IAFNS’s Core Values:
Scientific integrity and transparency are core values of IAFNS.
We bring scientific experts and leaders together to catalyze science for confident decision-making by all sectors. IAFNS believes researchers from the public and private sectors can and should work together on science and public health issues. Public-private collaboration - where all interests are declared and all funding is acknowledged - can advance science for public benefit.
IAFNS has earned the 2024 Platinum Seal of Transparency! View our Candid nonprofit profile.
Integrity in Science - It's Who We Are
Scientific integrity is essential to advancing credible science for the purpose of improving society. IAFNS is a recognized leader in addressing issues of scientific integrity, research public-private partnerships, and conflict of interest through our work with federal agencies and scientific professional societies. We are proud of our extensive programs on scientific integrity, and we integrate scientific integrity into every step of our research programs.
Assembly on Scientific Integrity
The Assembly on Scientific Integrity includes the IAFNS Board of Trustees, IAFNS Scientific Leadership Council, and all IAFNS members from government, industry, and academia. With representation from all three sectors of our membership, the Assembly is active in ensuring IAFNS achieves and promotes the highest standards of scientific integrity.
View the Assembly’s current and recent projects and efforts.
Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines
The Center for Open Science's Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines provide actionable steps for institutions to practice and promote transparent, reproducible, and rigorous research. IAFNS is a TOP Guidelines signatory. As a signatory, IAFNS supports the principles expressed in the guidelines and supports the implementation of these principles by our funded researchers. All new projects moving forward will work to adhere to the TOP Guidelines.
Our commitment to transparency is evidenced by our establishment a Collection page on the Open Science Framework. The IAFNS Collection aggregates all IAFNS-supported research projects that are registered on the Open Science Framework in one place. It provides greater visibility of the breadth and rigor of research that has been undertaken by the investigators we support, and allows the scientific community to more easily discover our work.
Overview of IAFNS Process to Address Scientific Integrity in Funded Projects
To ensure the highest level of scientific integrity and transparency, all investigators funded through IAFNS are required to adhere to the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines and the Guiding Principles for Funding of Food and Nutrition Research. However, should an issue of scientific misconduct arise during an IAFNS funded project, the following steps will occur:
- IAFNS will rely on the institution in which the research is being conducts to detect and address research misconduct
- Research misconduct includes but is not limited to fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, and any other practice that seriously deviates from practices commonly accepted in the academic and research community.
- The Institution will promptly report in writing to IAFNS all incidents of research misconduct by researchers during the Project.
- If IAFNS determines that any individual employed by or contracted for by the Institution has engaged in Research Misconduct in the course of the Project, IAFNS may, in its sole discretion, end the project.
Additional Resources for Scientific Integrity
Want to report an issue of research misconduct? Please email IAFNS at integrity@iafns.org
- Note: IAFNS does not investigate reports of scientific integrity independently. The appropriate institution will be contacted after receiving the inquiry.
Additionally, please refer to resources below for additional information and support on scientific integrity or research conduct:
- Research Integrity: https://grants.nih.gov/policy/research_integrity/index.htm
- Best Practices for Ensuring Scientific Integrity and Preventing Misconduct: https://www.oecd.org/science/inno/40188303.pdf
- Guidelines for the Responsible Conduct of Research: Ethics and the Publication Process: https://www.asha.org/policy/gl2009-00308/
Publications
Ensuring Scientific Integrity: Guidelines for Managing Conflicts
International Union of Food Science and Technology Scientific Information Bulletin, 2012
Read more about Ensuring Scientific Integrity: Guidelines for Managing Conflicts
Funding Source and Research Report Quality in Nutrition Practice-Related Research
PLoS One, 2011
This retrospective study examines whether the type of funding source of nutrition research is related to differences in the quality of research reports. After controlling for research design, the results showed that research report quality cannot be accurately predicted from the funding source.
Read more about Funding Source and Research Report Quality in Nutrition Practice-Related Research
Food Science Challenge – Translating the Dietary Guidelines for Americans to Bring About Real Behavior Change
Journal of Food Science, 2011
This article takes the perspective of food scientists who are tasked with making positive modifications to the food supply, both in innovating and reformulating food products, to respond to both the DGA recommendations, and to consumer desires, needs, and choices.
Translating the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans to Bring About Real Behavior Change
Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2011
This article, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, is the second of two papers resulting from two expert dialogues held in the fall of 2010 among nutrition scientists and food scientists charged with innovating strategies to bring Americans’ diets more closely in line with the 2010 report from the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.
Funding Food Science and Nutrition Research: Financial Conflicts and Scientific Integrity
Nutrition Reviews, 2009
This paper, published in Nutrition Reviews (2009;67:264–272), discusses conflict-of-interest guidelines regarding industry funding to protect the integrity and credibility of the scientific record, particularly with respect to health, nutrition, and food safety science.
Events
Strengthening Research Integrity: Which Areas Should the Research Community Focus On?
November 30, 2021
Virtual, Event
Join us for a presentation of the study “Strengthening research integrity: which topic areas should organisations focus on?” and panel discussion on how the topic areas prioritized in this study compare to those prioritized and implemented within the food and nutrition research community.
JIFSAN-CFS3 Advisory Council Fall Webinar Series: USDA Global Branded Food Products Database
September 22, 2021
Virtual, Online Meeting
IAFNS, USDA, and GS1 US will represent the Public Private Partnership on the USDA Global Branded Food Products Database at the JIFSAN-CFS3 Advisory Council Fall Webinar Series.
Science Is Self-Correcting—But the Record Is Not: Building Self-Correction Into the Design of Science
July 30, 2021
Virtual, Event
In this session, invited speakers will expand upon dialogue from IAFNS’s original “Science is Self-Correcting – But the Record is Not” webinar by exploring how we can achieve an enterprise-wide approach to self-correction that is built into the design of science.
USDA Global Branded Food Products Database
March 31, 2021
Virtual, Webinar
The USDA Global Branded Food Products Database strengthens public health and the sharing of open data by providing public access to nutrient composition and ingredient information on branded foods. To date, nutrient and ingredient information for over 355,000 branded and private label products have been submitted to the Database.