Research Integrity Statement 2025

1. Section 1: Key contact information
2. Section 2: Promoting high standards of research integrity and positive research culture. Description of actions and activities undertaken
3. Section 3: Addressing research misconduct

Section 1: Key contact information

Question	Response
1A. Name of organisation	The Open University
1B. Type of organisation	Higher Education Institution
1C. Date statement approved by governing body	This statement covers the period 1 October 2023 - 30 September 2024. It was approved by The Open University's Council on 4 March 2025.
1D. Web address of organisation's research integrity page	Research integrity
1E. Named senior member of staff to oversee research integrity	Professor Kevin Shakesheff, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Research and Innovation
1F. Named member of staff who will act as a first point of contact for anyone wanting more information on matters of research integrity	Ms Helen Castley

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Section 2: Promoting high standards of research integrity and positive research culture. Description of actions and activities undertaken

2A. Description of current systems and culture

Policies and systems

Aligned with the Concordat to Support Research Integrity, the OU Research Code of Practice sets out The Open University's (OU) research integrity framework, the standards that govern research and the responsibilities of both the University and researchers. It is supported by a suite of research policies, processes and guidance. Research policies are reviewed triennially or more often if necessary. 

The Human Research Ethics Committee and the Animal Welfare Ethical Review Body review research projects involving humans and non-human animals and advise on conducting research according to the highest ethical standards. The Ethical Research Review Body oversees research and Knowledge Exchange activity which could pose ethical risks beyond those of human participant and animal research.

Processes for Data Protection approval, health and safety risk assessments for laboratory, fieldwork and travel, and support for data management for all research projects are in place. The Awards Management System provides framework for funded project approval and compliance.

Communications and engagement

The OU research integrity framework, research integrity contacts, research policies, guidance, governance, induction, training information are publicised to the OU research community and external stakeholders on the OU research website. The UK Research Integrity Office and its resources are clearly signposted. Aligned Faculty research integrity web pages provide local information.

Academic, research, research support staff and postgraduate research students (PGRs) receive regular notification of UK Research Integrity Office resources, information and training opportunities, as well as bulletins from the OU Research Committee and the Research Degrees Committee advising on internal policy and governance matters. Significant policy launches and changes, support structure and system changes are publicised on the ‘News’ section of the OU staff homepage. Graduate School channels (email cascade, social media, webpages) share relevant updates with PGRs and supervisors.

The OU expects all aforementioned internal stakeholders to receive a briefing about research integrity at induction.

Supervisors are responsible for ensuring that PGRs are made aware of the research integrity and ethics expectations, documented, and reinforced in supervisor training. Research integrity and ethics briefings, and avoidance of plagiarism training are delivered to PGRs through the Graduate School’s core training programme. On-line training modules on Professional Conduct (including ethics, plagiarism avoidance, diversity), are available through the Graduate School Network.

Training on research integrity principles, and research ethics workshops are delivered to staff through the Research Career Development Programme, and ad-hoc training delivered to groups, upon request as resources allow. The Library provides training and support with open access publication, research data management and copyright. Research and Enterprise provides training in intellectual property and other relevant topics. Academic units provide evidence of local generic and discipline specific research training annually to Research Committee.

Faculties host research events and training featuring research good practice and research integrity.

Culture, development and leadership

The OU’s Learn and Live Strategy (2022-2027), contains an explicit commitment to research integrity (p7), mirrored in the Research Plan (2022-2027) (p8). The Research Plan also sets out a commitment to leadership in Open Research, and to developing the next generation of researchers equitably, which will enhance the broader research culture. All faculties have included an explicit commitment to research integrity principles in their unit plans for 2023/24 and/or their local research plans.

The OU is committed to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers (2019) and is a signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), and is implementing published action plans towards alignment. These significant commitments are aimed at enhancing the institutional research environment by improving research training provision and taking a holistic approach to assessing research quality in recruitment, retention, reward, promotion and training. The intention is to mitigate systemic pressures that potentially disincentivise good research conduct and practice.

The biannual Research Excellence Awards recognise and reward staff and PGRs making outstanding contributions to the research culture at The Open University. The latest awards in 2024 celebrated excellence in researcher leadership, collaboration and Open Research practice. Commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, and environmental sustainability were cross cutting criteria across all awards.

Monitoring and reporting

Faculty Research Committees oversee Faculty research environments for staff and PGRs, reporting to Research Degrees Committee and Research Committee. Research Committee monitors progress against the Research Integrity action plan, the DORA action plan and the Researcher Career Development Concordat action plan, and progress towards implementation of the Research Plan. It oversees the OU’s research integrity framework and research policy development.

