Research Integrity Symposium "Responding to Emerging Research Misconduct and Promoting Integrity in Research Activities" (MEXT Research Integrity Promotion Initiative) was held online on Thursday, October 31st, hosted by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and four other Funding Agencies. A total of 1,246 participants from universities and research institutions nationwide attended the event, reflecting a strong interest in Promoting Activities toward Research Integrity.

Throughout the lectures, the speakers shared insights on the evolving research environment, latest trends in research misconduct, and measures to uphold scientific integrity. During the panel discussion, participants examined the challenges and prospects of research ethics education and the development of an optimal research environment, incorporating perspectives from actual research activities. This report presents key points from the lectures and the panel discussion.

The 1st JST Workshop in 2024 on Promoting Activities toward Research Integrity, "Considering Effective Use of Gaps in Ethics 3 - Gray Zones in Research Activities" was held online on Wednesday, July 17. The video material "Gaps in Ethics 3 - Gray Zones in Research Activities*" released in May 2024 addresses the theme, "Questionable Research Practices (QRPs)" as the third work in "Gaps in Ethics" series. The participants have discussed in their group work what Principal Investigators (PIs) should be aware toward responsible conduct of research and how video materials can be used through the video scenes that related QRPs.

*Gaps in Ethics 3 - Gray Zones in Research Activities https://www.jst.go.jp/kousei_p/en/measuretutorial/mt_video_e.html

The 8th World Conference on Research Integrity (WCRI) was held at the Megaron Athens International Conference Centre in Athens, Greece, from June 2 to June 5, 2024.

The WCRI are the world's largest conferences related to promoting research integrity and responsible conduct of research. This year's one saw the highest-ever attendance, with over 800 (registered) participants, including researchers, educators, and staff from research funding agencies, academic publishers, and research integrity offices. Gathering from all around the world, they gave presentations and had discussions on a wide variety of topics related to research integrity.

This report gives an overview of the conference, the discussions on the main theme --"Catalysing the translation of research into trustworthy policy and innovation"-- and covers some other topics as well.

The Research Integrity Symposium "Toward Development of Responsible of Research and Innovation," organized by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) and co-organized by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and three other organizations, was held online on Friday, November 17 to discuss the promotion of "responsible conduct of research" through dialogue with society and the nature of research integrity and research ethics education to support cutting edge research and development.

This report covers the keynote speech, as well as panel discussion 2, "Research Integrity and Research Ethics Education to Support Cutting-Edge Research and Development."

The 12th JST Workshop "Promoting Activities toward Research Integrity - Experiencing Ethics Education Using Video Materials and Considering Effective Practices" was held online on October 13 (Fri) and 19 (Thu).
In this workshop, participants used the instructional video "Gaps in Ethics 2-Plagiarism Edition"as the theme.
After experiencing lectures / model lectures by the lecturers, participants designed their lecture plan in the group work, with the assumption to implement the plan at their institutions. There are two editions of this instructional videos, "Humanities and Social Sciences Edition" and "Natural Sciences Edition". Educational methods for the problems related to plagiarism and research misconduct were discussed based on the characteristics and issues of the research environment in each field. Here is an overview of the day's activities.

* Gaps in Ethics 2 - Plagiarism Edition: An instructional video produced by JST that allows viewers to learn research ethics by watching a drama that focuses on plagiarism and simulates the process leading to research misconduct and by understanding the positions of people engaged in research.

The 96th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Biochemical Society (JBS) was held from October 31, 2023, to November 2 at the Fukuoka International Congress Center and Marine Messe Fukuoka Building B in Fukuoka City. This report gives an overview of the symposium "Rethinking Assessment and Integrity in Research Activity" held on March 31, organized by Professor Satoshi Tanaka of Kyoto Pharmaceutical University and Professor Takaki Koide of Waseda University.

In this symposium, discussions primarily focused on topics such as numerical evaluation, research competition, and researcher awareness, all in relation to the background of research misconduct. The panel discussion was mainly centered on assessment of research activities in the future.

The 11th JST Workshop "Promoting Activities toward Research Integrity -Effective Utilization of the Research Ethics Instructional Video, Gaps in Ethics 2 - Plagiarism Edition-" was held online on Wednesday, July 12th. In this workshop, participants used the instructional video "Gaps in Ethics 2- Plagiarism Edition"* to deepen their understanding of various problems related to plagiarism, which is a form of research misconduct, and examine how to make use of the instructional video in research ethics education. The workshop was held in order to make practical use of the video in promoting more effective research ethics education and responsible conduct of research in institutions, share issues faced by people in charge of responsible conduct of research through exchanges among them, and consider how to improve responsible conduct of research. Here is an overview of the day's activities.

