Challenges of Scientific Research Integrity. From Uses and Ethical Principles to Regulation in the European Union

Poster presented at the 9 th Annual World Congress for Medical Law conference, Istanbul, Turkey, 5-8 Auguts, 2025. Abstract Assessment of the current uses and practices in research related to scientific integrity issues are very important,because integrity is linked to both scientific and academic freedom and responsibility (freedom andresponsibility in research). This is particularly important considering the current data-driven society in thecontext of digital world transformation, and the opportunities of innovation in research thanks to the use of AItools.Integrity of research is linked to human and fundamental values such as objectivity, honesty, openness,accountability, fairness, and stewardship guiding individual researchers and scientific institutions.Certainly, the process of digitization that we are currently moving through, where the Internet and digitaltechnologies are becoming increasingly more important, with progressive exponential growth, adds more datato our lives, including tools to develop scientific research; but also opens the door to errors and misconductpractices.In fact, there is an increased academic and political interest in scientific integrity, particularly at the publicationlevel, which may be linked to the growing trend of retractation of published articles in recent years. See, forexample, the revision of the Declaration of Helsinki, of the World Medical Association, on ethical principles forresearch involving humans’ participants, which included recently (October 2024) a statement on scientificintegrity and research, “Scientific integrity is essential in the conduct of medical research involving humanparticipants. Involved individuals, teams, and organizations must never engage in research misconduct.”However, despite recent studies, there is not sufficient knowledge about the current legal and ethical frameworkon scientific integrity. In addition, in the European Union several countries are developing committees on ethicalresearch issues at national level. For example, Spain established recently the national committee on ethicalresearch. But there is not a committee or an office of research integrity at European Union level, unlike the USAwhere the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) has been developing good work in order to reduce misconductpractices in Public Health research.The hypothesis of the research is that a future regulation and establishment of an office of research integrity inthe European Unio with competences to sanction may reduce misconduct practices in scientific research.The aim of the paper is to identify properly the most relevant principles of the current ethical and legalframework of scientific integrity in research at international to work on a ethical and legal model for theEuropean Union. Poster developed withing the Jean Monnet Chair Governance and Regulation in the Digital Era. Project 101127331 GovReDig, ERASMUS-JMO-2023-HEI-TCH-RSCH, financed by the European Union. The opinions and views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them. ISSAC Chair. Individual rights, scientific research and cooperation. UNED-CNR/IFAC.