25 June 2025, Dubai Medical University – college of pharmacy hosted an engaging Faculty Development Session titled “Maintaining Research Integrity: Preventing Retractions and Avoiding Predatory Journals.” The session was presented by Dr. Hanan Anbar, Associate Professor in the College of Pharmacy and Chair of the Institutional Review Board – DMU.

Key topics discussed included:

• Maintaining Research integrity
• The causes of article retraction.
• The identification of predatory journals.
• The risks associated with publishing in Q4 Scopus-indexed journals (due to potential delisting).
• Gaining insight into the new ranking metric, “the Research Integrity Risk Index”.

The session was marked by the presence of Prof. Sherief Khalifa, Vice Chancellor of Dubai Medical University and Dean of the College of Pharmacy, which reflects the strategic importance the university places on research integrity as a pillar of its academic mission.

The Q&A session was particularly enriching, sparking meaningful dialogue, shared experiences, and actionable strategies to maintain the integrity of scholarly publications.