Dear Colleagues,

My name is Paula Saner; I am a PhD candidate at the University of Maastricht, Netherlands, I am also the Research Integrity Manager at the University of Cape Town. I am conducting research related to my work, also in support of my PhD candidature.

This project has received ethics approval from Maastricht University (FHML-REC/2025/112) and UCT (IFHREC/02377/2025) and has institutional permission from the appropriate authorities at UKZN.

You are invited to participate in a research project aimed at understanding the conceptualisation and operationalisation of research integrity (RI) governance and the responsible conduct of research (RCR) education at research-intensive universities in Africa. The project is titled: Nurturing Integrity: Understanding research integrity governance and responsible conduct of research education in African Research-Intensive Universities.

Eligibility criteria

If you fall into any of the categories listed below, you are eligible to participate in this research:

• Researchers or academic staff
• Doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows,
• Research managers,
• Institutional management (e.g., Deans, Heads of Department or Schools, Registrars, Chief Operating Officers or Directors of research groups),
• Senior leadership (e.g., Deputy Vice-Chancellors or Executive Directors of Research),
• and people tasked with RI/RCR

Participation

There are two ways you may choose to participate in this research, you may opt for one, or both, if you have the time or interest.

Survey
You may complete a survey, which may take up to 30 minutes to complete. The survey will collect a data on a range of questions related to RI/RCR. It will also collect data related to the institution you are based in, your disciplinary grouping and your academic or professional rank. No directly personally identifiable data will be collected. Data will be reported per institution.
You can complete the survey by clicking here or by pasting this link into your browser: https://redcap.link/t9ixnmd5.

Interview
You may opt to participate in a semi-structured interview, to inform and contextualise the survey data. Interviews are expected to be approximately 60 minutes in duration and will be conducted remotely via MS Teams. In the interviews, you will be invited to select a pseudonym, to anonymise yourself. While every effort will be made to keep the identities of interviewees anonymous, it may be possible for readers to make “educated guesses” regarding the possible identity of interviewees.
You can indicate your interest to participate in an interview by clicking here or by pasting this link into your browser: https://redcap.link/92jqkrus.

Participation in this research is entirely voluntary. Those completing the survey can stop at any time before submission and delete their responses. Once surveys have been submitted it will not be possible to withdraw as the data are being collected without identifiers. Those opting to engage in interviews can withdraw from the research at any point until the data are published, by contacting me directly.

There are no direct benefits for engaging in this research (either the survey or interview). Results will be disseminated via publication and conference presentations. Institutional leadership will also be provided with summary data for their institutions. It is hoped that this summarised, institution-specific data will be a mechanism to strengthen or build an institutional culture of RI/RCR, or to strengthen mechanisms already in place. There are minimal known risks or harms related to participating in this research.

Data management

Survey
Data will be collected using the REDCap platform. REDCap is stored on UCT’s institutional servers, behind security firewalls. The data are only accessible to the researcher after a two-step sign-in process. Once the survey is complete, the raw data will be extracted for analysis and stored in the researcher’s OneDrive account, behind UCT’s firewall. A copy will also be stored on Maastricht University’s servers, in line with Maastricht University data management policies. Data will be collected anonymously. Submissions will not collect personally identifiable information; at the point of submission, they will be automatically assigned a reference number. Data will be shared with supervisors in shared, password protected files. Survey data will be shared on an open access repository in support of publications emanating from this survey. Raw data will be deleted from the researcher’s OneDrive account 5 years after publication.

Interview
Interviews will be conducted remotely, using MS Teams. The “record and transcribe” function will be used to produce initial transcripts. Transcripts will then be edited and saved in the researcher’s OneDrive account, behind UCT’s firewall. A copy will also be stored on Maastricht University’s servers, in line with Maastricht University’s data management policies. Data will be shared with supervisors in shared, password protected files. Data will not be shared openly, but ad hoc requests for interview transcripts will be considered on a case-by-case basis, by the researcher and her supervisors. Any transcripts that are shared will be done with identifiers removed. Raw data and transcripts will be deleted from the researcher’s OneDrive account 5 years after publication.

Informed Consent

Survey
Informed consent will take place before participants complete the survey, and a second consent opportunity is provided, before the survey is submitted.

Interview
Layered informed consent will take place before participants are interviewed, and a second consent opportunity is provided, before the interview is concluded.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me directly via paula.saner@uct.ac.za or my supervisor, Dr Lyn Horn (lyn.horn@uct.ac.za).

Many thanks for your consideration,
Paula