Research Committee monitors progress against the Research Integrity action plan, the DORA action plan and the Researcher Career Development Concordat action plan, and progress towards implementation of the Research Plan. It oversees the OU’s research integrity framework and research policy development.

Research Committee receives annual research integrity reports from Faculties in which they confirm research integrity induction has taken place for all new staff, the research integrity information available on faculty websites, faculty mechanisms for overseeing research integrity, local actions and events to support a research culture based on research integrity and information about the number of basic or minor research integrity concerns reported and resolved in the Faculty. As well as a monitoring exercise, this presents an opportunity for Faculties to share good practice.

2B. Changes and developments during the period under review

The OU commissioned production of an online research integrity and ethics training module for PGRs and OU staff based on existing inhouse face-to face training. In the meantime the OU is participating in the pilot of the UKRIO online research integrity training module, with the opportunity to participate circulated to all staff and PGRs.

The University developed an action plan to implement its Statement on Open and Engaging Research informed by research and stakeholder consultation. It launched an OU book fund for open access monograph publishing, developed the OU’s first online Open Research training module and was the first university to attain Observer Status at the European Open Science Cloud Association.

A wide-ranging review of research support at the OU has been undertaken with the aim of improving existing provision.

Post-award support has been systematised following cross-Faculty review. A website containing a set of essential minimum standards for post-award support along with resources and guidance has been established for researchers and research managers.

The Research Consultancy Policy and the Intellectual Property Policy have been extensively reviewed and relaunched to researchers with associated updates to related training sessions.  The Terrorism and Extremism-related Research Policy has been updated. Based on these principles, a new Terrorism and Extremism-related research policy for taught students has been developed. The Ethical Research Statement has been revised to reference human rights and harm to the environment and public health.

The OU has reviewed its processes against the National Protective Security Authority Trusted Research Evaluation Framework and drawn up an action plan.

Research regulated under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 ceased on OU premises. The location of any such research has transferred to third party collaborators. The OU has reviewed its procedures for overseeing animal research and has approved a new Animal Ethics Committee to replace the Animal Welfare Ethical Review Body.

A review of approval process for the use of OU student data in research has been undertaken.

2C. Reflections on progress and plans for future developments

Developments in Open Research at the University have been significant over the reporting period and will continue into 2024/25. The Open Research online training module will be launched publicly on the OpenLearn Create platform following internal piloting. This will provide a useful resource for the wider research community. The OU book fund for open access monograph publishing will continue. The University will review its digital infrastructure for Open Research including Open Research Online, Open Research Data Online and explore new models of Open Research publishing. It will ensure that Open Research criteria are embedded into its flagship Open Societal Challenges programme.

Research Committee commissioned an online research integrity training module. Once launched in 2024/25 it will have the potential to reach all staff and PGRs with consistent messaging.

Faculty Research Committees are in their second year of operation and report regularly to Research Degrees Committee and Research Committee. This enhances transparency and oversight of the research environment at a local level.

The development of standards, templates and resources for post-award support enhances consistency, efficiency and supports compliance with funder terms and conditions across the university.

The implementation of the IT system to support ethics review has proceeded smoothly, enhancing and streamlining the user experience and realising efficiencies allowing the research ethics team to spend additional time advising researchers.

Working groups are still in the process of considering principles for acceptable use of generative Artificial Intelligence, sustainability in research, and further guidance on Trusted Research which will be incorporated into Research Code of Practice revisions and where relevant, the Ethical Research Statement in 2024/25. The University will become a signatory to the Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice. The Research Data Management Policy will be substantially revised following review against the FAIR enabling data policy checklist.

Following the review of research support, and the success of post-award support enhancement, plans are in train to create clearer communication channels and a curated shared space for policies, guidance, agreed processes and procedures to be used consistently across all OU research. A tiered approach to research processes and services is being developed so that they provide appropriate and proportionate support, review, challenge, and management of risk for our research requirements (e.g. based on size, complexity, career stage).  The development of risk assessment tools for researchers is being considered to support researchers with this important aspect of research design.

Over the forthcoming period, the OU is developing university-wide Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) processes and guidance, with associated resources for OU staff, PGRs, and the public modelled on examples of best practice across the sector. PPIE is critical to research, knowledge exchange and scholarship work.

2D. Case study on good practice (optional)

The Open Research online training course

Open Research (OR) is becoming an ever more integral part of the academic research process and accords with a core element of research integrity described in the Concordat to Support Research Integrity, namely ‘transparency and open communication’. This has now been recognised by UKRI and other funding bodies, REF, and leading academic publishers. Openness as such is integral to the mission of The Open University (OU). However, researchers and other key stakeholders, including academic leaders and research managers, are often new to the concept and practices of open research. To address this, the OU has invested in the production of an “Open Research” course on its OpenLearn Create online educational platform.

