French Office for Research Integrity (Ofis)

Founding year

2017

History

The French Office for Research Integrity was created in 2017 by a Circular Letter of the Secretary of State for Higher Education and Research. Its creation results from an official report in 2016 on the implementation of the French Charter of Research Deontology signed since 2015 by an increasing number of universities and research bodies.

Ofis was settled within an independent administrative authority, the High Council for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (HCERES).

ENRIO member since

2018

Structure

OFIS is a national transversal body, established in 2017 as a department of the High Council for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (Hcéres), the only French independent authority in the field of research and higher education.
The structure includes a department (staff operating since 2018) and a 12-member advisory board.

Main Tasks

  • Observatory : Ofis acts as a national observatory for the implementation of research integrity policies, in particular in line the 2020 research programming law. It maintains the national directory of research integrity officers and produces a summary of the progress of policies developed by institutions every two years.
  • Resources  : Ofis promotes good practices: training tools, resources to raise awareness and promote RI (FAQ, vade-mecum, Moocs, videos, etc.). It ensures a documentary and regulatory watch and disseminates research reports on specific themes (e.g. predatory journals) and on new RI practices related to changes in research practices: open science, citizen science, big data, artificial intelligence, etc.
  • Animation and prospective : in close partnership with the various stakeholders, Ofis organizes conferences and leads working groups in charge of producing analyses, views and proposals that can inform the decision-making of public authorities. Every year Ofis brings together all research integrity officers for an half-day meeting to discuss current issues in the field.

Investigation

Ofis provides guidelines promoting the responsible conduct of research in order to prevent misconducts and to propose proper investigation’s procedures.

Ofis publishes recommendations on its website, for conducting investigations of alleged misconduct in research.

Ofis is not a regulatory body and does not conduct the preliminary inquiry or the alleged violation investigation, which are led by research integrity officers, under the own responsability of he organisations conducting research.

Training

Ofis provides recommendations to strengthen and harmonize training within universities and research bodies (students and PhD candidates, senior researchers), in order to emphasize best practices and to avoid misconduct.

Ofis is also planning regular workshops with and for research integrity officers, in order to share their experience through illustrative cases studies, and to provide practical advice.

Promoting Research Integrity

The French Office for Research Integrity advises research institutions by promoting research integrity and disseminate policies, guidelines and other products, available on its website.

OFIS contributes also to the promotion of research integrity at a national and international level, by participating to conferences, and by holding its own events.

Contact

Stephanie Ruphy

Director

OFIS - HCERES
2, rue Albert Einstein
75013 Paris
France

+33 1 55556176
contact@ofis-france.frhttps://www.ofis-france.fr/

Carole Chapin

Senior project manager - responsible for international cooperation

OFIS - HCERES
2, rue Albert Einstein
75013 Paris
France

contact@ofis-france.fr

French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD)

Founding year

2016

History

The launching of Cirad’s ethics and research integrity office (Délégation à la déontologie et à l’intégrité scientifique, DDIS) has been decided in 2016. Cirad is a French research centre working with developing countries to address international agricultural and development issues. Cirad shares an external advisory ethics committee with 3 other research institutes, INRAE, Ifremer and IRD.

ENRIO member since

2016

Structure

CIRAD (French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development) is a public institution of an industrial and commercial nature (EPIC) under the joint authority of the Ministry of Research and the Ministry of European and Foreign Affairs.

Main Tasks

Cirad’s ethics and research integrity office has the following objectives:

  1. implementing Cirad’s code of ethics, based on the French National Charter for Research Integrity;
  2. developing an institutional RI/RE culture: through participation to/organisation of seminars, raising awareness / implementing training;
  3. preventing / investigating research misconducts and questionable research practices;
  4. providing support on RI/RE matters to Cirad’s staff, students and partners (eg. for the ethics appraisal of research projects, autorship/scientific publications issues, research data management
  5. protecting decision-making from risks of conflict of interest

Training

Implementation of awareness/training sessions making use of participatory methods.

Other tasks:

Member of the secretary for the INRAE-Cirad-Ifremer-IRD Ethics in Common Committee

Member of the national network of research integrity officers’ association (RESINT).

Ethics expert – Ethics appraisal of Horizon Europe projects.

Contact

Estelle Jaligot

CIRAD
DDIS - TA 177 / 04
avenue Agropolis, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France

delegation.integritescientifique@cirad.fr https://www.cirad.fr/

Internal Office of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM)

Founding year

1999

History

The Delégation pour l’Intégrité Scientifique (DIS) was created in 1999 within the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm). The delegation is directly affiliated to the General Direction of the Institute.

ENRIO member since

2008

Structure

Internal Office of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm).

Main Tasks

As a research public organisation, the main missions of Inserm to understand improve human health. As the only French public research institute to focus entirely on human health, Inserm took on the responsibility for the strategic, scientific and operational coordination of biomedical public research programs in France. Inserm operates operates under the joint authority of the French Ministry of Health and French Ministry of Research.
As an internal office, the Délégation à l’intégrité scientifique is:

  1. dealing with complaints about integrity from individuals –either employed by Inserm, or working at Inserm labs, or answering enquiry from institutions, staff at scientific journals. Depending of the situation, we then act as mediators, or we launch an investigation by appointing experts. Then we propose the appropriate next steps – including disciplinary ones – to the Director of Inserm. Since most labs at Inserm are joint labs, the work is mostly done in coordination with the other institutions that are involved.
  2. elaborating guidelines and codes of conduct ; pushing up for the coordination and harmonization of the procedures used in all the French institutions for higher education and research.
  3. participating in training events at various levels and with various partners.

Investigation

Other tasks: Mediation, harmonization of procedures

Mediation; participation in several projects aimed at improving the harmonization between the procedures followed by the French institutions for research and higher education

Contact

Dr. Ghislaine FILLIATREAU

Delegate

Inserm Office for Scientific Integrity
101 rue de Tolbiac
75013 Paris - France

+33 06 7279 9335 4993
ghislaine.filliatreau@inserm.frhttp://www.inserm.fr/qu-est-ce-que-l-inserm/organigramme/comites/dis

French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)

Founding year

2018

History

The “Mission à l’intégrité scientifique du CNRS” – the Office for Research Integrity of the French National Center for Scientific Research – started its investigative work in August 2018 with the nomination of the CNRS research integrity officer. The office which goes by the acronym “MIS” is an autonomous and independent department of the Cabinet of the Chairman & CEO of the CNRS, to whom it reports directly and only.

ENRIO member since

2018

Structure

Internal Office of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)

Main Tasks

-Investigation on potential research integrity misconducts
-Training
-Promoting research integrity and best practices

Contact

Dr. Claudine PIQUE

Research integrity officer

CNRS
Mission à l'intégrité scientifique (MIS)
3 rue Michel-Ange
75794 Paris – France
https://www.cnrs.fr/en

+33 (0) 1 44 96 45 89
claudine.pique@cnrs.frhttps://mis.cnrs.fr