Toronto Statement

Toronto Statement

The Toronto Statement is a declaration issued in Toronto addressing standards for scholarly authorship, peer review, and research integrity. It was drafted through a consortium of universities, publishers, funding agencies, and research organizations to harmonize practices across institutions in North America and Europe. The Statement sought alignment with existing frameworks developed by bodies such as United Nations, World Health Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, European Commission and to influence policy among major publishers including Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley-Blackwell.

Background and development

The drafting process drew on precedents from conferences and initiatives hosted by University of Toronto, Harvard University, University of Oxford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Cambridge, McGill University, Columbia University, Yale University, Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley, University of British Columbia, University of Michigan, University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins University, Imperial College London, University of Edinburgh, University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust, Gates Foundation, European Research Council, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, National Science Foundation, Royal Society, Academy of Medical Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Association of American Universities, Council of Canadian Academies and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Drafts circulated among stakeholders at meetings held in venues associated with Royal Ontario Museum, Hart House, Metro Toronto Convention Centre and were influenced by prior documents such as the Declaration of Helsinki, Bermuda Principles, Montreal Statement and the Budapest Open Access Initiative. Working groups included representatives from journals like The Lancet, Nature (journal), Science (journal), PLOS, BMJ (British Medical Journal), and societies such as American Chemical Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Royal Society of Chemistry.

Principles and provisions

The Statement articulates principles on authorship credit, data sharing, transparency, and conflict of interest that reference norms found in instruments like the Helsinki Declaration and the Singapore Statement on Research Integrity. It prescribes criteria for contributor roles analogous to the CRediT taxonomy and urges adoption of identifiers such as ORCID and persistent identifiers used by Crossref. The document calls for alignment with editorial standards promoted by Committee on Publication Ethics, International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, Council of Science Editors, and funder mandates from Wellcome Trust, Gates Foundation, European Commission Horizon 2020, National Institutes of Health and UK Research and Innovation. Provisions include requirements for pre-registration referenced against platforms such as ClinicalTrials.gov, Open Science Framework, and data repositories like Dryad Digital Repository, Zenodo, Figshare, and discipline repositories affiliated with agriRxiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv. It also addresses considerations for Indigenous scholarship citing principles related to Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and institutional review frameworks used by Tri-Council Policy Statement.

Signatories and endorsements

Endorsing parties ranged from research-intensive universities including University of Toronto, McMaster University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley to major publishers Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley-Blackwell, Taylor & Francis, Oxford University Press and funders such as Wellcome Trust, Gates Foundation, European Research Council, National Institutes of Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, UK Research and Innovation. Professional societies signing on included American Association for the Advancement of Science, Royal Society, American Chemical Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Medical Association and editorial collectives like Committee on Publication Ethics. Several governmental science ministries and agencies from Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Germany, France, Australia, Sweden, Netherlands provided statements of support, while international organizations including United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization issued commentary.

Implementation and impact

Implementation strategies promoted adoption across research workflows at institutions such as University of Toronto, Harvard University, Stanford University, University College London, ETH Zurich, Max Planck Society, Karolinska Institutet and consortia like Association of Research Libraries, Group of Eight (Australian universities), Russell Group (UK). Changes influenced publisher policies at Nature (journal), Science (journal), PLOS, BMJ (British Medical Journal), Cell Press and repository practices at arXiv, bioRxiv, Zenodo, Figshare. Funders including National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust, European Research Council, Gates Foundation incorporated elements into grant conditions and reporting requirements. The Statement informed training programs at Coursera, edX, LinkedIn Learning, and university research offices, and contributed to legal and policy discussions in legislative bodies such as the Parliament of Canada and committees of the European Parliament.

Criticism and controversies

Critics from advocacy groups, scholarly unions, and scholars at institutions including University of California, Berkeley, University of Oxford, McGill University argued the Statement risked privileging large publishers like Elsevier and Springer Nature and disadvantaging smaller presses and repositories such as University of Toronto Press and Open Library of Humanities. Debates emerged in media outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, The Washington Post, Financial Times over implementation costs cited by libraries in consortiums like CARL (Canadian Association of Research Libraries), ARL (Association of Research Libraries), and perceived tensions with principles from Budapest Open Access Initiative and DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals). Concerns were raised by legal scholars referencing regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation and by Indigenous organizations invoking standards from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada about data sovereignty. Responses included revisions influenced by feedback from Committee on Publication Ethics, International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition and subsequent workshops at University of Toronto, Harvard University, University of Oxford.

Category:Statements