EQUATOR makes a splash in Rio
09/06/2015
Iveta Simera and Caroline Struthers were delighted to represent EQUATOR at the 4th World Conference on Research Integrity in Rio de Janeiro from 31 May-3 June 2015.
It was a fantastic event attended by over 600 delegates from 55 countries. The main theme for the conference was How to improve the research reward systems to promote responsible research.
Along with Biomed Central’s Daniel Shanahan (Associate Publisher) and Stephanie Harriman (Medical Editor), and Trish Groves (Head of research, BMJ/ Editor in Chief, BMJ Open), Iveta and Caroline presented a “Partner Symposium” on Monday 1 June entitled
EQUATOR Symposium: Making the research publication process more efficient and responsible: practical ways to improve the reliability and usability of published (health) research
The Symposium was well attended and was also well covered on Twitter.
Click on the titles of the presentations to view the slides
Can we trust the medical research literature? Poor reporting and its consequences (PDF) (presenter: Iveta Simera)
Promoting good reporting practice for reliable and useable research papers: EQUATOR Network, reporting guidelines and other initiatives (PDF) (presenter: Caroline Struthers)
What can Biomed Central do to improve published research? (PDF) (Presenters Daniel Shanahan and Stephanie Harriman)
What can a “traditional” journal do to improve published research? (PDF) (Presenter: Trish Groves)
It was also the perfect session at which to offcially launch the brand new journal from BioMed Central Research Integrity and Peer Review with its Editors-in-Chief, Liz Wager, Iveta Simera, Stephanie Harriman and Maria Kowalczuk, and Publisher Daniel Shanahan all in the room!
The work of EQUATOR was mentioned in many of the conference sessions, including the first keynote presentation given by Lex Bouter from VU University Amsterdam entitled What is holding us back in the prevention of questionable research practices?
Liz Wager gave a great plenary talk on Tuesday morning about Why waste in research is an ethical issue (PDF) which also caused quite a stir on Twitter. Ivan Oransky from Retraction Watch tweeted that the revelations about research waste in her talk were “devastating”.
A video of Liz’s talk should be available from the conference website soon.
Those interested in joining the important movement to REduce Waste And Reward Diligence (REWARD) in research are encouraged to submit an abstract and/or attend the forthcoming REWARD/EQUATOR conference in Edinburgh, UK 28-30 September.
And finally, on the last day of the conference on 3 June, Iveta, Daniel and Trish gave talks in a session on Reporting and publication bias, and how to overcome it.
Iveta introduced the work of the EQUATOR Network in promoting responsible reporting of health research studies, and paid particular attention to our fruitful collaboration with Luis Gabriel Cuervo and the Pan American Health Organisation. View the slides from her talk (PDF).
Daniel Shanahan talked about Biomed Central initiatives to promote complete public records of research studies to overcome publication bias and selective reporting.
Trish talked about Data-sharing and the experience at two open access general medical journals