Ombudsman for Science
The " Ombudsman for Science " is an advisory and mediation body that was set up by the German Research Foundation in 1999 , but is independent of the latter in terms of content. Scientists in Germany can turn to the committee on questions of “good scientific practice” (see fraud and falsification in science ) and scientific misconduct . The ombudsman body (as of July 2019) consists of the lawyer Stephan Rixen (spokesperson, University of Bayreuth), the bio-medicine specialist Daniela N. Männel (University of Regensburg), the bio- physicist Joachim Heberle (FU Berlin) and the biologist Renate Scheibe (University of Osnabrück) .
Work of the body
The work of the committee is based on the DFG memorandum, Proposals for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice , written in 1998 and revised in 2013 , in which the DFG on the occasion of the Herrmann / Brach u. a. set the following principles as standards:
- Honesty and completeness in the quotations (no tolerance of plagiarism )
- Honesty and completeness in the collection of data ( reproducibility of data and results; retention of all sources for at least 10 years)
- Significant identification of the contributions of all co-authors (no " honorary authorship ").
The committee does not act on its own initiative, but rather in response to inquiries and tips from those affected or so-called whistleblowers , i.e. people who point out scientific misconduct. All concerns presented to the ombudsman are treated as strictly confidential (in order to prevent any unjustified loss of reputation of those involved), even after the process has ended.
history
The first ombudsman body consisted from 1999 to 2005 of the lawyer Hans-Heinrich Trute (spokesman, Hamburg), the medical doctor Gottfried Geiler (Leipzig) and the physicist Siegfried Großmann (Marburg). From 2005 to 2011, the committee initially consisted of the biochemist Ulrike Beisiegel (spokesperson, Hamburg), the physicist Siegfried Hunklinger (Heidelberg) and the lawyer Wolfgang Löwer (Bonn). Ulrike Beisiegel resigned prematurely because she was elected President of the University of Göttingen . In 2011 she was replaced in the current committee by the biologist Brigitte M. Jockusch , and Wolfgang Löwer became the new spokesman for the ombudsman. In 2014, the physicist Joachim Heberle succeeded the Oldenburg chemist Katharina Al-Shamery .
Office of the Ombudsman
The office of the ombudsman for science was at the University of Bonn. The Ombudsman has been active in around 650 cases since its inception, i.e. around 45 cases per year. The committee's office is in Berlin (as of January 2017).
In addition to the supraregional body of the ombudsman for science, there are local ombudspersons at numerous universities, technical colleges and non-university research institutions, to whom scientists from the respective institution can turn if they suspect scientific misconduct.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ see The Ombuds Committee, on ombudsman-fuer-die-wissenschaft.de, accessed June 3, 2019
- ↑ This is already being done by leading magazines, e.g. B. from Nature
- ↑ http://www.ombudsman-fuer-die-wissenschaft.de/
- ↑ http://www.dfg.de/service/presse/pressemitteilungen/2011/pressemitteilung_nr_03/index.html
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from February 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive )