Publication Integrity: How Springer Nature is promoting equitable partnerships in global research collaborations

Author: Sowmya Swaminathan

This week is Publication Integrity Week 2024, when members of the publication ethics community take time to highlight important issues and concepts that contribute to our understanding of good practice in research publishing.  One of the issues raised in the programme being delivered by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is helicopter research, something that Springer Nature has been actively working to address for some years. 

Practices such as helicopter research and ethics dumping unfortunately, are still widespread  across many different settings. They are most commonly found in environments with a systemic history of inequality, such as research involving historically marginalised groups within countries or partnerships between researchers from high income and low income countries. These practices undermine the fundamental principles of fairness, respect, care and honesty that underpin research integrity and can further disadvantage marginalised and vulnerable communities. As part of our commitment to research integrity and upholding publication ethics - as well as diversity, equity and inclusion - we highlight the initiatives that we have been undertaking to promote equitable and inclusive research and how as a community, we need to all do our part to uphold research standards. 

How is Springer Nature promoting ethical and inclusive research practices? 

In May 2022, Nature Portfolio announced a new framework on the importance of inclusion and ethics in global research, incorporating principles from the Global Code, a code of conduct for equitable research partnerships. This coincided with the 7th World Conference on Research Integrity held in Cape Town which released their own recommendations to all stakeholders involved in the research ecosystem. Nature emphasises that inclusive and ethical global collaborations are crucial for producing reliable and trusted research by: 

• Raising awareness - Nature Portfolio will encourage authors to consider the Global Code when developing, conducting and communicating their study. 
• Creating transparency - Authors will be encouraged to provide an optional ‘Inclusion and Ethics’ disclosure statement during peer review and in the published paper. 
• Encouraging citation Diversity - Authors will be asked to consider citation diversity specifically for local and regional research.
• Our inclusive peer review policy - Setting an internal standard to involve local and regional experts in peer review.

Nature’s guidelines urge researchers to consider 10 key questions when conducting research e.g. whether the research project includes  local researchers, whether the research is locally relevant, what benefit sharing measures are in place, whether the research would have been restricted in that setting and whether the study has approval from the local ethics review committee.

What has been the impact of our work?

At Springer Nature, we know that equitable access to research and publishing is vital to global information exchange. It’s one of the key pillars of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) strategy. To support equitable access, we offer a range of resources on topics such as inclusive peer review practices and addressing unconscious bias. We’re also founding members and supporters of Research4Life (R4L)which provides affordable access to subscription, open access research for researchers in low and low to middle income countries. 

We are committed to ensuring that our publishing programmes reflect the research communities we serve. A truly inclusive publishing landscape should represent all communities, globally and across multiple dimensions of diversity. Our first benchmarking report on the diversity of the 100,000+ academic editors we work with, found that editorial decision-makers are not fully representative of the diverse research community they serve. We know there is work we need to do here, as well as championing the success that has happened so far. Our academic editors have embraced our approach by diversifying their editorial boards and peer reviewers to make their journals an inclusive home for global research. Their efforts range from diversifying editorial boards to reflect geographic diversity, to mentoring early career researchers, recognizing regional significance of published research and taking steps to discourage helicopter research. Prof. Bhekie Mamba, Editor-in-Chief of npj Clean Water took deliberate steps to improve the diversity of the editorial board, to ensure that the journal publishes research from around the world that serves the communities in LMICs affected by the lack of sustainable clean water. By recruiting editorial board members from China, the journal saw a 14.3% increase in the number of submissions from the country. Prof. Mamba emphasises the importance of encouraging perspectives from around the world, in order to advance our understanding and provide solutions to the world’s greatest challenges.

At Springer Nature, we are committed to publishing research that is conducted ethically and responsibly, and addresses the needs of communities worldwide. Further case studies and resources can be found on our dedicated hub on DEI in Research Publishing.