Committees, Chairs and Boards
Conference Co-Chairs
Dr. David Moher is a clinical epidemiologist, and professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa. Professor Moher has been involved with the World Conference of Research Integrity for many years. He led an international team resulting in the “The Hong Kong Principles for assessing researchers: Fostering research integrity”, an output of the WCRI meeting in Hong Kong. Professor Moher spends his time trying help to improve publication science as director of the Centre for Journalology.
Chris Graf is the Research Integrity Director at Springer Nature, in charge of leading the continued development and implementation of Springer Nature’s research integrity strategy, leading a team accountable for assuring the highest standards for research integrity in all of Springer Nature’s publications, working with many good colleagues inside Springer Nature and with many good academic partners outside Springer Nature. Chris also serves the publishing sector with a voluntary role at the STM Association, the global trade association for academic and professional publishers, where he chairs a committee of senior publishing industry executives overseeing governance of the STM Integrity Hub, and the STM Research Integrity Committee. In 2023 Chris was appointed to a position as committee member of the UK Committee on Research Integrity, a new organisation hosted by UKRI, that promotes research integrity across the UK and internationally.
Lex Bouter is Professor Emeritus of Methodology and Integrity at the Department of Epidemiology and Data Science of the Amsterdam University Medical Centers and the Department of Philosophy of the Faculty of Humanities of the Vrije Universiteit. He is involved research and teaching on research integrity and open science topics. He was appointed as tenured Professor of Epidemiology in 1992 and served his university as its rector between 2006 and 2013. Professor Bouter has supervised 79 PhD students, of whom to date 17 were appointed as professor. He is the founding chair of the World Conferences on Research Integrity Foundation.
Program Committee
Lex Bouter is Professor Emeritus of Methodology and Integrity at the Department of Epidemiology and Data Science of the Amsterdam University Medical Centers and the Department of Philosophy of the Faculty of Humanities of the Vrije Universiteit. He is involved research and teaching on research integrity and open science topics. He was appointed as tenured Professor of Epidemiology in 1992 and served his university as its rector between 2006 and 2013. Professor Bouter has supervised 79 PhD students, of whom to date 17 were appointed as professor. He is the founding chair of the World Conferences on Research Integrity Foundation.
Jennifer Byrne is Director of Biobanking- NSW Health, and Professor of Molecular Oncology, University of Sydney, where she leads the PRIMeR group (Publication and Research Integrity in Medical Research). Jennifer was one of Nature’s 10 people in 2017 for highlighting repetitive human gene research papers with critical reagent errors, and she was one of 3 experts who testified before US Congress at their 2022 congressional hearing into paper mills and research misconduct. Jennifer’s research team has continued to identify features of flawed human gene and cancer research, including descriptions of human cell line models that may not exist.
Chris Graf is the Research Integrity Director at Springer Nature, in charge of leading the continued development and implementation of Springer Nature’s research integrity strategy, leading a team accountable for assuring the highest standards for research integrity in all of Springer Nature’s publications, working with many good colleagues inside Springer Nature and with many good academic partners outside Springer Nature. Chris also serves the publishing sector with a voluntary role at the STM Association, the global trade association for academic and professional publishers, where he chairs a committee of senior publishing industry executives overseeing governance of the STM Integrity Hub, and the STM Research Integrity Committee. In 2023 Chris was appointed to a position as committee member of the UK Committee on Research Integrity, a new organisation hosted by UKRI, that promotes research integrity across the UK and internationally.
Helene Ingierd is the General Director of the National Research Ethics Committees in Norway. Ingierd holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Oslo and has been a Research Fellow at the Peace Research Institute, Oslo (2001-2008). She has edited several anthologies on research ethics, including Internet Research Ethics, 2015, (w/Hallvard Fossheim) and Interessekonflikter i forskning (Conflicts of Interest in Research), 2019, (w/Ingrid Bay Larsen and Kjellrun Hiis Hauge). Ingierd was an Expert Group member in the project Integrity and security in the global research ecosystem (2022), OECD Global Science Forum, and is a member of the Board in ENRIO.
Limbanazo Mindiera Matandika, PhD, is a newly elected Advisory Member of the African Research Integrity Network. She has served as an Interim Steering Committee member since 2015 and co-founded Africa’s first network dedicated to promoting responsible research conduct in Africa. A bioethicist and social scientist by training, Dr. Matandika obtained her PhD in bioethics (2023) from the University of Malawi, College of Medicine. She holds a Master of Social Science degree in Health Research Ethics (2017) from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and a master’s in public health degree (2014) from the University of Malawi, College of Medicine. Dr. Matandika currently works as a Research Ethics Committee Administrator at the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences. She is active in bioethics and research integrity leadership both in Malawi and globally, having developed an online module on Research Integrity and currently serving as a Research Integrity Ambassador for Malawi. Currently she’s serving as a guest editor with the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology under the methodological aspects of research integrity culture series. This series aims to cover a broad range of methodological issues of relevance to research integrity, scientific misconduct, and questionable research practices.She has received various travel grants to present as a keynote speaker and panellist at international conferences, reflecting on research ethics and integrity from a low- and middle-income setting. Her research interests include conflict of interest, authorship, decolonization of global health, embedded ethics, and clinical ethics
Dan is the Director of Publications and Executive Editor for the American Urological Association and the founder of PIE (Publication Integrity & Ethics) Consulting, LLC. He has been in scholarly publishing for nearly three decades. Dan has been active in COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) since 2016, and is currently Chair. As Chair, he serves the interests of over 13,500 journals across the entire spectrum of scholarly research, and interfaces with editors and publishers from around the world. Dan has been involved in all aspects of publishing including peer review, publication ethics, and personnel and financial management of journals.
