Good Research Practice

People’s justified trust in scientific research rests on its integrity. Those engaged in scientific work maintain and uphold good research practice by means of integrity in their thoughts and actions, and, crucially, through regulations and procedures. All research institutions have a duty to protect research and science in general, and themselves in particular, from misconduct and manipulation, and to take action where these occur. The DFG's funding criteria require researchers and institutions to comply with the rules of good research practice.


The IPN has drawn up its own standards of good research practice on the basis on the DFG’s Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice and recommendations issued by the Leibniz Association. All the Institute’s staff are subject to these standards.

The requirement for research to produce valid and reliable findings is a key tenet of good research practice at the IPN. Meeting this standard calls for the systematic documentation, archiving, and publication of research methods, data, and results. We further require that all research that takes place within a research project be backed up, at all times, by a complete, transparent and documented record of its procedures and any findings, leaving a “trail” that can be followed if required; one of the purposes of this stipulation is to protect our researchers and their work from unjustified attacks. We also adhere to structured research data management policies throughout the entire life cycle of research data, aware that such procedures both facilitate the controlled storage of knowledge within a research group and aid the dissemination of research data within the scientific community in the spirit of open science and open research. The IPN’s Research Data Policy sets out the fundamental principles our researchers should follow in their research data management.