Springer Nature strives to share outstanding and robust research. We take a positive and proactive approach to preventing and addressing errors and misconduct. We provide robust training and policies for our editors, and we commit to supporting researchers with best practice in their research.
Springer Nature Research Integrity Group
Our Research Integrity group advises our editors, reviewers, and authors on best practices and ethical conduct in research. We provide training for editors on the fundamentals of publication best practice, and on how to resolve research integrity problems when they arise. In complex cases we will also undertake any investigation required to resolve the case.
Meet the team
Research Integrity should be synonymous with research best practice. We strive to implement tools, training and processes that support Research Integrity, and ultimately help make research better. That includes training for our internal and external editors; improving transparency and openness with our policies and systems; and using technology to increasingly recognise research misconduct.
Chris Graf, Director of Research Integrity
Chris leads our expert team in developing and implementing our strategy for research integrity. He also volunteers as chair of the governance board for the STM Integrity Hub, and as programme committee member for the World Conference on Research Integrity
Resolutions
We handle reported issues across the whole of Springer Nature that require the input of research integrity experts.
The Resolutions team:
- Tim Kersjes,
Head of Research Integrity, Resolutions - Maja Choma, Pauline Starley,
Research Integrity Managers - Laura Whitehead,
Locum Research Integrity Manager - Greta Sharpe,
Research Integrity Specialist - Mark Caine, Charlie Crerar, Svetlana Kleiner, Vidushi Pathak, Manisha Wadhwa,
Research Integrity Advisers Manasi Kapne, Amruta Raut, Sujata Sarkar, Pranali Satam,
Research Integrity Support Advisers
COPE
Springer Nature and its journals are members of COPE (the Committee On Publication Ethics). COPE’s primary mission is educational; it is an advisory body, not a regulator. There are more than 12,500 COPE members from 103 countries. Springer Nature’s Research Integrity Director, Chris Graf, was one of the first co-chairs of COPE. Our Research Integrity Group works closely with COPE to help them develop new educational resources
COPE membership helps differentiate legitimate journals from the increasing number of predatory and poor-quality outlets. It is one of the indicators of quality used by important third parties such as Clarivate Analytics (for Journal Impact Factor) and indexers (e.g. Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, PubMed).
Core practices
COPE's Core Practices, set out clear guidance for publishers, including how allegations of misconduct should be handled; policies on authorship and contributorship, data availability, peer review process and ethics; and processes for complaints and appeals, managing conflict of interest/competing interest, journal management and post-publication discussion and corrections.
Guides
COPE publishes a number of guides for editors to help ensure the integrity of research publishing.
Flowcharts
COPE flowcharts offer step by step practical support on handling different aspects of publication best practice.
Reproducibility
Reproducibility is a foundation of robust research that drives research improvement and greater trust in science. Springer Nature is committed to advancing reproducibility and open research practices across our journals, for example by introducing standardised data sharing policies, and through support for protocol sharing. Through our editorial policies, publishing infrastructure and partnerships, we aim to drive positive change across the research community and in scholarly publishing.
Transparency
Springer Nature helps authors share their work early and widely, and is working to open up the ‘black box’ of peer review. We support preprint deposition and citation, and multiple models of peer review.
Ethics
We are committed to providing support and advice on best practice and ethical conduct in research, including initiatives to increase the diversity of our commissioned authors, peer reviewers and editorial boards. Find further information on editorial policies and standards for Springer Nature journals on our specific imprint sites.
You can view our DEI Recruitment Frameworks for EBMs and Reviewers here.
Supporting the development of best practice with publications on research integrity
Springer Nature publishes many books and journals devoted to research ethics and integrity, including:
Publishing ethics for journals
Find further information on editorial policies and standards for Springer Nature journals on our specific imprint sites.
