Meeting Adya Misra – SAGE’s Research Integrity and Inclusion Manager
By Katie Willis
Since December 2021, Adya has been the driving force for research integrity at SAGE. In her role as a Research Integrity and Inclusion Manager, she oversees and advises on the integrity of research being published at SAGE. Prior to her position, Adya was a subject editor for biomedical journals and resolved publication ethics cases at PLOS and PeerJ. She has a wide skillset and is well-equipped to head SAGE’s dedication to research integrity.
1. You’re currently working at SAGE Publishing as a Research Integrity and Inclusion Manager. Can you describe some of your responsibilities in this position
One of the main goals of this role is to consolidate our Research Integrity activity across SAGE and develop the strategic direction to this work. One of my main focusses as I settle into this role is to improve our processes when handling research integrity matters, develop policies to handle these matters proactively and provide specialist input on difficult instances that require subject-based knowledge. As a multi-discipline publisher, we see a plethora of issues raised to our attention, often with varying levels of urgency with which these need to be handled. I provide oversight to the appropriate handling of these issues, not only making recommendations for resolution but also working with other departments to find proactive measures that avoid the issue from recurring. A large portion of my time is also devoted to advising and training our Editors and Journal Managers on specialist research integrity matters such as the ongoing threat of paper mills or political pressure on research.
2. What interests you in this role and what do you hope to accomplish?
When I worked in research, I was unfortunately witness to many breaches of research integrity. When I started working in Academic Publishing, I realised that there was a need and place for publication ethics/research integrity specialists. My interest comes from a deeply personal place of needing to be part of a research ecosystem that has integrity and does not infringe on the rights of others. With my work I hope to instill in others a similar way of working such that we understand our shared responsibility toward the integrity of the literature and collaborate with other stakeholders to find robust solutions.
3. Do you have any projects you’ve been working on?
In the short time I have been at SAGE I have been involved in several different projects. Many of these involve proactive handling of research integrity matters, standardising research integrity guidance across all SAGE journals as well as improving the clarity of our existing resources. I have also been heavily involved in policy development, which helps SAGE bolster its armour against any emerging threats to research integrity.
4. Every year, SAGE Publishing celebrates Peer Review Week. This year the theme is “Research Integrity: Creating and supporting trust in research.” As a research integrity specialist, what does trust in research mean to you?
From my point of view, trust in research is about ensuring the validity of content. We are now living in a world where research output and grey literature is available for mass consumption, and an individual is responsible for deciding whether they trust and believe what they read. While this is perhaps suitable for highly skilled subject experts who are well placed to scrutinize the study design and analysis, it can be challenging for those who are not academics to understand when they can and cannot trust academic research. Due to the nature of academic research, we will always need a place for debate and discussion, but we need a better vetting system for published research to foster public trust. As Publishers we share responsibility for upholding trust in research, and we share this with our authors, their institutions, journal editors and reviewers, in addition to independent organizations like COPE.
5. What are some of the biggest challenges you see publishers facing when trying to build trust in peer review?
There are many challenges within peer review. We have historically seen extreme pressures to review sitting with relatively few researchers in many disciplines. This has been an escalating problem and publishers are working with journal editorial offices to actively expanding reviewer databases not only to more equitably address this issue but additionally to include discourse from a more diverse body of reviewers and researchers. We also need to investigate a better reward system for reviewers across the scholarly ecosystem, but this is not to be taken only by Publishers. How can institutions recognize and reward peer reviewer contributions? There are also challenges around the evolving role of publishers as content hosting services or as gatekeepers of academic research. There is a balance to be struck here, but I think this is evolving quickly.
SAGE is a proud partner and contributor to Peer Review Week. Browse more content here.
