Committees

Reproducibility and research integrity

Inquiry

As the UK seeks to recover from the pandemic, research and innovation has the ability to drive economic growth, with UKRI estimating that every £1 spent on research and development delivers £7 in economic and social benefit. However, the integrity of research, especially medical and social science research, is at risk from what is known as the ‘reproducibility crisis’ (i.e. it being very difficult or impossible to replicate a scientific study).

As early as 2005, the issue of reproducibility was identified in Ioannidis’ paper, ‘Why Most Published Research Findings Are False,’ and since then a large number of surveys or replication studies have been conducted that show the prominence of the issue.

So far, Government policy has focused on the overall theme of ‘Research Integrity,’ including asking UKRI to establish a national research integrity committee as recommended by our predecessor Committee, but the specific issue of reproducible research has been overlooked.

This inquiry is no longer accepting evidence

The deadline for submissions was Thursday 30 September 2021.

Upcoming events

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Past events

Wednesday 2 February 2022
9:20am Private
9:30am Public
Reproducibility and research integrity - Oral evidence 2 February 2022
9:30am
  • Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser (Chief Executive at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI))
  • James Parry (Chief Executive at UK Research Integrity Office)
10:30am
  • George Freeman MP (Minister for Science, Research and Innovation at Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy)
Room 6, Palace of Westminster
Wednesday 19 January 2022
9:20am Private
9:30am Public
Reproducibility and research integrity - Oral evidence 19 January 2022
9:30am
  • Dr Adrian Weller (Principal Research Fellow in Machine Learning at University of Cambridge)
  • Professor Sebastian Vollmer (Professor for Application of Machine Learning at TU Kaiserslautern)
Room 8, Palace of Westminster
Wednesday 15 December 2021
9:00am Private
9:30am Public
Reproducibility and research integrity - Oral evidence 15 December 2021
9:30am
  • Dr Ben Goldacre (Director at Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford)
  • Dr Jessica Butler (Analytical Lead and Research Fellow at University of Aberdeen)
10:15am
  • Dr Ritu Dhand (Chief Scientific Officer at Springer Nature)
  • Dr Elizabeth Moylan (Publisher, Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics at Wiley)
11:00am
  • Richard Horton (Editor in Chief at The Lancet)
  • The Viscount Ridley DL (Co-author at Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19)
  • Dr Alina Chan (Co-author at Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19)
Room 8, Palace of Westminster
Wednesday 1 December 2021
9:20am Private
10:00am Public
Reproducibility and research integrity - Oral evidence 1 December 2021
10:00am
  • Professor Dorothy Bishop (Professor of Developmental Neuropsychology at University of Oxford)
  • Professor Marcus Munafò (Chair at UK Reproducibility Network Steering Group)
11:00am
  • Dr Ivan Oransky (Co-Founder at Retraction Watch, Editor-in-Chief at Spectrum, and Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University's Arthur Carter Journalism Institute)
  • Dr Janine Austin Clayton (Associate Director for Research on Women’s Health and Director at Office of Research on Women’s Health at the United States National Institute for Health)
9:30am
  • Professor Neil Ferguson OBE (Professor of Mathematical Biology at Imperial College London)
Room 8, Palace of Westminster

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