Safeguarding Research Integrity: Enhancing Identity Verification and Accountability with RICS

The Research Integrity Checks (RIC) platform addresses a critical gap in scholarly publishing by integrating multiple research integrity tools into a unified platform. Developed by HighWire Press and MPS Labs, RICS offers a comprehensive dashboard that streamlines integrity checks within the DigiCorePro submission system and as a standalone tool.

Researcher identity is vital in evaluating research integrity. A key feature of RIC is identity verification, ensuring authenticity of authors, editors, and reviewers throughout the entire publishing process. It validates users by examining data from ORCID IDs, IP addresses, retraction histories, conflicts of interest, funding disclosures and more. By integrating resources like Crossref, Retraction Watch, PubMed and Open Alex, RIC centralizes identity checks, reducing reliance on fragmented tools.

With configurable scoring and thresholds, RIC helps detect integrity concerns, maintaining publication quality. By generating XML metadata to document these checks, RIC enhances transparency, trust, and efficiency in research publishing.