Course Type: Workshop

Target Group: Doctoral researchers

As a researcher, one has the privilege to work freely and creatively, pursuing own interests and adding to the knowledge base of the scientific community – and the community in general. This freedom comes with responsibility: The responsibility for self-control, accuracy, honesty, efficiency and objectivity. The scientific community has introduced rules of research integrity, which aim to preserve the freedom of research and prevent scientific misconduct.

In this workshop, participants will learn about the rules of research integrity and good scientific practices and how to avoid research misconduct. The workshop introduces the standard statutes of research integrity (Singapore Statement, ALLEA Code of Conduct, DFG Codex, Guidelines of the Hochschulrektorenkonferenz) as well as local regulations at place. It is also intended to raise awareness for the significance of good scientific practices with respect to different scientific disciplines.

The workshop not only focusses on compliance alone but prepares researchers from all scientific disciplines for the complexities and dilemmas of the day-to-day research life by promoting moral and value development: it is structured around the DFG Curriculum „Good Scientific Practice“ for Courses in Science and Medicine | G. Sponholz | 10/2011, as well as the Horizon 2020 supported Virt2ue concept | Embassy of Good Science 2020 (https://embassy.science/wiki/Training), with particular emphasis on the following topics:

• Recognizing scientific misconduct,

• Data storage, handling and protection,

• Documentation,

• Publication process and Authorship,

• Plagiarism,

• Conflict resolution / Ombudssystem.

The workshop encourages the active involvement of the participants and features case discussions, individual working sessions, plenary discussions and information input. All participants will receive material links to useful resources, a tool-kit with relevant publications, institutional guidelines as well as local contact points, which they can refer to throughout their scientific careers. These skills are also valuable to researchers who transfer to other career paths.

Biologist; since 2019 Science Coordinator at the Couzin Chair of the University of Konstanz and Animal Facility Head of the Department of Collective Behaviour at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behaviour. Since 2022 also Ombud at the said institute. He graduated in Biology from Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, and received his PhD in genetics and developmental biology, also in Mainz, in 2004. After two postdoctoral positions at King's College London and at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Institute in New York, he coordinated the graduate programmes Quantitative Biosciences Munich (QBM) and the International Max Planck Research School for Translational Psychiatry (IMPRS-TP).