research needs for developing the BEYOND project’s case-based methodology to address research misconduct; and reviewing and updating knowledge about the socio-economic consequences of research misconduct.

Team members

WP2

Organising bottom-up and solution-oriented public consultation

WP2 of the BEYOND project aims to organise bottom-up and solution-oriented public consultation on research ethics and research integrity needs, knowledge, perspectives, real-life experiences on research misconduct and the efficacy of research ethics and research integrity interventions. An electronic platform which will be available to citizens and stakeholders will be used to organise the public consultation. For reflection on the results of the public consultation, a consortium workshop will be organised, involving the Stakeholder Advisory Board. WP2 also aims to engage the public and stakeholders in the co-creation of a best practice manual, complementing guidelines, and roadmap on the promotion of research ethics and research integrity (see WP5). The drafts will be shared for comments with participants of the public consultation who express their willingness to participate in co-creation of these documents. The comments gathered in this process will be reviewed and analysed by WP5 and the drafts will be amended accordingly.

Team members

WP3

Developing behavioural interventions towards ethical research

In WP3 we aim to develop nuanced understanding of why researchers engage in questionable research practices and design behavioral interventions to counter them. To achieve this, our work is oriented at three broad objectives: first, we aim to develop a theoretical framework, that enables contextually evaluating questionable behaviors in terms of their impact on scientific progress. Based on this framework, we can identify the most promising target behaviors, for which we then develop intervention models and concrete interventions, that aim to reduce these behaviors. Finally, we aim to test the efficacy of these interventions on researchers in behavioral experiments.

Team members

WP4

Identifying methods and tools and evaluating their benefits and limitations

WP4 focuses on methodologies to measure effects of RE/RI training. The objectives are to identify existing methods and tools for measuring the effects of RE/RI training and evaluate their benefits and limitations; to develop methods of measurement further to capture short, medium and long-term learning and RE/RI training effects; and to develop a measurement toolbox, recommendations, and guidelines for measuring learning/ training effects. This work explores novel questions and methods by asking, for instance, how can visual attention information expand the understanding of RE/RI learning processes; how can self-reported assessment of learning be developed as a reliable and feasible form of assessment; and how can learning in collaborative ethical decision-making be identified? WP4 combines perspectives of pedagogy and research methodology to understand and develop measurement of learning and training effects.

Team members

WP5

Creating a best practices manual, guidelines and a roadmap

WP5 cocreates with stakeholders and the general public 1) a case-based, context-sensitive and practice-oriented best practice manual of effective measures to promote RE/RI and address RM, 2) guidelines for researchers and research organisations to facilitate the adoption of gained knowledge and supplement existing guidelines, and 3) a RE/RI Roadmap to 2030 that outlines both goals and challenges that need to be addressed in order for the highest standards of research ethics and research integrity to be reached.

Team members

WP6

Developing new and supplementary training materials and tools for research ethics and integrity education

WP6 has several objectives: mapping existing training materials developed by recent EU-initiatives focusing on research ethics and research integrity, developing trainer guides to enhance mapped training resources and tools on the topic of research ethics and integrity, creating new training materials based on research findings to facilitate the implementation of responsible research practices, and pilot-testing the material in research institutions in order to refine the materials. The training materials and tools will be developed for senior researchers and research managers, as well as students and early career researchers. By doing so, the project aims to contribute to the development of a research culture that is conducive to ethical research practices and that fosters public trust in science.

Team members

WP7

Horizontal coordination and dissemination, exploitation and communication activities

WP 7 coordinates the communication and dissemination activities of BEYOND and facilitates horizontal coordination with other EU projects in the field of research ethics and research integrity for mutual benefit and co-creation.