Tools for research managers

There are specific tools that managers may use to develop research integrity in their organizations (Breit & Forsberg, 2018). One example is an Integrity café, which is a tool designed to facilitate and stimulate dialogue between different stakeholders such as between researchers and research leaders. It emphasizes active engagement and constructive possibilities for action around specific questions (Ekman Philips & Huzzard, 2007; Gustavsen, 2001).

Another example is value visioning workshops. This is a way to create visions or imaginaries of the organization (department, research group, etc.) as a value collective and of how it ideally meets challenging situations. In the context of research integrity, an objective of such workshops may be to cultivate (young) researchers’ identification with the goals and values of the organization.

A third example is ethics reflection workshops. The main purposes of such workshops is to raise awareness about research integrity and what it means to be a “good” researcher. Reflection workshops may take different forms, but the central point is that they involve all groups of researchers, as well as management, to facilitate a systematic reflection which involves the whole organization and not just parts of it.

A general idea behind such tools is that they contribute to a constructive dialogue between researchers and management. A central way to develop research integrity is that the management develops the research organisation in such a way that it acknowledges the complexities of conducting researchers, while at the same time drawing on the input from the researchers to avoid resistance and unnecessary tensions.