RI2

Research Integrity Risk Index

What is RI2? It is the world’s first empirically grounded, composite metric designed to identify and profile institutional-level risks to research integrity. Developed by Professor Lokman Meho at the American University of Beirut, RI2 was created in response to growing concerns about how global university rankings incentivize volume- and citation-based publishing at the expense of scholarly integrity.

What does RI2 do? It evaluates institutions based on two independent, verifiable indicators: (1) R Rate–the number of retracted articles per 1,000 publications, capturing evidence of serious methodological, ethical, or authorship violations, and (2) D Rate–the percentage of an institution’s publications appearing in journals that were recently removed from Scopus or Web of Science for failing to meet quality or publishing standards. These indicators are normalized and averaged to produce a 0-1 score, which places each institution into one of five risk tiers (from Red Flag to Low Risk) based on a fixed reference group of the 1,000 most publishing universities worldwide. Visitors can view the full methodology and explore the current institutional rankings and risk tier classifications.

Why RI2 matters? Traditional rankings emphasize productivity and citation volume, often overlooking questionable practices such as publishing in predatory or delisted journals, inflating output through multi-affiliations, gaming citations through self-citations and reciprocal networks, and delegating intellectual leadership to external authors. RI2 shifts the focus from quantity to integrity, offering a conservative, transparent, and globally benchmarked tool that highlights structural vulnerabilities often missed by mainstream metrics.

Who should use the RI2? It is intended for use by universities seeking to assess and strengthen research governance, ranking agencies aiming to incorporate integrity-based safeguards, funders and regulators evaluating institutional reliability and risk, and journalists, watchdogs, and academics committed to improving scholarly accountability.

Learn more: The RI2 platform is continuously updated based on user feedback and evolving best practices. Users can explore the interactive RI² world map, which displays average RI2 scores by country to visualize geographic trends in research integrity risk. The next semiannual update of the RI² database and rankings will be released in December 2025.

In the Media: The index has already garnered wide international attention. Some highlights so far include:

RI2 Risk Tiers RI2 Score Ranges (June 2025) Interpretation
Red Flag RI2 ≥ 0.251 Extreme anomalies; systemic integrity risk
High Risk RI2 ≥ 0.176 and < 0.251 Significant deviation from global norms
Watch List RI2 ≥ 0.099 and < 0.176 Moderately elevated risk; emerging concerns
Normal Variation RI2 ≥ 0.049 and < 0.099 Within expected global variance
Low Risk RI2 < 0.049 Strong adherence to publishing integrity norms
The views expressed on this site are those of the authors and do not reflect or represent the official policy or position of AUB. The information available on this site is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind. AUB will not be liable for the accuracy, content, completeness, legality or reliability of the information contained on this site. If this website provides links to other websites owned by third parties, AUB is not responsible for the content available thereon. RI² is a composite metric intended to highlight potential research integrity risks using publicly available data. It does not assert misconduct or wrongdoing by any institution or individual. All data and rankings are subject to updates and refinements as new information becomes available.