The research establishment announces not much to combat research fraud, but enough to demonstrate they are terrified.
The peak funding agencies used the Universities Australia conference last week to convene a working group on research integrity reform, to “better meet the needs of a rapidly evolving research environment.”
According to the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council they are working with “stakeholders” on an “impartial, transparent and on-going approach to data collection so the research integrity framework “remains fit for purpose.”
“Consultation across the research sector has already highlighted opportunities to strengthen Australia’s research integrity framework,” they warn.
While they do not specify what the problems are, integrity experts point to a research system under cyber-siege. In January, Adrian Barnett (QUT) and colleagues used machine learning to analyse 2.6m cancer studies published 1999-2024.They found 250,000 with content similar to papers withdrawn for suspected fabrication.
“Fraudsters are using open data sets to create meaningless analyses and combining these results with text from large language models,” Barnett and Jennifer Byrne (Uni Sydney) warned last month.
However the NHMRC and ARC appear focused on improving the existing research integrity code, which dates from 2018 and leaves integrity investigations to individual institutions. The national oversight committee investigates allegations against university investigations rather than polices the system itself.
It is, according to the Australian Academy of Science, “no longer fit for purpose.”