* Gaps in Ethics 2 - Plagiarism Edition: An instructional video produced by JST that allows viewers to learn research ethics by watching a drama that focuses on plagiarism and simulates the process leading to research misconduct and by understanding the positions of people engaged in research.

The 5th Asia Pacific Research Integrity Network Meeting （APRI2023 TOKYO） was held at Waseda University from March 20 to 22, 2023 with approximately 700 people in total, including about 200 people from 22 countries and regions participating locally. Focusing on the Asia-Pacific region, it aims to strengthen existing partnerships in research integrity, to cultivate new collaboration, and to share experiences and best practices while encouraging collaboration in dealing with research misconduct and violations of integrity. On the first day, the FY2022 National Conference for the Research Integrity was jointly held. Some of these subjects are shown below.

The 10th JST Workshop "Promoting Activities toward Research Integrity -Considering Education and Evaluation Utilizing the Instructional Video- " was held on 14 March. As with the previous workshop, this workshop aims for participants to examine research ethics education utilizing instructional video materials in order to make use of them in their own institutions. Twenty-five people participated in this event, and by using the instructional video "Gaps in Ethics*" made by JST, engaged in enthusiastic discussions on educational goals and design and evaluation methods for educational activities in each group. Here is an overview of the day's activities.

* Gaps in Ethics: An instructional video that simulates the process leading to research misconduct from the perspectives of associate professors (Associate Professor Edition) and students and young researchers (Student and Young Researcher Edition), produced by JST.

　The "Research Integrity Promotion Program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Research Integrity Symposium - Dealing with research misconduct specific to the research field -" was held on 6 December, 2022 in a hybrid format in Tokyo and online, and was hosted by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and co-hosted by four founding agencies, including the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). In addition to deepening understanding of the characteristics of research misconduct that is likely to occur depending on the circumstances and problems in each research field, the lecture also presented research ethics education and matters that research institutions should address in order to prevent such misconduct.

The 9th JST Workshop " Promoting Activities toward Research Integrity- Learning effective ways to use the Research Ethics Instructional Video" was held online on 5 October and 12 October. In this workshop, participants learned how to use the instructional video "Gaps in Ethics", which allows them to simulate an actual research misconduct.* The purpose of this workshop is to provide participants with an understanding of educational perspectives and various ways of thinking when using instructional videos, so that they can contribute to promoting activities ethics education and research integrity at their own institutions. What the workshop was like that day is shown below.

* Gaps in Ethics: An instructional video that simulates the process leading to research misconduct from the perspectives of associate professors (Associate Professor Edition) and students and young researchers (Student and Young Researcher Edition), produced by JST.

　Practices for research ethics may vary depending on the field of research. To promote effective research integrity at each university and institution, it is necessary that activities also take into account the characteristics of each research field.
　　At the Research Integrity Symposium "Considering Issues Research Integrity from Each Research Field" hosted by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) on 26 November 2021, researchers from three research fields listed efforts for research integrity that are characteristic of their fields. In the panel discussion, several notable topics were discussed based on the contents of the lectures.

The Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) holds the JST Workshop on "Promoting Activities toward Research Integrity" every year. The purpose of this workshop is to learn how to promote activities toward research integrity through pre-works, lectures, and group works. The 6th workshop (WS) in the series was held online on 10 December and 18 December, 2022.

　The theme of this time is "Considering How to Practice Effective Research Ethics Education." It was aimed at experienced researchers in charge of research ethics education at universities and research institutes (more than three-year experience of overseeing practical work). It was a fruitful workshop using THE LAB1 as practical teaching materials, aiming to set learning and educational objectives, design educational plans, and acquire educational implementation and evaluation, together with the aim of bringing back the results of the workshop to participants' own institutions as the hints for practicing research ethics education.
　Here is the outline of the day.

1　THE LAB: It is an interactive video material that allows viewers to learn about research integrity while making decisions about ethical issues they face through various roles (created by the Office of Research Integrity). In the WS, participants mainly experienced the role of graduate student, Kim.