Guidance on research integrity provided by European discipline-specific learned societies: A scoping review

There is little research on how guidance provided in the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (ALLEA code) compares with recommendations developed by European discipline-specific learned societies. We identified, and conducted a content analysis of, 58 guideline documents from 245 societies. Less than 25% of societies in any discipline provide guidance and there are notable disciplinary differences. Recommendations not reflected in the ALLEA code relate primarily to research culture and environment. Medical and Health Sciences societies often focus on regulatory and procedural aspects of research, whereas Natural Sciences societies emphasize the importance of accurate and appropriate dissemination of results. Humanities and Social Sciences societies’ recommendations are more heterogenous and relate to the nature of specific sub-disciplines. Our results reflect differences in epistemological approaches as well as the specific role and responsibilities of societies as membership organizations. We recommend that societies develop, or endorse, appropriate research integrity guidance.

Rigour and reproducibility in Canadian research: call for a coordinated approach

Shortcomings in the rigour and reproducibility of research have become well-known issues and persist despite repeated calls for improvement. A coordinated effort among researchers, institutions, funders, publishers, learned societies, and regulators may be the most effective way of tackling these issues. The UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) has fostered collaboration across various stakeholders in research and are creating the infrastructure necessary to advance rigorous and reproducible research practices across the United Kingdom. Other Reproducibility Networks, modelled on UKRN, are now emerging in other countries. Canada could benefit from a comparable network to unify the voices around research quality and maximize the value of Canadian research.

150 YEARS OF SHIP DESIGN

As part of writing a short article entitled “Ship Design – From Art to Science?” [1] for the Institution’s 150th anniversary celebratory volume [2], the author consulted the Institution’s centenary book by K C Barnaby [3] to get a feel for the formative first hundred years of ship design recorded in the learned papers presented to the Institution. This consultation was motivated by consideration of the papers in the first volume of the Transactions of 1860, which, surprisingly, contained no papers directly on ship design, either on ship design in general or through describing the design intent behind a specific new ship. Rather, like the very first paper by Reverend J Woolley, the remaining 1860 papers concerned themselves with what could be called the application of science (and mathematics) to the practice of naval architecture as an engineering discipline. However this initial focus broadened out in subsequent volumes of the Transactions so that both technical descriptions of significant new ship designs and, more recently, papers on the general practice of ship design have also figured, alongside the presentation of progress in the science of naval architecture. Given that the vast bulk of ships built over this period have been designed like most buildings to a set pattern, or as we naval architects would say based on a (previous) “type ship”, those designs presented in the Institution’s Transactions, and the few other collections of learned societies’ papers, are largely on designs that have been seen to be of particular merit in their novelty and importance. Therefore this review looks at the developments in ship design by drawing on those articles in the Transactions that are design related. In doing so the papers have been conveniently broken down into the three, quite momentous, half centuries over which the Institution has existed. From this historical survey, it is then appropriate to consider how the practice of ship design may develop in the foreseeable future.

Recommendation and implementation of good practice in researcher evaluation in Finland

Finland is among the first countries to have developed national recommendation on responsible research assessment in 2020. Recommendation for the Responsible Evaluation of a Researcher in Finland provides a set of general principles (transparency, integrity, fairness, competence, and diversity), which apply throughout 13 recommended good practices to improve four aspects of researcher evaluation: A) Building the evaluation process; B) Evaluation of research; C) Diversity of activities; and D) Researcher’s role in the evaluation process. The national recommendation was produced by a broad-based working-group constituted by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies, however the implementation needs to take place at institutions, which all have their diverse circumstances, challenges, needs and goals. The national recommendation has an implementation plan, which includes development of national level infrastructures and services to support more qualitative and diverse assessments policies and practices locally. The institutional uptake of the recommendation will be promoted by forthcoming National policy and executive plan for open scholarship, and tracked across all research performing organisations as a part of biannual Open Science monitoring exercise starting in 2022.

EP.TU.54Surgical curriculum concordance: requiem for the educational dream

Aim This study aimed to analyse the degree of relative variation in specialty-specific competencies required for Certification of Completion of Training (CCT) set by the UK Joint Committee for Surgical Training (JCST) 2021 curriculum. Methods Regulatory body guidance related to operative and non-operative surgical skill competencies required for CCT were analysed and compared. Results Wide inter-speciality variation was demonstrated in the minimum number of logbook cases (median 815; range 54-2100), indexed operations (8; 5-24), Procedure Based Assessments (35; 6-110). Academic competencies related to peer reviewed publications, communications to learned societies, and audits were aligned at zero, zero, and three across specialties respectively. Mandatory courses have been standardised with Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) being the sole pre-requisite CCT for all. Discussion JCST certification guidelines have broadly standardised competency domains, yet large discrepancies persist regarding operative indicative numbers, and assessments. This article serves as a definitive CCT guide regarding prevailing changes.