Dr. David Moher is a clinical epidemiologist, and professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa. Professor Moher has been involved with the World Conference of Research Integrity for many years. He led an international team resulting in the “The Hong Kong Principles for assessing researchers: Fostering research integrity”, an output of the WCRI meeting in Hong Kong. Professor Moher spends his time trying help to improve publication science as director of the Centre for Journalology.
Carmen Penido has a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology (FIOCRUZ) and is a researcher at the Centre for Technological Development in Health/Institute of Drug Technology, at FIOCRUZ, Brazil. Carmen is a faculty member engaged in intra- and extramural teaching and research regarding Research Integrity. Chair of the Research Integrity Committee at FIOCRUZ, a former member of the Institutional Review Board at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (2019-2021), elected member of the Brazilian Reproducibility Network board (2025), and co-chair of the Program Committees for the VI and VII Brazilian Meeting on Research Integrity, Science and Publication Ethics (BRISPE).
International Advisory Committee
Elisabeth Bik, PhD, is a Dutch-American microbiologist who has worked for 15 years at Stanford University and 2 years in industry. Since 2019, she is a science integrity volunteer and consultant who scans the biomedical literature for images or other data of concern. She has found over 8,000 problematic scientific papers. Her work has resulted in over 1,300 retractions and another 1,000 corrections. For her work on exposing threats to research integrity, she received the 2021 John Maddox Prize and the 2024 Einstein Foundation Award.
Website Blog
In preclinical as well as in clinical studies Ulrich Dirnagl’s research has revealed pathobiology which impact on the outcome after a stroke. Several of these mechanisms can be therapeutically targeted, clinical trials are under way. In addition, through meta-research he was able to identify opportunities for improving research practice and to obtain evidence for the impact of interventions targeted to increase the value of biomedical research. At the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin Ulrich Dirnagl is Professor of Clinical Neuroscience and served as founding director of the Department of Experimental Neurology from 1999 until 2022. Since 2017 he is also the founding director of the QUEST Center for Responsible Biomedical Research at the Berlin Institute of Health. QUEST aims at overcoming the roadblocks in translational medicine by increasing the value and impact of biomedical research through maximizing the quality, reproducibility, generalizability, and validity of research.
Sheila Garrity is the Director for the Office of Research Integrity (ORI). Before coming to ORI, Ms. Garrity served as Associate Vice President of Research Integrity at George Washington University (GW) from 2014 to 2023 where she oversaw operations of the Office of Laboratory and Radiation Safety, Office of Human Research, Office of Animal Research, Office of Research Integrity and Regulatory Affairs and served as the institutional Research Integrity Officer (RIO). At GW Garrity was responsible for policy development, informational sessions, and development of educational modules to assist investigators with understanding their ethical and fiduciary responsibilities regarding their research. Prior to that, Ms. Garrity spent more than 20 years at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where she served as the director of the Division of Research Integrity and Research Integrity Officer (RIO). She is a founding member and first president of the Association for Research Integrity Officers (ARIO, founded 2013). Ms. Garrity was in the first group of teaching RIOs when ORI launched its first series of RIO Bootcamps in the early 2000’s. Ms. Garrity earned her JD from the University of Maryland School of Law and her MBA and MPH at Johns Hopkins where she also received a certificate in Health and Human Rights.
Malcolm Macleod is Professor in Neurology and Translational Neuroscience at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh. After training in Internal Medicine his PhD concerned the neuroprotective actions of FK506 and post-doctoral work in the Seckl lab defined a neuroprotective role for increased expression of the mineralocorticoid receptor. During a pivotal sabbatical year with Donnan at the National Stroke Research Institute in Melbourne he began an involvement with stroke clinical trials, and it was in an effort to identify suitable drugs for such clinical trials that he began to develop techniques to allow the systematic review and meta-analysis of data from animal studies.
