Austrian Agency for Scientific Integrity
The Austrian Agency for Scientific Integrity (OeAWI) is an Austrian independent association that has the task of professionally investigating allegations of scientific misconduct in Austria, evaluating them and, if necessary, making suggestions for measures.
The association was founded in 2008 due to various plagiarism incidents in Germany and abroad. Founding members were twelve Austrian universities, the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Vienna Science, Research and Technology Fund , the Institute of Science and Technology Austria and the Fund for the Promotion of Scientific Research . All public universities as well as some universities of applied sciences, non-university research institutions and research sponsors are now members.
The Commission for Scientific Integrity is responsible for investigating cases of scientific misconduct. It consists of six foreign members who cover the main academic disciplines (humanities, social sciences, life sciences, medicine, technology and natural sciences as well as law). Their tasks and competencies include, among other things, the investigation of the relevant facts in the event of suspected scientific misconduct, the preparation of reports on the basis of these facts collected (with the possible involvement of technical experts from Germany and abroad) as well as the preparation of final statements. The Commission for Scientific Integrity is neither a decision-making body nor a judicial organizational unit. It offers a neutral and factual platform to objectively investigate suspected cases of scientific misconduct. The commission can be contacted by any person or body in Austria. She can decide for herself whether to pursue an allegation or ignore it.
The agency issues recommendations as to what scientific misconduct is, how to recognize it and how to avoid it.
Between mid-2009 and the end of 2011, the Commission handled 46 questions; only 15 of these became a case and led to the opening of proceedings. Of these, three came from the life sciences, two from medicine, two from law, four from the social sciences, two from the humanities and two from the natural and technical sciences. Six cases were about allegations of plagiarism, five about the exploitation of foreign research approaches, two more about data falsification and two cases about an authorship conflict.
In July 2017, the agency was commissioned by the University of Vienna to review Ednan Aslan's study on Islamic kindergartens . In November 2017, the examiners came to the conclusion that there was no scientific misconduct, but that the work was deficient. For example, the ministry confirmed that it was exerting influence, but in most cases these were changes that would not have changed the content.
- CEO
- 2014–2017: Christine Mannhalter
- since 2017: Klement Tockner
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Press release June 25, 2009 (PDF; 21 kB)
- ↑ Annual report OeAWI 2011 ( Memento of the original from September 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 80 kB)
- ↑ OeAWI: Austrian Agency for Scientific Integrity ( Memento from 1 November 2017 Internet Archive ). Retrieved November 1, 2017.
- ↑ Kindergarten study: Commission for Scientific Integrity of the OeAWI starts work ( Memento from November 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ). Press release of July 24, 2017, accessed on November 1, 2017.
- ↑ derStandard.at: Study on Islamic kindergartens: examiners see no scientific misconduct . Article dated November 8, 2017, accessed November 8, 2017.
- ↑ a b derStandard.at: New head of the agency for scientific integrity . Article dated October 31, 2017, accessed November 1, 2017.
