Paper short abstract:

Multiple normative structures prescribing research integrity meet. This paper studies these encounters, their consequences and ways to care for both differences and translations between them. It empirically draws from cases in epidemiology and midwifery.

Paper long abstract:

This paper reports on an ongoing qualitative study of research integrity in large-scale, interdisciplinary, collaborative, research settings. Increasingly, research policy and funders prefer interdisciplinary research collaboration. Yet in such configurations, different versions of 'good' or 'proper' science may emerge. Moreover, research integrity or responsible research practice are not universal. There are multiple articulations of responsible research in science within but especially across disciplines. These disciplines or epistemic cultures place different objects at their core: elements or entities they value the most. Accordingly, they design formal and informal structures to permit care for this set of core values. This paper draws from an empirical study of epidemiology and midwifery. In these cases, entities are figured and valued by research policies or guidelines (codes-of-conduct, protocols, etc.) but also with care: 'good data' and 'good birth' respectively. However, the coexistence of different and even competing values of research integrity in collaborative research settings is understudied. This paper describes how research and care labour converge and diverge in the context of articulation of core valued entities. We draw from research on (e)valuation studies, research integrity, the social study of research collaboration, and current literature on care in STS. Subsequently, we develop a conceptual-analytical approach on the different normativities in research integrity as 'matters of care'. We argue that while different and competing normative figurations of research integrity exist within and between these cases, approaching these as matters of care highlights how interdisciplinary collaborations can persist and even prosper.