Local Organizing Committee
Alex D’Arcy is a Professor in Linguistics and the Director of the Sociolinguistics Research Lab (SLRL) at the University of Victoria. She has a BA in English Language from the University of British Columbia, an MA in Linguistics from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Toronto. She taught at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand for four years before joining the Department of Linguistics at the University of Victoria in 2010. Alex specializes in the study of language variation and change. Her research combines quantitative modeling with her interests in theoretical linguistics; she has published on lexical, phonological, syntactic, morphosyntactic, and discourse-pragmatic variation and change, both synchronic and diachronic. Her research centers on English, and she has worked on a range of varieties (national, regional, social, and ethnic). Her current project examines how children participate in advancing language change. She is also engaged in a number of collaborative projects with researchers in North America and abroad. These projects examine a range of research questions, from acoustic analysis and description to the social reflexes of syntactic variation.
Dr. Trevor Davis is SFU’s Executive Director, Research Operations, responsible for all central research support offices, human ethics, tech transfer, and all core facilities. His mandate for the past four years has been to modernize the structure, processes, and software for research support at SFU, to embed a service culture, and to build bridges with Faculties. With an academic background in spatial database research and development, as well as private sector work in IT, Trevor has a very thorough and current understanding of the research admin software ecosystem, both in Canada and abroad. He has led both development projects and the procurement of research administration software at several other universities, prior to taking on this role at SFU. Trevor’s particular focus is the integration of systems. His involvement with ORCID – originally in setting up the Canadian consortium, and now on the ORCID-CA Advisory Committee, has also involved outreach to the research admin community. As a former CARA executive member, he has represented ‘the university sector’ on committees such as the Canadian Research Integrity Forum, which assisted in developing the Framework on RCR. He has investigated and published on integration frameworks, such as the VIVO ontology and other open standards.
Susan Marlin is the President and CEO of Clinical Trials Ontario (CTO), an organization established by the Province of Ontario in 2012 to make Ontario a preferred location for global clinical trials. Previously, she spent a decade working in research administration at Queen’s University, most recently as Associate Vice-Principal of Research. Before this, Susan worked with the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group, later leading the development of its Ethics and Regulatory Office. She has served as President of the Canadian Association of Research Ethics Boards, as a member of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Research Integrity Committee, the Ontario Cancer Research Ethics Board, and the Tri-Agency Panel on the Responsible Conduct of Research. Susan also serves on several boards and committees, including the National Advisory Group for the Canadian Clinical Trials Coordinating Centre, and the Management Team for the Ontario SPOR (Strategy for Patient Oriented Research) Support Unit. Susan holds a BSc (Hons) from Dalhousie University, and an MSc in Community Health and Epidemiology from Queen’s University. She was awarded the Queens Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal in 2012 in recognition of her work in support of military and veteran health research.
Karina McInnis leads the development and management of the University-wide operational, planning, and policy framework related to the University of Guelph’s research endeavours and oversees the development and preparation of research initiatives with the federal tri-agency granting councils and other external research funding agencies. Responsible for operational units within the Office of the Vice-President (Research Services) including the following: the Research Services Subcommittee; Research Support Services (Grants and Contracts); Research Ethics; Animal Care Services; Strategic Programs and Infrastructure Grants; Research Legal Review; Research Risk Management; Research Information Technology and Management Systems; and Research Analysis and Reporting.
WCRI Governing Board
Dr Daniel Barr is the Principal Research Integrity Advisor at RMIT University, Australia, specialising in responsible research governance, management, and teaching. He contributes globally to research integrity through roles with the World Conferences on Research Integrity Foundation, the Asia-Pacific Research Integrity Network, and the Australian Academy of Science. Dr Barr co-authored the APEC Guiding Principles for Research Integrity and co-chaired the 6th World Conference on Research Integrity held in Hong Kong. In 2021, Dr Barr was awarded the Paul Taylor Medal for Excellence in Research Integrity by the Australasian Research Management Society.
Lex Bouter is Professor Emeritus of Methodology and Integrity at the Department of Epidemiology and Data Science of the Amsterdam University Medical Centers and the Department of Philosophy of the Faculty of Humanities of the Vrije Universiteit. He is involved research and teaching on research integrity and open science topics. He was appointed as tenured Professor of Epidemiology in 1992 and served his university as its rector between 2006 and 2013. Professor Bouter has supervised 79 PhD students, of whom to date 17 were appointed as professor. He is the founding chair of the World Conferences on Research Integrity Foundation.
Chris Graf is the Research Integrity Director at Springer Nature, in charge of leading the continued development and implementation of Springer Nature’s research integrity strategy, leading a team accountable for assuring the highest standards for research integrity in all of Springer Nature’s publications, working with many good colleagues inside Springer Nature and with many good academic partners outside Springer Nature. Chris also serves the publishing sector with a voluntary role at the STM Association, the global trade association for academic and professional publishers, where he chairs a committee of senior publishing industry executives overseeing governance of the STM Integrity Hub, and the STM Research Integrity Committee. In 2023 Chris was appointed to a position as committee member of the UK Committee on Research Integrity, a new organisation hosted by UKRI, that promotes research integrity across the UK and internationally.
