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This may be the author’s version of a work that was submitted/accepted for publication in the following source: Moher, David, Bouter, Lex, Kleinert, Sabine, Glasziou, Paul, Sham, Mai Har, Barbour, Virginia, Coriat, Anne Marie, Foeger, Nicole, & Dirnagl, Ul- rich (2020) The Hong Kong principles for assessing researchers:Fostering research integrity. PLoS Biology, 18(7), Article number: 3000737. This file was downloaded from: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/203094/ c The Author(s) This work is covered by copyright. Unless the document is being made available under a Creative Commons Licence, you must assume that re-use is limited to personal use and that permission from the copyright owner must be obtained for all other uses. If the docu- ment is available under a Creative Commons License (or other specified license) then refer to the Licence for details of permitted re-use. It is a condition of access that users recog- nise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. 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If there is any doubt, please refer to the published source. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000737 PLOS BIOLOGY ESSAY The Hong Kong Principles for assessing researchers: Fostering research integrity 1,2 3,4 5 6 7 David MoherID *, Lex BouterID , Sabine Kleinert , Paul GlasziouID , Mai Har ShamID , 8 9 10 11 Virginia BarbourID , Anne-Marie CoriatID , Nicole Foeger , Ulrich DirnaglID 1 Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada, 2 School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada, 3 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, location VUmc, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 4 Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the a1111111111 Netherlands, 5 The Lancet, London Wall Office, London, United Kingdom, 6 Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare, Bond University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, 7 School of Biomedical Sciences, LKS a1111111111 Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China, 8 Queensland a1111111111 University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia, 9 Wellcome Trust, London, United Kingdom, a1111111111 10 Austrian Agency for Research Integrity, Vienna, Austria, 11 Berlin Institute of Health, QUEST Center for a1111111111 Transforming Biomedical Research, Berlin, Germany * [email protected] OPEN ACCESS Abstract Citation: Moher D, Bouter L, Kleinert S, Glasziou P, For knowledge to benefit research and society, it must be trustworthy. Trustworthy research Sham MH, Barbour V, et al. (2020) The Hong Kong Principles for assessing researchers: Fostering is robust, rigorous, and transparent at all stages of design, execution, and reporting. Assess- research integrity. PLoS Biol 18(7): e3000737. ment of researchers still rarely includes considerations related to trustworthiness, rigor, and https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000737 transparency. We have developed the Hong Kong Principles (HKPs) as part of the 6th Published: July 16, 2020 World Conference on Research Integrity with a specific focus on the need to drive research Copyright: © 2020 Moher et al. This is an open improvement through ensuring that researchers are explicitly recognized and rewarded for access article distributed under the terms of the behaviors that strengthen research integrity. We present five principles: responsible Creative Commons Attribution License, which research practices; transparent reporting; open science (open research); valuing a diversity permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original of types of research; and recognizing all contributions to research and scholarly activity. For author and source are credited. each principle, we provide a rationale for its inclusion and provide examples where these Funding: PG is funded by an Australian National principles are already being adopted. Health and Medical Research Council NHMRC Fellowship APP1155009. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the Introduction following competing interests: A-MC works for Wellcome. Through this, the organization and she In a quest to advance knowledge, researchers publish approximately 1.5 million journal articles are engaged in a lot of advocacy work to promote a each year. The assumption is that this literature can be used by other researchers, stakeholders, more positive research culture. The guidance asks and the wider society because it is trustworthy, robust, rigorous, and complete [1]. about advocacy work so I include this for The approach taken to validating research and its outcomes differs depending on the nature completeness. VB was involved in the creation of a of the research. For example, to rigorously examine the effects of a health intervention, trial Research Integrity course at QUT. QUT licenses this course to other institutions and provides a participants (human or animal) are typically required to be randomized between the interven- proportion of any income to the creators. VB is tion being studied. Many researchers advocate registration of protocols as a way to ensure employed by QUT and the Australasian Open transparency and to reduce bias, to discriminate between exploratory and confirmatory modes PLOS Biology | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000737 July 16, 2020 1 / 14 PLOS BIOLOGY Access Strategy Group. She sits on and is paid for of research, and to provide insight into ongoing research projects. Subsequently, the use of work on the NHMRC's Research Quality Steering reporting guidelines can help ensure complete and transparent reporting of the researchers' Committee. She is an unpaid advisor to a variety of methods and results. When the research is being disseminated, the research team would open access and scholarly communication initiatives, including DORA. ensure that the associated data, materials, and any analytical code are made available as an integral part of publication. Such data sharing facilitates reanalysis of the data to check repro- Abbreviations: DMP, data management plan; DOI, ducibility and to perform secondary analyses. digital object identifier; DORA, Declaration on Research Assessment; DR-NTU, NTU Digital Although some mechanisms exist to support researchers in ensuring transparency at all Repository; EDA, Experimental Design Assistant; stages of design, execution, and reporting, there is no widespread adoption of these practices FAIR, Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re- across all disciplines. There are many interwoven reasons for this. One contributing factor, we usable; HKPs, Hong Kong Principles; HRB, Health argue, is that little emphasis is placed on the rigor of research when hiring, reviewing, and pro- Research Board; NC3Rs, National Centre for the moting researchers. It seems to us more emphasis is placed on the novelty of perceived Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals ªimpactº of research rather than on rigor [2]. Working together across the research sector as a in Research; NIH, National Institutes of Health; NIHR, National Institute of Health Research; NTU, whole to address this systemic issue, we believe, offers a global opportunity to improve Nanyang Technological University; ORCID, Open research and impact. Researcher and Contributor ID; PTC, promotion We developed the Hong Kong Principles (HKPs) as part of the 6th World Conference on and tenure committee; REWARD, REduce research Research Integrity (WCRI) specifically to drive greater recognition for researchers who com- Waste And Review Diligence; SPOR, Strategy for mit to robust, rigorous, and transparent practices (i.e., their careers are advanced) (see Fig 1). Patient-Oriented Research; WCRI, World Conference on Research Integrity; WOR, Wellcome If implemented, the HKPs could play a critical role in evidence-based assessments of research- Open Research. ers and put research rigor at the heart of assessment, as well as open up research to the wider benefit of society. Provenance: Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed. We propose five principles, each with a rationale for its inclusion. The principles target exploratory and confirmatory types of research and analysis. Similarly, the principles are also applicable for quantitative and qualitative research, although there is more of a focus on assess- ing researchers who engage in empirical research. The principles were formulated with a focus on rewarding behaviors that strengthen research integrity that have an emphasis on responsi- ble research practices and the avoidance of detrimental research practices [3]. We illustrate these principles with examples where we know they exist. These examples are not exhaustive, and many are relevant to more than one principle. Together, they illustrate of a breadth of approaches as to how these principles can operate at the very highest levels of international research. Early