Disentangling the local context—imagined communities and researchers' sense of belonging.

This article investigates the concept of researchers' "local context" in relation to the implementation of research integrity policies, questioning whether it is defined by geographical/institutional settings ("polis") or by transnational epistemic or scholarly communities ("cosmos"). Using data from the International Research Integrity Survey with over 60,000 respondents across multiple countries and disciplines, the study finds that academics identify with both their immediate physical environments and their broader epistemic communities, with stronger identification typically toward the latter. The authors propose a theoretical framework of the "cosmopolitan academic," drawing on Ulrich Beck's notion of cosmopolitanism and Durkheim's concept of solidarity, emphasizing that effective research integrity regulations must align with both local institutional contexts and the norms of epistemic communities. The paper concludes that understanding researchers' fluid, multiple, and situated identities—encompassing both polis and cosmos—is essential for crafting legitimate and effective research integrity policies.