BHL and the Pandemic: An accelerator of digital advances and transformation

Committed to the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) since 2016, the National Natural History Museum (MNHN) library encountered opportunities and new challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. The origins of MNHN date back to 1635, with the foundation of a royal garden for medicinal and teaching purposes, by King Louis XIII. It became the National Natural History Museum in 1793 during the French Revolution. The MNHN collections today include about seventy million specimens. These collections constitute a global archive and a major research infrastructure. Being a very important center of research and teaching, the institution groups together several entities at thirteen different locations. It is deeply committed to preserving biodiversity and to sharing knowledge with the public through its galleries, botanical gardens, zoos and libraries. The library, consisting of a main library and several specialized libraries, is one of the world’s largest natural history libraries. The collection contains more than two million documents of all kinds: printed and electronic books and periodicals; manuscripts and archives; maps, drawings, photographs and art collections. The library takes part in the French higher education libraries network and is associated with the French national library, which offers many opportunities for collaboration at a national level. The MNHN library launched its first digitization program twenty years ago, beginning with the academic publications the MNHN has been releasing since 1802 and including the publications of the related learned societies. A second program devoted to taxonomic documentation began in 2014. It is a research-driven digitization program built in collaboration with the MNHN researchers. A third program shares the treasures of the library, e.g., precious books, manuscripts and archives; iconography (such as the famous velum collection), scientific objects or artworks. The MNHN digital library is harvested by Gallica, the digital library of the French national library. After participating in the BHL-Europe project from 2009 to 2012, the MNHN library became a BHL Member in 2016 and started uploading content in September 2017. The complete collection of MNHN academic publications from 1802 to 2000 is now available on BHL. The publications of the learned societies related to the MNHN are to be the library’s next contribution. During the first lockdown, from March to May 2020, librarians in charge of content uploading to BHL were able to pursue this task full-time, which increased the production. The last BHL-Europe files were loaded during this period of time. More than 100,000 pages were added in 2020. As the production increased, so did the museum's outreach in 2020, by more than 70%, both in number of visitors and in number of pages viewed. It seems that the MNHN library is now better identified as the French access point to BHL, both by learned societies and by researchers who ask for information or for help. But beyond an increased production and a better outreach, the pandemic also provided new tasks for remote workers. The first lockdown was a very difficult time, especially for people who had no remote work and felt deprived of their professional identity. So progressively new tasks were established for people for whom no remote tasks were yet defined. Among these new activities, a workflow for the creation of article-level metadata was set up with the help of Roderic Page (University of Glasgow, Scotland). Thanks to this work, users can easily search and browse individual articles within several MNHN publications, such as Adansonia. The pandemic turned out to be an accelerator of digital awareness and transformation, not only at the management level, but more widely for the whole library staff as well. By providing new remote tasks, BHL reduced inequalities within the library team and offered new opportunities. This greater involvement also strengthened the sense of belonging to BHL, which is definitely not only a resource but also a community, helping us get through this difficult period. Our goal now is to continue to perpetuate these projects. The MNHN library also intends to capitalize on all this work in its own digital library, by assigning digital object identifiers (DOI). This work on articles is indeed a driver for the evolution of the information systems. The Museum is currently redesigning its whole IT infrastructure for collections, helping the library be part of a larger movement. The objectives of this new system are to better connect library collections and naturalist collections and to face the challenge of interoperability in the European and international ecosystem in which the MNHN and BHL participates.

Science and Pseudoscience

In the nineteenth century, political, social, and industrial revolutions shattered the class ceiling of Renaissance and early modern numismatics. Wealthy enthusiasts and dedicated academics from outside European aristocracy gained greater access to collectible coins and soon organized themselves into clubs and learned societies. They sponsored research journals, adopted new technologies such as photography, introduced new investigative methods such as the die study, and established numismatics as a scientific discipline with a foothold in university curricula. Yet, even as numismatics became more and more scientific in its aims and methods, old notions endured about coins and physiognomy. The rise of phrenology as a pseudoscience infiltrated the field and still undermines the historical value of some numismatic research. Another unfortunate development has been the estrangement of numismatics and archaeology because the latter now repudiates its antiquarian origins and generally denounces coin collecting as a form of looting.

Understanding the Societal Impact of the Social Sciences and Humanities: Remarks on Roles, Challenges, and Expectations

Science is increasingly expected to help in solving complex societal problems in collaboration with societal stakeholders. However, it is often unclear under what conditions this can happen, i.e., what kind of challenges occur when science interacts with society and what kind of quality expectations prevail. This is particularly pertinent for Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), which are part of the object they study and whose knowledge is always subject to provisionality. Here we discuss how SSH researchers can contribute to societal problems, what challenges might occur when they interact with societal stakeholders, and what quality expectations arise in these arrangements. We base our argumentation on the results of an online consultation among 125 experts in Germany (representatives from SSH, learned societies, stakeholders from different societal groups, and relevant intermediaries).