Scientific Integrity Principles and Best Practices

The Canadian Nutrition Society (CNS) participated as a member of the Scientific Integrity Consortium, a group of approximately 30 organizations that came together across scientific disciplines with diverse backgrounds, perspectives and differences in approaches to scientific integrity strategies. The Consortium agreed on the importance of a community consensus and alignment around the necessity for scientific integrity standards and their content.

The CNS has officially endorsed the following principles and best practices and will be using them as a guide in managing our collaboration with all relevant stakeholders.

Principles       

1. Foster a culture of integrity in the scientific process.
2. Evidence-based policy interests may have legitimate roles to play in influencing aspects of the research process, but those roles should not interfere with scientific integrity.

Best Practices       

1. Require universal training in robust scientific methods, in the use of appropriate experimental design and statistics, and in responsible research practices for scientists at all levels, with the training content regularly updated and presented by qualified scientists.
2. Strengthen scientific integrity oversight and processes throughout the research continuum with a focus on training in ethics and conduct.
3. Encourage reproducibility of research through transparency.
4. Strive to establish open science as the standard operating procedure throughout the scientific enterprise.
5. Develop and implement educational tools to teach communication skills that uphold scientific integrity.
6. Strive to identify ways to further strengthen the peer review process.
7. Encourage scientific journals to publish unanticipated findings that meet standards of quality and scientific integrity.
8. Seek harmonization and implementation among journals of rapid, consistent, and transparent processes for correction and/or retraction of published papers.
9. Design rigorous and comprehensive evaluation criteria that recognize and reward the highest standards of integrity in scientific research.