Research Integrity

Excellence in research underpins all of Royal Holloway’s activities and aspirations.

What is Research Integrity?

Research Integrity is the foundation of reliable and responsible research. It involves upholding the highest standards of honesty, rigour, transparency, and respect throughout the research process—from design and conduct to dissemination and impact.

At its core, Research Integrity is guided by five key principles outlined in the Concordat to Support Research Integrity:

Honesty in developing, undertaking, reviewing, and communicating research.
Rigour in research design, methodology, and analysis.
Transparency in declaring interests and sharing data and findings.
Care and respect for all participants, colleagues, and the wider environment.
Accountability for the conduct and outcomes of research.

Research Integrity at Royal Holloway University of London

Royal Holloway is committed to fostering a culture of integrity across our research community. As a signatory of the Concordat to Support Research Integrity and a member of the UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO), we actively promote responsible research practices and provide support to researchers at all career stages.

We ensure that our policies, training, and governance structures reflect national and international standards.

Our approach includes:

Providing clear guidance in our Code of Good Practice for Research on our expected standards for research conduct, with a view to providing a clear framework for supporting, enhancing, and managing research activity responsibly.
Providing a robust and institution-wide framework to support ethical research practices and governance, as outlined in our Ethics Policy and Ethics risk review framework
Supporting transparent processes for reporting and investigating concerns of misconduct in research.
Providing assurance through annual integrity reviews ( link to annual statements) to monitor and improve research integrity.
Providing an inclusive, enabling, collaborative, outwardly facing and efficient research culture, as outlined in the HR Excellence in Research award action plan 2023-2026
Equipping researchers with the tools and knowledge to conduct responsible and high-quality research through our researcher development programme.

Training and guidance

We offer a range of training opportunities tailored to different roles and career stages, including:

Introduction to Research Integrity, UKRIO training course for staff.
Training for postgraduate researchers and supervisors through the researcher development programme supported in our Doctoral School.
Resources on authorship, open research, research ethics, and research data management on our internal website.

These resources are designed to help researchers navigate complex ethical issues and uphold best practices in their work.