In the light of the challenges posed by the changing environment and conditions of scientific work, the European Commission proposes an update of the Recommendation of 11 March 2005 on the European Charter for Researchers and on a Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. The Draft European Charter for Researchers addresses research ethics and research integrity, open science, gender equality, diversity, the researcher profession, and other areas of scientific work. The draft Charter also pays considerable attention to the evaluation of researchers’ activities, careers, and working conditions. The reasons for the updates to the European Charter for Researchers are set out in detail in the explanatory memorandum.

The 9th European Conference on Ethics and Integrity in Academia was held at the University of Derby in the United Kingdom from 12th to 14th July 2023, with the main theme Enhancing Ethical Practice, Professionalism, and Integrity for Future Development. The conference was organised by the European Network for Academic Integrity (ENAI) in partnership with the School of Human Sciences of the University of Derby.

The conference focused on the presentation of the results of ENAI’s projects, issues related to the use of artificial intelligence in studies, practices in different countries related to the implementation of the provisions of academic ethics in higher education institutions, university autonomy, the involvement of students and teachers, and the recommendations of the Council of Europe on combating fraud in education. Office employees Dr Julija Umbrasaitė and Dr Birutė Liekė conducted a seminar on Addressing Conflict of Interest in Cooperation of Research, Business and Society, where they presented the guidelines for the cooperation of research, business, and society and the gamified training components (vignette and scenario) related to one of the guideline themes, namely, conflict of interest. The need for and use of training materials in different fields of higher education and research was discussed with the participants. The guidelines and the gamified training components were developed within the Bridge project.

Around 200 participants attended the Conference.

Photos from the archive of the Office

On 23 June 2023, at 12:00 pm All European Academies (ALLEA) published an updated European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. We invite you to familiarise with it!

In order to reflect the current trends in research and the related challenges in research integrity, in the autumn of 2022, ALLEA invited a wide range of stakeholders to submit suggestions on the proposed updates to the draft European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. The public consultation of ALLEA involved 31 stakeholders, including the European Network of Research Integrity Offices (ENRIO). The Office is one of the founding members of the ENRIO and the Ombudswoman Dr Loreta Tauginienė is the Vice President and a member of the Board of the ENRIO.

The Office has invited the Lithuanian University Rectors’ Conference and the Rectors’ Conference of Lithuanian University Colleges to submit their proposals for a draft European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. The Office did not receive any proposals from the afore-mentioned organisations. The Office submitted its suggestions on the proposed updates to the draft European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity to the ENRIO and submitted the ENRIO’s position to the ALLEA together with the representatives of the ENRIO from Norway and Belgium.

The Lithuanian Academy of Sciences is a member of the ALLEA in Lithuania.

Cooperation between science and business is increasingly recognised as an important part of the activities of research and higher education institutions. Such cooperation is expected to bring social, economic, and other benefits to both research and higher education institutions, business, and society. Furthermore, cooperation between science and business also entails certain risks and ethical challenges. On the one hand, working in research teams can raise ethical challenges (e.g. authorship) inherent in such work. On the other hand, cooperation with business may pose additional challenges for research and higher education institutions (e.g. use of research data, obtaining positive research results).

In order to find out what ethical challenges Lithuanian researchers face when carrying out joint science-business projects, the Office organised focus group discussions. Representatives of research and higher education institutions and business took part in the discussions. The participants were asked about the ethical challenges they faced at different stages of the project process, from the preparation of the application to the completion of the project. The results of the discussions are summarised in the study report (in Lithuanian).

The Office has carried out its second survey on the contract cheating services in Lithuania. The study analyses advertisements offering the afore-mentioned services in March and April 2023 on the four goods and services portals selected for the study. A comparison with a previous study (Vaškevičiūtė & Ozolinčiūtė 2021) suggests that similar trends are observed in terms of the visualisation of adverts, self-identification of service providers and the provision of personal contact details, communication about quality assurance, meeting deadlines, fields of study in which the services are provided, etc. On the other hand, as compared to the results of the previous study, the contract cheating services are significantly more often identified already in the titles of the advertisements, and there is significantly more communication about consultancy services and confidentiality. In addition, it is noticeable that at least several methods of communication are much less frequently mentioned as compared to the first survey. For more information on the results of the study, please read the study report (in Lithuanian).

