The Good Research Practice Roadmap: a guide to research improvement

The scientific community is undergoing a "credibility revolution," aimed at enhancing the reliability and trustworthiness of research by promoting good research practices (GRPs). Despite their importance, adoption of GRPs remains uneven. A key barrier is the fragmentation of guidance on GRPs, which is often scattered across institutional webpages, training materials, handbooks, and external resources, making it difficult for researchers to know where to begin. Implicit communication of research practices- particularly to early-career researchers (ECRs)- risks perpetuating suboptimal habits rather than good ones. To address this, we created the Good Research Practice Roadmap: a website that consolidates guidance, recommendations, and links to further reading into a visually appealing, and user-friendly format. Anchored to three stages of the research journey- planning, doing, and disseminating- the roadmap is designed to empower ECRs by improving awareness of good practice and highlighting when and how it should be implemented. Running through all stages are four core themes: Research Culture and Citizenship, Training and Skills Development, Ethics and Integrity, and Open Research. It is intended as a companion resource, to be consulted repeatedly throughout a research project or degree. Although the Good Research Practice Roadmap is currently targeted at early-career biomedical researchers at the University of Edinburgh, most content is relevant to any career stage, discipline, or institution. Here, we outline the conception and development of the roadmap and explore our vision for future adaptation to other disciplines, institutions, and career stages.