University of South Wales ‘failed to file research integrity statement’

Martin Shipton
The University of South Wales failed for two years to comply with a requirement to make a formal statement confirming that research carried out by its academics had been undertaken with integrity, we can reveal.
A whistleblower contacted Nation.Cymru and said: “USW is a signatory of the Concordat of Research Integrity. If you look at the research area on USW’s website you will see all of the usual statements regarding the USW upholding research integrity, obligation to comply with the [requirements of funding body] HEFCW (now Medr) etc.
“What you won’t find is an annual research integrity statement published since 2021/22.
“You might find this interesting, particularly as there is no other university in Wales, and as far as I can tell in the UK, that has not published a research integrity statement year in/year out.
“My apologies if you are aware of this fact, but part of a university obligation when publishing an annual research integrity statement is to include whether there have been any allegations of research misconduct/fraud during the year of publishing said statement.
“Given that no annual research integrity statement can currently be found on the USW website, you might like to ask the university if it has received any evidence/allegations of research misconduct/integrity since May 25 2021.”
Updated
We did so and received a statement from the university which said: “The latest annual research integrity statements will be updated onto our website shortly. The statements will confirm that there are no findings of research misconduct to report, and there are no active investigations underway.”
The whistleblower then stated further: “The first thing to note is that the University of South Wales is not denying that an allegation of research misconduct has been made to members of the executive since 2021.
“As for the wordplay in the response from USW, do you feel as though the USW spokesperson has responded to the points made?
“Are there no findings of research misconduct to report, because the allegations of research misconduct (made repeatedly since 2021) have not been investigated in line with the University’s obligation under the Universities UK Concordat to Support Research Integrity?
“Why is USW the only university in the UK that has not published an annual research integrity statement since 2022?
“Some facts. A disclosure of suspected research misconduct/fraud has been made to the University repeatedly since May 2021.
“USW claims that ‘As required by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), the university is committed to complying fully with the Universities UK Concordat to Support Research Integrity’.
“In order to comply with the UK Concordat to Support Research Integrity, universities are required to publish an annual statement of compliance, in which they must disclose any allegations of research misconduct and any subsequent investigations.
“It appears (I have searched hundreds of institutions, it might be worth checking), that USW is the only university in the UK to have not published an annual statement of research integrity since 2021/2022, therefore missing two consecutive academic years.
“Additionally, the USW is obligated under the UK Concordat to Support Research Integrity to investigate all allegations of research misconduct honestly and transparently.
“The USW’s own research misconduct policy claims that: ‘The institution has a responsibility to investigate allegations of research misconduct fully and expeditiously. It also has a responsibility to protect researchers from malicious, mischievous or frivolous allegations.’
“However, despite a disclosure of suspected research misconduct/fraud being received by the university since 2021, USW has not conducted an investigation in line with its research misconduct policy, contrary to the university’s obligations under Universities UK Concordat to Support Research Integrity.”
Annual statements
On the evening of Tuesday June 10, the whistleblower contacted us to say: “USW has just (in the last hour) published the annual statements for 2022/2023 and 2023/2024.”
The statements said: “Based on the University Research Misconduct Policy, the university can report that for 23/24 there were no high level (formal) investigations in relation to research misconduct at staff or postgraduate student level. There were also no serious reports of suspected research misconduct.”
The whistleblower said: Please note the use of ‘serious reports’
“So congratulations. Your investigative work has uncovered non-compliance and has subsequently led USW to finally publish its annual statements.”
We asked USW how it defined “serious” in the phrase “no serious reports of suspected research misconduct”, adding: “This implies there were reports of misconduct, but they were not viewed as serious.”
Asked for an explanation, a USW spokesperson said: “As previously stated, there have been no findings of research misconduct to report, and there are no active investigations underway. We have a duty under the Concordat to Support Research Integrity to investigate all concerns related to research misconduct that are received.”
The whistleblower has told us that they are unable to tell us at this stage what the complaint of misconduct related to.
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