Research Integrity Advisor

BioMed Central Ltd; Pune District; On-site; INR 1,200,000 - 1,600,000; Full time

Job summary

BioMed Central Ltd. seeks an Associate Research Integrity Adviser to join the Resolutions team in RIG. You will investigate and resolve concerns in the published record, ensuring alignment with COPE guidelines.

The role involves handling high-stakes cases across journals and books, coordinating with editors and stakeholders, and contributing to policy development. You will work to mitigate risk, improve workflows, and provide clear guidance to internal staff and external editors, both remotely

Qualifications

• Educated to graduate level in STEM, publishing, research ethics or related field; advanced degree desirable.
• Demonstrable knowledge of academic publishing, scholarly workflows, and publication ethics investigations.
• Ability to assess complex or sensitive evidence and provide clear, evidence-based recommendations.

Responsibilities

• Triage and evaluate research integrity cases for Springer Nature products, assessing potential risks for stakeholders.
• Investigate complex cases using tools to assess concerns raised by internal and external stakeholders.
• Determine actions with inhouse editors and Editors-in-Chief to ensure reliability of the literature and take appropriate steps.
• Use investigative tools to assess and validate integrity concerns.
• Provide best-practice advice and action plans for resolution of cases to inhouse staff and editors.
• Explain complex ethics concepts clearly in writing, in person, and via calls to editors.
• Manage multiple investigations and keep case files organized and up-to-date.

Skills

Graduate degree

Publication ethics

Analytical skills

Editorial workflows

Education

Graduate degree in STEM or related field

Job description

Job Title: Associate Research Integrity Adviser

Location: Pune

Reports to: Research Integrity Manager

Job Summary

As Research Integrity Adviser, you will be part of the growing Resolutions team in RIG. In this role you investigate and resolve research integrity concerns in the published record, to ensure that cases are investigated and managed in line with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The cases can range from simple plagiarism and authorship disputes to more complicated data integrity concerns in large cases. You are resilient and can work under pressure: the research integrity cases you are working can be at high stakes, with multiple stakeholders involved. Despite the pressure you ensure that you keep assessing risk, work with the relevant colleagues to mitigate these risks and correct the literature where this is needed.

This is a unique opportunity to step into a new role for someone who is keen to step into research integrity and wants to develop themselves further. You will be part of a growing and industry-leading research integrity team. Doing this job at Springer Nature means you can make a difference where it matters.

Responsibilities

• Rapidly triage and evaluate research integrity and publication ethics cases from any journal, book or other Springer Nature product, with the ability to assess potential legal and reputational risk for all stakeholders
• Investigate complex and sensitive research integrity cases using a wide variety of tools to assess concerns raised by internal and external stakeholders
• Determine, in conjunction with inhouse editors and external Editors-in-Chief whether concerns with the published literature undermine the reliability of the published record and recommend action where appropriate
• Using a wide suite of in-house and external investigative tools and detectors to assess and validate research integrity concerns.
• Provide best-practice advice and action plans for resolution of cases to in-house staff and external editors.
• Understand and express complex ethics concepts and cases in a clear and concise manner; in writing, in person and via phone/video call, to inhouse editors and external Editor-in-Chiefs
• Carefully manage and resolve conflict situations between stakeholders on a research integrity cases.
• Maintain a strong understanding of the evolving publication ethics landscape, identifying new types of issues, and contributing to policy development to address emergent needs, contribute to continuously improving workflows.
• Ensure that your work and advice complies with relevant Springer Nature policies, COPE guidelines and industry best-practice;
• With the assistance of the Research Integrity Manager, manage a high volume workload to meet targets, rapidly reprioritizing as urgent issues arise;
• Manage and resolve multiple large scale investigations concurrently together with supporting team members
• Project manage individual and large cases with the Research Integrity Support Team and be responsible for driving these towards resolution following Standard Operating Procedures and meeting Key Performance Indicators.
• Keep case files, project plans and statistics meticulously organized and up-to-date, and contribute to reporting;
• Initiate, manage and contribute to projects in the Research Integrity Group that contribute to the teams objectives
• Contribute research integrity expertise to the development of research integrity tools
• Contribute to other tasks and projects related to ensuring compliance with ethical policies/guidelines (e.g. policy and technology development, contributing to research projects, auditing journals).
• Make recommendations for continuous improvement of workflows and tool to accelerate case resolution.
• Contribute to the development of research integrity training materials for inhouse staff and externals editors.
• Provide remote or onsite presentations and workshops on research integrity to inhouse editorial staff
• Represent SNRIG externally and promote its work, (e.g. writing blog posts, attending industry events and editorial board meetings);
• Proactively contribute to meetings and commit to completing actions assigned to you;
• Suggesting and taking part in relevant projects contributing to your personal development and team mission/objectives

Skills, Experience and Qualifications

Essential:

• Educated to graduate level in STEM, HSS, publishing, research ethics or a related field; advanced degree or equivalent professional experience desirable.
• Demonstrable knowledge of academic publishing, scholarly publication workflows, editorial decision-making processes, and the systems, tools and databases used to support publication ethics investigations.
• Strong understanding of publication ethics and research integrity principles, including COPE guidance, corrections and retractions, authorship concerns, peer review manipulation, paper mills, image integrity, plagiarism, conflicts of interest and related misconduct issues.
• Experience assessing complex or sensitive evidence, identifying editorial, reputational and legal risks, and formulating clear, proportionate, evidence-based recommendations.
• Excellent analytical and investigative skills, with the ability to recognize patterns across individual cases and large-scale investigations, distinguish substantiated.