Room: 2.107A
Phone: -246
Email: pleiner@mpip-mainz.mpg.de
Function
According to the guidelines of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) to secure proper research conduct the Senate of the Max-Planck-Society (MPG) decided to establish Ombudspersons (cf. Sec. 8 of the MPG Rules of good scientific practice):
"An independent, appropriately qualified person of considerable personal integrity should be elected from among the scientific staff at each institute ... to act as an ombudsperson in cases of conflict on matters of good scientific practice. It is the job of the ombudsperson in particular to be available to all concerned as a confidential advisor in cases where there is suspicion of a violation of the principles of good scientific practice. ...
The regulations passed by the Senate on the introduction of an investigation procedure in cases of suspicion of scientific misconduct remain unaffected by this."
Problems
The MPG has established rules of good scientific practice, which have recently been updated. They contain statements on the general principles of scientific work as well on cooperation and leadership. The publication and review process, the necessity of storing primary data, conflicts of interest with industry and the whistleblower problem are discussed. It is in the very interest of all scientist to know about these rules. A catalog of possible scientific misconduct cases is provided in appendix 1 and 2 of the investigation procedure that governs the punishment procedure. As examples, 'false statements', 'infringement of intellectual property' and 'impairment of the research work of others' are mentioned as well as the joint accountability of co-authors and supervisors.
The DFG (German Science Foundation) has similar rules and procedures.
Ethics
For further reading there are numerous links to documents concerning research ethics: for science and engineering, and for bio/medical research.
The MPG has recently published guidelines how to deal with questions of freedom of research and research risks.
home page / scientific project
Last modified: September 23rd, 2011
HARALD PLEINER