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Check for publication integrity before misconduct

A tool that focuses on papers — not researcher behaviour — can help readers, editors and institutions assess which publications to trust.
  1. Andrew Grey

    1. Andrew Grey is an associate professor of medicine at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

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  2. Mark J. Bolland

    1. Mark J. Bolland is an associate professor of medicine at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

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  3. Alison Avenell

    1. Alison Avenell is a professor at the Health Services Research Unit, University of Aberdeen, UK.

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  4. Andrew A. Klein

    1. Andrew A. Klein is a consultant anaesthetist at Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, UK, and editor-in-chief of Anaesthesia.

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  5. C. K. Gunsalus

    1. C. K. Gunsalus is the director of the National Center for Professional and Research Ethics at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, USA.

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If it is published in the scientific literature, can you trust it? All too often, that question gets lost, sidetracked or buried. Even when serious, credible concerns are sent to a journal, decisions over whether to correct or retract are more likely to take years than months — time during which potentially harmful misinformation can spread. Delays and inaction often happen because enquiries tend to focus on the thorny question of whether a researcher acted deliberately to deceive. The more important issue, however, is the integrity of the actual publication: is the research article reliable and are its conclusions valid?

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Nature 577, 167-169 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03959-6

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