RII (Research Integrity Investigation): To Promote and Protect Integrity of the Scientific Record

MODERATORS: Alexandra Kahler KGL Editorial Andrea Rahkola American Academy of Neurology SPEAKERS: Christina Bennett American Chemical Society Alicea Hibbard American Society for Microbiology Amanda Sulicz Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) REPORTER: Adria Gottesman-Davis American Academy of Neurology In a session that brought together ethics professionals from across the scholarly publishing industry, panelists tackled one of the most pressing issues in modern publishing: maintaining the integrity of the scientific record amid increasing threats, resource constraints, and the evolving digital landscape. The session featured speakers Christina Bennett (American Chemical Society), Alicea Hibbard (American Society for Microbiology), and Amanda Sulicz (IEEE), with a focus on real-world case studies, institutional collaboration, and the changing norms of misconduct detection. Integrity Complaints on Public Platforms Amanda Sulicz opened the session with a series of anonymized case studies pulled from IEEE’s extensive experience with integrity complaints arising on platforms like PubPeer. These platforms, though often helpful in surfacing valid concerns, increasingly host unsubstantiated or malicious complaints that burden editorial teams. First, Sulicz shared a case where a tipster alerted IEEE to a series of PubPeer allegations of multiple publications. Upon investigation, IEEE not only found that there was no basis for the allegations, but also that all the complaints targeted two authors. The tipster was unhappy with IEEE’s conclusion that no action was warranted and subsequently submitted several additional allegations against the same authors. Of a total of 23 complaints from 2024 to 2025, only one was found to have possibly violated the multiple […]