The Asia and Pacific Rim Research Integrity Network Meeting 2025 (APRI2025) was held in Bangkok, Thailand, on 1st December 2025, with 130 participants from 12 countries and regions in attendance. The meeting's themes included artificial intelligence (AI), ethical use of genomic data, open science, and collaboration in the Asia Pacific region, and opinions on these topics were exchanged during the different sessions. This report provides an overview of the meeting and introduces its various sessions.

Asia and Pacific Rim Research Integrity Network Meeting (APRI) 2025

APRI is an international conference on research integrity in the Asia-Pacific region, held with the aim of promoting mutual understanding among multiple countries and building sustainable, robust international partnerships toward strengthening research integrity.

Held in conjunction with the World Conference on Research Integrity (WCRI), the 1st meeting was held in San Francisco in 2016. The 2nd meeting, in 2017, was held in Hong Kong, making it the first to be held in Asia. The 3rd in 2018, was held in Taiwan. The 4th, in 2021, was hosted online by Korea. The most recent meeting, in 2023, was hosted in Tokyo by Japan's Association for the Promotion of Research Integrity (APRIN).
(Reference: The 5th Asia Pacific Research Integrity Network Meeting (APRI2023 TOKYO))

APRI2025 was hosted by the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Thailand, with support from the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT). The conference was held as a pre-event of the Joint International Tropical Medicine Meeting (JITMM) 2025 at the Eastin Grand Hotel Phayathai in Bangkok, Thailand. Six plenary/session themes and 17 poster presentations were held, as listed below.

Plenary/Session Themes

• Open Plenary: Research Integrity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Open Access
• Session 1: Responsible Conduct in Using Artificial Intelligence in Research
• Session 2: Responsible Conduct of Research in Precision Medicine and Genomics
• Session 3: Regional Challenges in Promoting and Supporting Open Science
• Session 4: Regional Challenges and Approaches to Fostering Research Integrity
• Panel Discussion: Research Integrity Education and Regional Approaches to Fostering Research Integrity

Research Integrity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Open Access

In the Open Plenary, Prof. Yongyuth Yuthavong of the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Thailand, explained the purpose of the meeting on behalf of the Thailand Research Integrity Network. He noted that science needs a balance between openness and confidentiality, which could be described as its light and shadow, but that this balance is constantly shifting due to trends such as open science and patent strategy. He stated that advances in information and communication technology (ICT) have made it easier to share research outcomes, and that while the COVID-19 pandemic exposed challenges such as developing countries' lack of access to critical technologies like vaccines, some types of research, such as genomic research, also require globally shared data. He also pointed to open science trends such as UNESCO's 2021 Recommendation on Open Science.

Prof. Yuthavong noted that while combining AI with open data can enable the generation of new knowledge, it may also raise ethical concerns, and that "humans bear the responsibility of appropriately selecting data and knowledge and conducting research." In this era, he concluded research organizations are called upon to establish policies and guidelines and to build infrastructure and cooperative frameworks, while individual researchers must keep pace with developments in AI and open access, use AI as a "Supporting Tool" rather than a "Driver," and ensure that research outcomes are reviewed and discussed by humans.

Responsible Generative AI Use, Data Management, and Open Science Initiatives

In the session on generative AI, challenges in using AI and the kind of governance needed were introduced.

Dr. Yu Shanshan of Fujitsu Research, Japan, noted that there are challenges to be resolved from a trust perspective in enterprise use of generative AI. She cited transparency and explainability, hallucination, bias and fairness, security, compliance with regulations and legal systems, and intellectual property and copyright infringement risks as examples, and introduced the state of development at her research institute.

Prof. Jieun Shin of Seoul National University, Korea, stated that while AI is used extensively for repetitive tasks, certain limits are necessary for core academic activities. She also reported that, as part of their education, students at Seoul National University had discussed and examined a governance model for generative AI, reaching conclusions that included clarifying standards for acceptable and prohibited use cases, transparent disclosure, human verification, and institutional support and education.

The following session introduced initiatives on responsible data management and open science in the Asia-Pacific region.

Prof. Mai Har Sham of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, referenced the Hong Kong Principles for Assessing Researchers, a set of principles for behaviors and their evaluation that lead to trustworthy research, and stated that ensuring research reproducibility requires accurate, complete, and reliable research data and its management, and that the whereabouts of the data itself and its potential value need to be explained at the time of publication. She also introduced her university's data management education platform, describing how, through Data Excellence Week and workshops, the university has been promoting education and awareness of institutional guidelines on responsible AI use, cross-border data transfer, and open access.

Ms. Su Nee Goh of Nanyang Technological University Library, Singapore, expressed a desire to turn challenges in open science into catalysts for its advancement. She noted that research integrity issues related to data management include unreliable data, non-disclosure of original data, and data duplication and manipulation, emphasizing that these can lead to paper retractions. She also spoke of the need to strengthen open-science skills, introducing her university's "Open Research Checklist" initiative.

Collaborative Efforts Across the Asia-Pacific Region on Research Integrity

In the latter sessions, initiatives and challenges in promoting research integrity in various countries and regions, as well as comparative surveys across the Asia-Pacific region, were introduced.

Prof. Chien Chou of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, reported that, prompted by the APRI2023 TOKYO meeting, researchers from six countries and regions conducted international collaborative comparative research and exchanged views on each country and region's policies and guidelines, along with the content and methods of its research ethics education. She noted that a common challenge across countries is improving the effectiveness of research ethics education, in addition to the need to respond to emerging issues such as generative AI and open science.

Finally, Prof. Jun Fudano of Waseda University proposed, as part of regional collaboration on research integrity in the Asia-Pacific region, the creation of a sustainable network organization, the harmonization of definitions related to research misconduct, the development of an "Asian Code of Responsible Conduct of Research (ACRCR)", the development of common textbook and educational modules, and the training of personnel for research ethics education. Discussion was also held on future initiatives.