On 30 May, the Office’s team conducted a remote seminar to the Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry on subtleties of academic ethics in research. Dr Birutė Liekė, an employee of the Office, familiarised the participants of the seminar with academic ethics in citizen science. The Guidelines for Research Ethics and Research Integrity in Citizen Science were presented. Dr Julija Umbrasaitė, an employee of the Office, gave a presentation on violations related to research data. Participants explored a gamified situation on data management and verification of results. They also looked at authorship issues.

More than 70 participants took part in this seminar.

On 17 and 23 May representatives of the Office and the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences hosted the project “Bridge” remote seminars on fair cooperation between science and business. Researchers, lecturers, master and doctoral students and their supervisors were invited to participate in the seminars.

Dr Sandra Krutulienė (Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences) presented the BRIDGE project and the training resources developed under the project. The representative of the Office Dr Julija Umbrasaitė presented the Guidelines for Fair Cooperation between Science and Business to the participants of the seminar. On 17 May 2023, the seminar dealt with the conflict-of-interest scenario presented by Dr Julija Umbrasaitė. On 23 May 2023, Sonata Vyšniauskienė (Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences) presented the topic “Questionable Research Practice and Academic Misconduct: How to Avoid?”. Participants solved a gamified situation about falsification of research data.

More than 40 participants took part in these seminars.

On 19 May, the staff of the Office visited Klaipėda University where they presented current issues of academic ethics to the members of the Senate. Dr Birutė Liekė, an employee of the Office, discussed the issues related to the promotion of academic ethics culture, including an overview of the concept of academic ethics in the legislation, the participants in the academic ethics system, and the functions of the Office. Dr Julija Umbrasaitė, an employee of the Office, presented the responsibilities of academics, i.e. research and teaching staff, in the context of the European Union. The recommendations of the European Commission and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation on related issues and other relevant documents in this area were reviewed. The Ombudswoman Dr Loreta Tauginienė discussed the emerging issues of amendments in academic ethics regulations. The latter are of particular importance to research and higher education institutions that intend to update their codes of academic ethics to make them as clear and comprehensive as possible.

The members of the Senate engaged in a discussion on the cases of violations of academic ethics, issues related to the research dissemination and so forth.

Photos from the archive of the Office

On 16 May, a remote meeting was held with teaching staff from Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. During the meeting, the Senior Analyst of the Office Dr Julija Umbrasaitė presented the peculiarities of academic ethics in the process of studying and the Guidelines for Ensuring Academic Ethics in the Organisation of Distance Learning. The Senior Analyst of the Office Dr Birutė Liekė introduced the participants to the methods of objective and fair evaluation of group works, as well as the cases of image plagiarism and ways to avoid them. The participants were very interested in how to correctly cite images, whether/how to cite images for learning purposes, whether the same criteria should be applied when students are assessed by other students and when they are assessed by the lecturer, whether there are differences in the assessment of students with special needs, etc.

More than 150 lecturers attended the meeting.

On 12 May, the Ombudswoman Dr Loreta Tauginienė met with the Ethics Committees of research and higher education institutions. During the meeting, the representatives of the Office presented the current issues of academic ethics. The Senior Analyst Dr Julija Umbrasaitė explained what academic ethics violations related to research data are and what means may be used to detect them (e.g. by using dedicated information technology) and manage them preventively (e.g. by submitting a research data management plan). The Senior Analyst Dr Birutė Liekė discussed international trends in the field of academic ethics related to the use of artificial intelligence-based technologies. She summarised the Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence, the final report of the Expert Group on Artificial intelligence (AI) and Data in Education and Training of the Commission and other documents in this area. The Ombudswoman presented information on the emerging need for whistleblower protection and the forthcoming Handbook on Whistleblower Protection produced by the European Network of Research Integrity Offices.

Representatives from Vilnius University of Applied Sciences, Kaunas University of Technology, Vytautas Magnus University and ISM University of Management and Economics also shared their good practices.

Photos from the archive of the Office