ACM Strengthens Research Integrity With New Leadership Role
The ACM research integrity programme is set to expand as the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) creates a new leadership position to tackle research misconduct. The publisher announced that it will hire a Director of Research Integrity to strengthen oversight across its journals, conference proceedings and digital publications. The move comes after a sharp rise in misconduct allegations over the past five years. ACM hopes the new role will speed up investigations and improve trust in published research.
Scott Delman, ACM’s Director of Publications, said the organisation has increased investment in research integrity. However, he explained that volunteer committees alone cannot keep up with the growing number of cases. Some investigations currently take more than a year to complete. Therefore, ACM wants an experienced specialist to lead integrity efforts and coordinate investigations more effectively.
New Role Aims to Improve Oversight
The new director will oversee policies for detecting, investigating and preventing research misconduct. In addition, the official will work closely with editors, reviewers, authors and the ACM Ethics and Plagiarism Committee. The position will also focus on publication ethics, AI transparency and emerging integrity challenges.
ACM recently retracted hundreds of research papers, including entire conference proceedings, following misconduct investigations. Those incidents drew criticism from research integrity experts who argued that some investigations took too long. Meanwhile, software engineer Solal Pirelli questioned whether the new appointment alone would improve accountability.
Publisher Expands Integrity Measures
Alongside the new appointment, ACM is reviewing software tools to identify research misconduct more quickly. Furthermore, the organisation supports the Community-Led Ethics for Accountability in Research (CLEAR) Task Force. The initiative brings together computing organizations to develop common standards, improve information sharing and recommend penalties for unethical behavior.
Delman said protecting trust in scientific publishing remains ACM’s top priority. He added that stronger collaboration across the research community will help identify misconduct earlier and improve publication standards. As artificial intelligence and digital publishing continue to evolve, publishers increasingly recognize the need for dedicated research integrity teams. Many academic publishers have already introduced similar specialist roles to safeguard research quality and strengthen confidence in scholarly literature.