This new, free course is designed to show researchers how to make their research more accessible to external audiences. It takes the learner through what open research is, explains issues of transparency, integrity and accessibility, and how researchers can commit to open research. It is aimed at researchers, at any career stage, who are new to the concept and practices of open research or anyone who would like to refresh their knowledge of the important principles of research and learn about what can go wrong when these principles are not adhered to. 

The course is divided into eight modules, each taking approximately three hours of study. It consists of instructional text and quizzes, which allow learners to test their understanding of the course as they go through each module. There are links to inspiring open research practices and citizen science projects, as well as interviews with researchers sharing their first-hand experiences of undertaking open research. 

At the heart of the course is an innovative and interactive decision-making tool, which allows learners to better understand how to make their research open at different stages of a research project. In the final week, learners find out about specific ways they can commit to open research and get involved in different open research communities.

The course has been piloted internally across the University and will be formally launched to both internal and external audiences during the OU’s Open Research Week in March 2025. 

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Section 3: Addressing research misconduct

3A. Statement on processes that the organisation has in place for dealing with allegations of misconduct

Description of OU framework for dealing with research misconduct allegations

When breaches of the OU Research Code of Practice are alleged against staff and other researchers undertaking research on behalf of the OU, the updated Procedure for the Investigation of Research Misconduct Allegations applied with effect from November 2023. The updated OU Procedure closely aligns with the UK Research Integrity Office procedure (March 2023) and will be reviewed triennially. The Postgraduate Research Student Plagiarism and Research Misconduct Policy sets out definitions, training expectations, investigation procedures and proportionate academic penalties tailored for such researchers and is due for review in 2023/24.

The Whistle-blowing policy provides an alternative route for raising concerns, and names third-parties as confidential liaison points. The Research Code of Practice and the staff and student research misconduct procedures cross reference to the Bullying and Harassment Policy (internal link only).

Creating a culture where stakeholders feel comfortable to report

The OU Research Code of Practice and the Procedure for the Investigation of Research Misconduct Allegations clearly state that those raising concerns will not be penalised provided the allegation is made in good faith, and provision is made to support initiators of allegations within the Procedure. These policies underpin research integrity induction and training, where such messages are reinforced. 

The OU research integrity web pages provide contact details for central advice and support. Faculty web pages all contain contact details of those in the faculty who can be contacted for advice about good research practice, and to raise concerns about research conduct.

Central research integrity support received three allegations which it triaged under the ‘Receipt of Allegations’ stage of the Procedure, as reported below. In all cases the allegation was referred to another authority or process, as appropriate, in accordance with the possible outcomes set out in the Procedure, as the matters raised were out of scope of the OU Research Code of Practice, or were more appropriately addressed by Informal Measures. Faculties consulted central research integrity support about two issues, and one Faculty reported one further issue resolved at Faculty level in its annual report. One further request for advice was received by central research integrity support.

From 2024/25 central research integrity support is including contact details and an invitation to discuss concerns about research conduct, in confidence, in every communication to staff and PGRs publicising research integrity events and resources

Key lessons learned

The ‘Receipt of Allegations’ Stage is a welcome addition to the OU Procedure as it affords a structured triage system to assess allegations and ensure they are dealt with via the most appropriate procedure or authority.

While there have been no formal investigations this year, in the light of experience of dealing with enquiries, the Research Governance office is exploring ways of enhancing proportionate and confidential sharing of relevant information between key individuals in relevant departments where a bullying and harassment allegation has been upheld against an OU researcher.

Arising from an investigation under the PGR Plagiarism and Research Misconduct Policy reported in the 2022-23 report, Graduate School have established a process for checking submitted theses via Turnitin upon the request of supervisors or examiners

3B. Information on investigations of research misconduct that have been undertaken

Number of formal investigations completed during the period under review

Type of allegation	Number of allegations reported to the organisation	Number of formal investigations	Number upheld in part after formal investigation	Number upheld in full after formal investigation
Fabrication	0	0	0	0
Falsification	0	0	0	0
Plagiarism	0	0	0	0
Faulure to meet legal, ethical and professional obligations	0	0	0	0
Misrepresentation (eg data, involvement, interests, qualification, and/or publication history)	2	0	0	0
Improper dealing with allegations of misconduct	0	0	0	0
Multiple areas of concern (when received in a single allegation1	1	0	0	0
Other*	0	0	0	0
Total:	3	0	0	0

*If you listed any allegations under the ‘Other’ category, please give a brief, high-level summary of their type here. Do not give any identifying or confidential information when responding.

N/A.

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