Good Scientific Practice
Self-plagiarism, salami tactics, honorary authorship … Scientific misconduct is not always intentional.
However, with its claim to autonomy, science also has a special responsibility and duty of care. Therefore, it is important to study the standards of Good Scientific Practice (GSP) closely.
The principles of good scientific practice require that all scientists work "lege artis" (i.e. according to the rules of art).
This includes, among other things:
- the correct handling of data,
- critical questioning of all results
- to avoid and prevent scientific misconduct,
- maintaining strict honesty with regard to one's own and third parties' contributions.
Possible violations of the rules of good scientific practice are manifold. For example, scientific misconduct occurs when deliberately or negligently
- Data or sources are invented or falsified,
- you compromise or interfere with the research activities of others,
- violate intellectual property (e.g., through plagiarism or theft of ideas),
- falsely accuse third parties of scientific misconduct,
- know about scientific falsification or misconduct and do nothing about it,
- neglecting the duty of supervision.
TU Dresden has issued the Statutes for Ensuring Good Scientific Practice, Avoiding Scientific Misconduct, and Handling Violation. All members and staff of TU Dresden are obliged to follow these statutes, to make them the basis of their scientific work and to actively contribute to the avoidance of scientific misconduct within their sphere of activity.
Good to know!
The statute regulates, among other things, that the entire scientific staff of TU Dresden as well as all doctoral candidates are obliged to complete at least one training course in digital form or as a classroom event on the topic of "Good Scientific Practice".
For more information, please visit "Good Scientific Practice at TU Dresden".
Good scientific practice | Offers of the Graduate Academy
Familiarize yourself with the basic principles of good scientific practice at an early stage!
The Graduate Academy supports you with a wide range of training and advisory services tailored to your needs!
Mandatory Certificate Course
As a doctoral candidate at TU Dresden, you are obliged to complete a training course on Good Scientific Practice (GSP) before submitting your dissertation.
This is in accordance with the Statutes on safeguarding good scientific practice1 and the provisions of your faculty's doctoral regulations.
Certificate course “Good Scientific Practice during your Doctorate”
The course consists of three consecutive modules:
- Module 1: E-learning module GWP (individual work)
- Module 2: E-learning module “GWP at the TUD” (individual work)
- Module 3: Two-hour online short workshop (ger/en)
Completion & certificate
After successfully completing all three modules, you will receive a certificate that you can submit to the Doctoral Examinations Office or upload to Promovendus.
Details and further information on registration will follow shortly.
Further offers of the Graduate Academy
Summer Semester 2024
| Wed,24.04. | Good Scientific Practice during the Doctorate | Online |
| Thu, 16.05. | Good Scientific Practice during the Doctorate | Online |
| Mi, 29.05. | Gute wissenschaftliche Praxis in der Promotion | Online |
| Wed,12.06. | Good Scientific Practice during the Doctorate | Online |
| Mo, 12.08. Di, 13.08. |
Gute wissenschaftliche Praxis als Kompass für den Forschungsalltag | NEU:ONLINE |
| Wed,18.09. | Good Scientific Practice during the Doctorate | Online |
Furthermore, the Qualification program offers a broad spectrum of courses
that focus on different questions closely linked to this topic, such as:
- Visualization of Research Data
- Scientific Writing
- Research Data Management
Doctoral candidates in medicine
The Faculty of Medicine provides its own courses on the topic of “Good Scientific Practice” particularly for doctoral candidates in medicine.
More information on this can be found on the website of the faculty of medicine.
Find dates and registration for courses of Dresden university medicine here.
Workshops for university lecturers
Workshops on "Good Scientific Practice" for university lecturers
will be available on the website of the Center for Continuing Education (ZfW).
Introductory workshops for doctoral candidates
Certified course instructors: At the request of supervising university lecturers and subject to time availability, the Graduate Academy offers interdisciplinary introductory online workshops on Good Scientific Practice (GWP) for doctoral candidates.
Are you interested?
This course was developed specifically for PhD candidates by the Goethe University, Frankfurt. It offers an introduction to the standards and principles of scientific integrity.
Registration
You would like to complete this e-learning course? Please send us an email with your GA membership number to .
You will then receive an email with an entry code. With this code, you can log in and participate in the course anywhere, anytime. The course will approximately take one hour to complete.
Please note!
A GA membership is mandatory. Since the GA only has a limited number of licenses, each GA member can only receive one login code. The privacy and data protection policy of the Goethe University Frankfurt applies.
Doctoral candidates & postdocs with questions regarding "Good Scientific Practice" can also make individual appointments with specifically qualified advisors at the Graduate Academy.
Would you like to book an appointment?
Please use our GA contact form.
