Research integrity

Read about our commitment to making sure your research can be reproduced and reused, sharing negative results and following ethical standards around authorship and plagiarism. 

Understanding integrity

We support the guidelines laid down in the concordat to support research integrity, developed by Universities UK. The concordat focuses on several key components. 

Honesty

Honesty in all aspects of research, including in the presentation of research goals, intentions and findings, reporting on research methods and procedures, in gathering data, in using and acknowledging the work of other researchers, and in conveying valid interpretations and making justifiable claims based on research findings.

Rigour

Rigour covers the methods and protocols used, drawing interpretations and conclusions from the research, and communicating the results.

Transparency & open communication

Transparency and open communication applies to the reporting of conflicts of interest and research data collection methods, the analysis and interpretation of data, making research findings widely available (including negative results) and sharing the results with the general public.

Care & respect

Care and respect for all participants in and subjects of research, including humans, animals, the environment and cultural objects. Those engaged with research must also show care and respect for the stewardship of research and scholarship for future generations.

Ethical publishing and research integrity

Emerald is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE); we abide by COPE’s Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, and our journals follow COPE’s Code of Conduct.

Read more on ethical publishing and research integrity

Transparency and openness

Transparency & Openness Promotion Guidelines

We are a signatory of the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines, a framework that supports the reproducibility of research through the adoption of transparent research practices. As a result, we encourage all authors to: 

  • Cite and fully reference all data, programme code, and other methods in your work.
  • Include persistent identifiers, such as a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), in references for datasets and programme codes.
  • Follow relevant international and national procedures whenever you cite data. 

> More about TOP Guidelines

Open data policy

For journal authors, we have in place an open data policy to encourage responsible sharing of the analytical codes and data underlying your findings, support reproducibility and reduce duplication of data collection and processing efforts.

> Read our open data policy

Related topics

Author policies

We have a series of author policies on your rights, permissions, article withdrawal or pre-prints.

/publish-with-us/author-policies

Research and publishing ethics

We are committed to ethical article submission and all our journals subscribe to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Read about our common ethics issues and how we deal with them. 

/publish-with-us/ethics-integrity/research-publishing-ethics