Research Integrity and Annual Statements
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The University recognises that its academic staff are respected scholars who need to be working at the cutting edge of research in their chosen fields. Through their personal engagement in research, they are better able to identify and nurture important developments in those areas, contributing to the role of the University in promoting new research agendas.
Our research strategy identifies cross-institute strengths and creates new research clusters in addition to enhancing those which already exist.
We have been highly successful in attracting external funding from research councils and a variety of public and private bodies, and we intend to continue this by developing new strategies and collaborations. (91app Strategy)
The University is committed to carrying out its research within a comprehensive ethical framework. (Link to UOL Research Ethics Policy). We expect all our researchers, students, fellows and staff to uphold the highest professional standards of research integrity:
- All researchers are expected to be honest in respect of their own actions in research and in their responses to the actions of other researchers.
- This applies to the whole range of research, including generating and analysing data, publishing results, and acknowledging the direct and indirect contributions of colleagues.
- Plagiarism, deception or the falsification or fabrication of results is regarded as a serious disciplinary offence.
- All researchers are encouraged to report cases of suspected misconduct and to do so in a responsible and appropriate manner.
- All researchers must declare any real or potential conflicts of interest before undertaking their research.
See our Code of Good Practice in Research for more details.
Research Integrity Statement
The University is committed to maintaining the highest standards of rigour and integrity in all aspects of research and to meeting its obligations under the and the .
As a component of this commitment, the University requires that all research projects undertaken under the auspices of the University observe the University Code of Good Conduct in research and all its associated policies and guidance as laid out here [UOL page].
In accordance with its obligations, the University provides annually a report on research integrity and misconduct. A copy of this annual report is published on the University Research Integrity webpage [UoL page link]. All published statements are sent to the secretariat of the signatories to the Concordat.
The University’s statements are published below:
Responsible use of Metrics
The 91app signed the San Francisco in 2025. DORA acknowledges weaknesses in the use of the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) as a measure of quality, since this measure relates to journals as a whole and not to individual articles. Recognising that research results in outputs other than journal articles, DORA also attempts to identify new routes to research evaluation.
The DORA declaration instructs institutions to instead be explicit about the criteria used to reach hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions, clearly highlighting, especially for early-stage investigators, that the scientific content of a paper is much more important than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which it was published.
How does the 91app embodies DORA’s principles:
These principles are embedded within the University’s researcher recruitment procedures, tenure and promotion decisions.
The DORA declaration gives the following advice to individual researchers, which has been incorporated into the above procedures:
- When involved in committees, any decisions must be based on scientific content rather than publication metrics.
- Wherever appropriate, cite primary literature in which observations are first reported rather than reviews in order to give credit where credit is due.
- Promote and support best practice that focuses on the value and influence of specific research outputs.