{"title":"Mapping nine decades of research integrity studies (1935-2024): A scientometric analysis.","authors":"Gengyan Tang","doi":"10.1080/08989621.2025.2470860","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Research integrity is fundamental to responsible research practice. Despite attention, the intellectual structure and evolution of this field remains underexplored. This study maps the knowledge landscape of research integrity, identifying key themes, contributions, and trends.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A scientometric analysis was conducted on 6,895 records from Web of Science and Scopus (1935-2024). CiteSpace facilitated network analysis, including co-authorship, keyword co-occurrence, and co-citation patterns, while burst detection identified topics.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Research integrity studies have grown significantly since the 1980s, with interdisciplinary collaboration. Keyword and co-citation analyses reveal a shift from early discussions on scientific misconduct to concerns such as open science, AI ethics, and research governance. A collaboration network has emerged, with leading contributions from North America, Europe, and Asia.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Research integrity has matured into an interdisciplinary field, reaching academic consensus with growing integration of policies, regulations, and technology. Future research is expected to focus on AI's role in research integrity. Key areas of concern include algorithmic bias, automation ethics, and implications for scholarly publishing. Open science and transparency will remain central, particularly in addressing data fabrication, paper mills, and predatory publishing. Institutional policies will continue evolving, embedding integrity principles into governance and public engagement initiatives.</p>","PeriodicalId":50927,"journal":{"name":"Accountability in Research-Policies and Quality Assurance","volume":" ","pages":"1-36"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Accountability in Research-Policies and Quality Assurance","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2025.2470860","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MEDICAL ETHICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Research integrity is fundamental to responsible research practice. Despite attention, the intellectual structure and evolution of this field remains underexplored. This study maps the knowledge landscape of research integrity, identifying key themes, contributions, and trends.
Methods: A scientometric analysis was conducted on 6,895 records from Web of Science and Scopus (1935-2024). CiteSpace facilitated network analysis, including co-authorship, keyword co-occurrence, and co-citation patterns, while burst detection identified topics.
Results: Research integrity studies have grown significantly since the 1980s, with interdisciplinary collaboration. Keyword and co-citation analyses reveal a shift from early discussions on scientific misconduct to concerns such as open science, AI ethics, and research governance. A collaboration network has emerged, with leading contributions from North America, Europe, and Asia.
Conclusions: Research integrity has matured into an interdisciplinary field, reaching academic consensus with growing integration of policies, regulations, and technology. Future research is expected to focus on AI's role in research integrity. Key areas of concern include algorithmic bias, automation ethics, and implications for scholarly publishing. Open science and transparency will remain central, particularly in addressing data fabrication, paper mills, and predatory publishing. Institutional policies will continue evolving, embedding integrity principles into governance and public engagement initiatives.
期刊介绍:
Accountability in Research: Policies and Quality Assurance is devoted to the examination and critical analysis of systems for maximizing integrity in the conduct of research. It provides an interdisciplinary, international forum for the development of ethics, procedures, standards policies, and concepts to encourage the ethical conduct of research and to enhance the validity of research results.
The journal welcomes views on advancing the integrity of research in the fields of general and multidisciplinary sciences, medicine, law, economics, statistics, management studies, public policy, politics, sociology, history, psychology, philosophy, ethics, and information science.
All submitted manuscripts are subject to initial appraisal by the Editor, and if found suitable for further consideration, to peer review by independent, anonymous expert referees.