Good Research Practice

Scientific integrity is the basis of trustworthy science. All research institutes are called upon to protect science as well as themselves from fabrications and to sanction misuse and manipulation of scientific results. The commitment to adhere to the rules of Good Research Practice is a subsidy requirement of the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Based on DFG’s Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice as well as recommendations from the Leibniz Association, the IPN has defined own Standards of Good Research Practice, which apply to all staff members.

Good Research Practice requires IPN’s research to procure reliable and valid results. Thus, a systematic documentation, archival storage, and publication of research methods, data, and results is necessary. Results needs to be reproducible at every moment of the research process. Among others, this also protects the scientists against unwarranted challenges. A structured research data management across the whole data cycle does not only support storage of knowledge but also facilitates the communication of the results into the community in terms of Open Science. A self-imposed Research Data Policy defines basic rules for IPN-scientists regarding a systematic research data management.