Furthermore, certified contact persons are available in all five Schools, at the cfaed, the CRTD as well as in the Graduate School DIGS-BB, who can offer subject-specific GSP workshops for Master students and doctoral candidates.
List of contact details of all contact persons and trainers regarding “Good Scientific Practice” (in German)
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Online Portal "Research Integrity"
Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice. Code of Conduct
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)
Urheberrecht in der Wissenschaft. Ein Überblick (in German only)
Copyright in Academic Work - An overview
German Research Ombudsman (Ombudsman für die Wissenschaft)
International Codes of Conduct and Research Integrity Reports
Network against Abuse of Power in Science (MaWi)
Sächsische Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek (SLUB)
SLUB: Writing and Citation
Zitierleitfaden der SLUB (in German only)
Game-based learning | Gamification on academic integrity
Dilemma Game| Erasmus University Rotterdam
Seneca's Integrity Matters | University of Waterloo
Jeopardy on Academic Integrity | Jeopardy Labs
Good scientific practice at TU Dresden
TU Dresden has issued the Statutes for Ensuring Good Scientific Practice, Avoiding Scientific Misconduct, and Handling Violations.
All members and staff of TU Dresden are obliged to follow these statutes, to make them the basis of their scientific work and to actively contribute to the avoidance of scientific misconduct within their sphere of activity.
The ombudsperson is the contact person, advisor, and mediator in all cases of suspected scientific misconduct. If necessary, he or she will be supported by the Review Board for Scientific Misconduct.
Your report will be treated confidentially. Confidentiality serves to protect the whistleblower as well as the person suspected of misconduct.
The ombudsperson shall maintain a regular exchange with the liaison officers of the faculties, the Review Board for Scientific Misconduct, as well as the other advisory bodies of TU Dresden. Conflict cases that are not related to scientific misconduct can be forwarded confidentially to the responsible offices of TU Dresden (e.g., Personnel Representation Council, conflict mediator of the Graduate Academy, psychosocial counselling, etc.) with the consent of the informant.
If there is reasonable suspicion of academic misconduct in the view of the ombudsperson, this suspicion will be reviewed by the Investigative Committee or, in suspected cases where the misconduct relates to academic examinations (e.g. Bachelor's, Master's, Diploma examinations) or graduations (doctorates, habilitations), by the regular Examination Board provided for in the respective examination and graduation regulations.
Contact
In cases of suspected scientific misconduct, the Office for Good Scientific Practice supports the ombudsperson, the Investigative Committee, and the regular review boards.
The Office for Good Scientific Practice accepts reports of suspected misconduct confidentially and provides information on possible procedural steps. This shall not affect the right of direct recourse to the ombudsperson or the Investigative Committee.
In cases of suspected scientific misconduct, the Office for Good Scientific Practice offers to check final theses (e.g. Bachelor's, Master's, Diploma examinations) or graduations (doctorates, habilitations) for plagiarism using plagiarism detection software.
Contact
Each faculty appoints one female and one male scientist as a liaison officer for early-career researchers.
List of contact details of the faculty liaison officers (download) (in German only)
These liaison officers serve as contact persons that can be easily approached by early-career researchers (especially doctoral candidates). These contact persons can also mediate in problematic situations. If necessary, and only with the consent of the person seeking advice, the contact persons can pass the conflict case on to the ombudsperson.
This shall not affect the right of direct recourse to the ombudsperson.
Furthermore, certified contact persons are available in all five Schools, as well as at the cfaed, the CRTD as well as in the Graduate School DIGS-BB. They offer subject-specific GSP workshops for Master students and doctoral candidates.
List of contact details of all GSP contact persons and trainers (in German only)
In the course of the scientific process, a large amount of data is generated. This research data can be generated by both qualitative and quantitative research, e.g. through interviews, surveys, experiments or observations, and can exist in analog or digital form including text documents, spreadsheets, logbooks, questionnaires, audio and video recordings, samples, collections, database content or protocols.
Long-term archiving of research data is a prerequisite for the traceability of scientific results. In addition, the data obtained is of interest for possible subsequent use.
Guidelines on the handling of research data at TU Dresden (in German only)
For more detailed information, please visit the website of the Service Center Research Data.
The Center for Continuing Education (ZfW) offers regular workshops on The Rules of Good Scientific Practice in Everyday Research for professors at TU Dresden.
You can find the next dates for workshops on GSP for professors here.
Footnotes
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Compulsory events on GWP
In its statutes on safeguarding good scientific practice, preventing scientific misconduct and dealing with violations, TUD has stipulated the following: "All scientific staff at TU Dresden and all doctoral students are obliged to complete at least one training course in digital form or one face-to-face course on the topic of 'good scientific practice'." § 3 (3)