Research Integrity: Insights from CABI’s initiatives
Research integrity refers to the idea that research activities are to be held to a certain set of ethical and moral standards.
Some of these standards include honesty, transparency, objectivity, and fairness amongst others. Upholding research integrity is crucial because it ensures the credibility and reliability of research findings. When researchers adhere to these principles, it fosters trust within the scientific community and with the public.
This trust is essential for the advancement of knowledge, as it encourages collaboration and the application of research outcomes in real-world scenarios. Moreover, maintaining high standards of integrity helps prevent misconduct, such as data fabrication or plagiarism, which can have serious consequences for both the scientific community and society at large.
International research centre and publisher, CABI, works to put knowledge, skills and tools into the hands of the people who need it most. Through its scientific endeavours and resource outputs, CABI’s mission is to improve people’s lives by providing information and expertise to help solve the world’s problems in the environment, agriculture, food security, and other related areas. CABI provides students, researchers, practitioners and decision makers with other resources for the life science fields. Some of these resources include comprehensive research databases, like CAB Abstracts and Global Health, subject collections, CABI Compendium, books, journals, and CABI Cases.
CABI’s Databases and Tools
CABI databases are abstracted and indexed to ensure quality content is easily discoverable.
Indexing content using keywords and controlled vocabulary allows end users to efficiently search across databases for records related to a specific subject area or theme. When searching within these databases, end users can enhance their search with the CABI Thesaurus. This search tool has an extensive bank of half a million descriptive and taxonomic terms, and synonyms to help make searches easier, more efficient, and precise. The CABI Thesaurus allows researchers to build complex searches and integrate synonyms to ensure greater coverage for their search results.
Another search tool from CABI is searchRxiv, which is a repository of saved search strings from researchers all around the world. This indispensable tool allows scientists to analyse the research that is already being conducted within a specific field. Researchers are empowered to upload their own searches for free and access existing searches in searchRxiv to use across CABI databases.
Additionally, CABI has a tool currently in Beta – protocolRxiv – and is an open-access repository as well as a fully searchable database for protocols of systematic reviews and other types of evidence synthesis across agriculture, food security and nutrition, climate adaptation, public health, One Health, and animal and veterinary sciences. This tool also includes selected protocols and evidence-based research articles from CAB Abstracts and Global Health. End users can deposit in protocolRxiv free of charge.
Furthermore, CABI’s A&I review process involves a quality review to make sure that all records included in their databases are valuable and excludes predatory journals that do not meet acceptable standards. These rigorous journal selection criteria guidelines are upheld by a team of subject specialists who assess each title and review it multiple times. CABI aims to include journals that publish unique content from the developing world and regions that are underrepresented in existing literature.
CABI’s Work in the Field
As a life sciences research organisation, CABI explores and has many areas of expertise related to areas such as crop health, invasive species, value chains, agriculture and more.
CABI’s publishing helps put this knowledge into context and provides it to those who need it most, like scientists, farmers, agricultural engineers, and academia. Being an academic publisher in the life sciences, CABI is an expert in helping people discover validated, evidence-based information to help those in the field overcome challenges facing the world – including climate change, hunger, and poverty.
In addition to providing solutions to world problems with their work in academic publishing, CABI reinvests its surpluses into development projects that help deliver knowledge to people. These projects help farming communities around the world and support them as they deal with agricultural challenges. Working in partnerships with member countries, donors, and partners, CABI helps farmers fight against threats to agriculture, improve access to scientific information, and work towards sustainable development goals.
Whether you’re a researcher out in the field in need of cutting-edge resources or a student exploring the life sciences, CABI has an array of publishing products, support tools, and research services to help those in need of evidence-based information. CABI supports the study, practice, and professional development of the life sciences and works to help those overcome some of the world’s biggest challenges. Resources like CAB Abstracts and Global Health are accessible via EBSCO research platforms.
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