Spotlight on: Morressier's Integrity Manager

The judges have selected a shortlist of four for the 2024 ALPSP Award for Innovation in Publishing. This year's awards are sponsored by PA EDitorial.

The finalists will be showcased in a lightning session at the ALPSP Conference on 11 September. The winners will be announced at the ALPSP Conference Awards Dinner on 12 September in Manchester.

In this series, we hear from each of the finalists.

Tell us about your organization

Morressier provides publishers and societies with workflows for transforming scholarly communications. We empower you through the entire publication journey, from the first spark of an idea right through to journal submission and peer-review. We offer integrity-protected workflows across the following products: Proceedings Manager, Integrity Manager, and Journal Manager. Driven by the belief that technology can help create a world in which all scientific outputs are traceable and trustworthy, Morressier is headquartered in Berlin and has offices in London and Washington DC.

What is the project/product that you submitted for the Awards?

Morressier’s Integrity Manager, launched in May 2023, addresses the integrity crisis in scholarly publishing with a comprehensive platform designed for detecting research fraud and managing investigations. By integrating both proprietary technology and top third-party tools, Integrity Manager effectively identifies a wide-range of issues, including plagiarism, citation misconduct, AI-generated text, image manipulation, and institution verification. This unified approach eliminates the need for publishers and societies to negotiate with multiple vendors and upload documents to various systems.

Additionally, the platform centralizes integrity investigation management, enabling users to track and analyze all investigation activities and data in one place. Integrity Manager reduces manual workload, lowers costs, and provides actionable insights through detailed reporting. By boosting trust in the scientific record and supporting early fraud detection, the platform streamlines editorial workflows, ensures high-quality publications, and minimizes costly retractions.

Tell us a little about how it works and the team behind it

Morressier’s Integrity Manager performs a wide-range of sophisticated checks on manuscripts to ensure research integrity and streamline the editorial process. Here’s how it works:

Types of Checks

• Plagiarism Detection: Uses advanced algorithms to compare manuscripts against an extensive database of previously published works to identify potential plagiarism or paraphrasing.
• Citation Misconduct: Flags excessive self-citations or unusual citation patterns that may indicate inappropriate citation practices.
• AI-Generated Text Detection: Scans manuscripts for sections likely generated by AI, using sophisticated AI-detection tools to ensure content authenticity.
• Image Manipulation Detection: Compares images in manuscripts against a vast repository to detect potential manipulations or duplications, including zooms, flips, and cropping.
• Institution Verification: Checks for consistency and validity of institutional affiliations, helping to confirm the authenticity of authors' identities.
• Tortured Phrasing Detection: Identifies potentially problematic phrases often associated with paper mills or automated content generators.
• Flagging Cited Retracted Content: Cross-references citations with a database of retracted papers to prevent the propagation of flawed research.
• Paper Mill Alarm: Public - Scan for submissions suspiciously similar to known paper mill generated content. 

Investigation Management

Integrity Manager not only conducts these checks but also integrates them into a unified investigation management system. Here’s how the integrity management module centralizes the investigations workflow:

• Centralized Tracking: All alerts and flagged issues from the various checks are consolidated in one platform, enabling users to track and manage investigation activities.
• Streamlined Workflow: Users can access all relevant data and investigation outcomes from a single interface, reducing the complexity and administrative burden of managing multiple systems.
• Actionable Insights: The platform offers actionable insights and recommendations based on aggregated data, helping editorial teams make informed decisions and take appropriate actions.
• Historical Data Access: Maintains a record of all investigation activities and outcomes, facilitating ongoing monitoring and trend analysis to prevent future issues.

By integrating robust checks with a centralized investigation management system, Integrity Manager enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of research integrity teams.

Our team behind Integrity Manager is composed of experts in publishing, technology, data science, and research integrity, and we have over 100 years of experience in the publishing industry between us! We collaborate closely with senior leaders in the publishing industry, leveraging their insights to refine and enhance our platform continually, with new features released every 2 weeks. Our Strategic Advisory Board, established in December 2023, plays a crucial role in guiding our development efforts based on real-world needs and challenges.

In what ways do you think it demonstrates innovation?

Integrity Manager is innovative in several key ways:

• Comprehensive Integration: Integrity Manager is the only enterprise-grade solution for integrity checks on the market. 
• Integrity Investigation Management: The first independent tool on the market offering comprehensive investigation management.
• Automation and Efficiency: The platform automates many manual tasks, significantly reducing the workload for editors and reviewers while lowering costs for publishers.
• Actionable Insights: Detailed reporting and analytics provide actionable insights, enabling the development of robust research integrity policies and the identification of broader trends.
• This all-in-one approach not only streamlines the integrity management process but also enhances the effectiveness of fraud detection and investigation.

What are your plans for the future?

We are continuously expanding the capabilities of Integrity Manager to cover more aspects of research integrity and further integrate emerging technologies. We aim to provide the most sophisticated tools for detecting and preventing research fraud, including advanced verification checks for authors and institutions to enhance credibility and reduce fraud risk. We frequently refine our platform based on user feedback and industry trends. Our goal is to continue to be the leading research integrity solution in the scholarly publishing industry, setting new standards for quality and trust in academic research.

About the author

Robyn Mugridge, Sales Director, Morressier

Robyn joined Morressier as Sales Director in 2024, bringing extensive experience from several international publishers. At Morressier, Robyn plays a pivotal role in expanding partnerships and driving the adoption of innovative integrity solutions. Previously, as Head of Publishing Partnerships at Frontiers, Robyn developed a passion for collaborating with societies and modernising publishing technology. In addition, as Co-Chair of the ALPSP Education Committee, Robyn enjoys bringing publishing professionals together to tackle shared challenges in the journal publishing industry.

More information:

Morressier Research Integrity Manager.