Sapienza recognises integrity as an essential element of scientific activity and promotes its dissemination through common rules, networks and tools aimed at ensuring honesty, methodological rigour, impartiality, transparency and social responsibility.

It is inspired by leading international references, including the Singapore Statement, the ALLEA Code and the Rome Declaration. Sapienza ensures compliance with ethical and scientific standards at all stages of research, promoting training and professional development, fair and collaborative working environments, and appropriate conduct in the management of data, funds and conflicts of interest. Finally, it contributes to the promotion of integrity through international initiatives and collaborations.

To support a culture of integrity in research, Sapienza has established a Commissione per l'integrità della Ricerca  (Research Integrity Committee) that provides guidance on research integrity and ethical guidelines for research at Sapienza. Any instances of misconduct can be reported by emailing sapienza.ethics@uniroma1.it 

Research misconduct

The main types of research misconduct are:

•    Falsification – Manipulating data, instruments or research processes, altering results or interpretations.

•    Fabrication – Inventing data, results or information and presenting them as authentic.

•    Plagiarism – Using other people's ideas, texts, images or results without proper acknowledgement of the source.

In addition to these three core misconducts, there are other questionable research practices, including:

•    Omission of relevant data or biased selection of results

•    Improper attribution of authorship (unjustified inclusion or exclusion of authors).

•    Undeclared conflicts of interest.

•    Manipulation of the peer review process.

•    Failure to protect human subjects or animals in research (e.g., failure to obtain ethical committee approval).

•    Duplicate publication or fragmented publication.

•    Inadequate storage or management of research data.