Regulating doctors, ensuring good medical practice

Good practice in research: Honesty and integrity

  1. 21.  You must conduct research honestly. If you are concerned about the quality or integrity of the research, including allegations of fraud or misconduct, you must follow the guidance in paragraph 19 on raising concerns. You must report evidence of financial or scientific fraud, or other breaches of this guidance, to an appropriate person in your employing or contracting body, and where appropriate to the GMC or other statutory regulatory bodies.
  2. 22.  You must be open and honest with participants and members of the research team, including non-medical staff, when sharing information about a research project. You must answer questions honestly and as fully as possible.
  3. 23.  You must make clear, accurate and legible records of research results, as soon as possible after the data are collected. You must keep records for the appropriate period15  to allow adequate time for review, further research and audit, or to help resolve any concerns about the data or research project.
  4. 24.  You must report research results accurately, objectively, promptly and in a way that can be clearly understood.16  You must make sure that research reports are properly attributed and do not contain false or misleading data. Whenever possible, you should publish research results, including adverse findings, through peer-reviewed journals.17
  5. 25.  You should make research findings available to those who might benefit. You should make reasonable efforts to inform participants of the outcome of the research, or make the information publicly available if it is not practical to inform participants directly.

 

Footnotes:

15 Personal Information in Medical Research (Medical Research Council, 2000) provides further advice on how long research records should be kept. The NHS Code of Practice: Records Management (Department of Health, 2006); Records Management: NHS Code of Practice (Scotland) (Scottish Government, 2008); Welsh Health Circular (2000) 71: For The Record (National Assembly for Wales); and Good Management, Good Records (Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Northern Ireland, 2005) all include schedules of the minimum periods for which research records should be kept.

16 The EQUATOR Network website provides advice on good practice in reporting health research.

17 Further information on publication and authorship is provided in section 3.15 of the Code of Practice for Research: Promoting good practice and preventing misconduct (UK Research Integrity Office, 2009).