The Embassy of Good Science - a community driven initiative to promote ethics and integrity in research

Marc van Hoof; Natalie Evans; Giulia Inguaggiato; Ana Marušić; Bert Gordijn; Kris Dierickx; David van Zeggeren; Harald Dunnik; Alexander Gesinn; Lex Bouter; Guy Widdershoven; EnTIRE and VIRT2UE consortia

doi:10.12688/openreseurope.14422.2

The Embassy of Good Science - a community driven initiative to promote ethics and integrity in research

Open Res Eur. 2023 Jan 12:2:27. doi: 10.12688/openreseurope.14422.2. eCollection 2022.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ethics, Law and Humanities, Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, 1081 HV, The Netherlands.
² Department of Research in Biomedicine and Health, University of Split School of Medicine, Split, Split-Dalmatia, HR-21000, Croatia.
³ Institute of Ethics, Dublin City University, Dublin, Leinster, 9, Ireland.
⁴ Interfaculty Center for Biomedical Ethics and Law, KU Leuven, Leuven, 3000, Belgium.
⁵ Momkai BV, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, 1013 NJ, The Netherlands.
⁶ Gesinn.it, Schwarzenfeld, 92521, Germany.
⁷ Department of Philosophy, Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, 1081 HV, The Netherlands.

Abstract

The Embassy of Good Science ( https://www.embassy.science) aims to improve research integrity and research ethics by offering an online, open, 'go-to' platform, which brings together information on research integrity and research ethics and makes that information accessible, understandable, and appealing. It effectively organizes and describes research integrity and research ethics guidelines, educational materials, cases, and scenarios. The Embassy is wiki-based, allowing users to add -- when logged in with their ORCID researcher id -- new information, and update and refine existing information. The platform also makes the research integrity and research ethics community visible and more accessible in pages dedicated to relevant initiatives, news and events. Therefore, the Embassy enables researchers to find useful guidance, rules and tools to conduct research responsibly. The platform empowers researchers through increased knowledge and awareness, and through the support of the research integrity and research ethics community. In this article we will discuss the background of this new platform, the way in which it is organized, and how users can contribute.

Keywords: Research integrity; education; open source; policy; research ethics; responsible conduct of research.

Grants and funding

This research was financially supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No 741782 [EnTIRE] and 787580 [VIRT2UE].