Good Scientific Practice

The Council for Ethics in Research (Ethics Council) of the University of Siegen is at the disposal of researc

The Council for Ethics in Research (Ethics Council) supports researchers at the University of Siegen in the analysis of opportunities and threats of ethical issues in research projects, examines and evaluates them according to ethical criteria, especially with regard to the protection of human dignity as well as the autonomy and self-determination of people involved in research projects, and issues respective statements.

The University of Siegen has implemented an “Ombuds System to Ensure Good Scientific Practice“, which investigates charges of scientific misconduct and investigates in cases of conflict. It consists of the ombudspersons, an ombuds committee and an investigation committee.

Further Information:
DFG Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice
Online-Portal Research Integrity

The University of Siegen is firmly committed to equal opportunities and equality of scientists and academics as well as the participation of all members of the university with their individual abilities and in their respective social circumstances in science and teaching and sees this as an enrichment in terms of excellence and efficiency in all areas of the university. The aim is to promote and enable equal opportunities and diversity in the academic system. The University of Siegen’s understanding of diversity is based on the democratic values of equal opportunity, participation and anti-discrimination.

The University of Siegen sees the continuous improvement of equal opportunities for women and men as an essential prerequisite for its future viability and a central quality criterion for its development. Numerous certified measures in the area of compatibility of family and career as well as career advancement for women have been established and are offered by the Equal Opportunity Office. Exemplary are the offers in the Women Career Service as well as the FraMeS – FrauenenspezifischesMentoring Siegen.

More Information:
DFG Promoting Equal Opportunity

Worldwide free and unrestricted access to scientific knowledge is made possible by Open Access publications. The University of Siegen is committed to the Open Access principle and commits to it in an Open Access policy.

The university library provides advice on Open Access publications and offers support in financing OA publication fees through its own OA publication fund.

More Information:

Open Access at the DFG

The University of Siegen emphasizes the principle of the individual responsibility of its scientists for research and teaching, even in the age of digitization. When dealing with digital and non-digital research data as well as their long-term availability and reusability, it calls for research data management to be designed in accordance with discipline-specific standards, taking into account ethical, data protection, copyright, patent, or confidentiality concerns. In addition, the university commits itself to supporting its researchers in research data management based on the University´s Research Data Policy.

The University of Siegen’s E-Science Service offers support and advice on data management plans, data archiving and data publication, and also on the use of suitable repositories for long-term archiving.

More Information:

DFG Handling of Research Data

Scientific research can, intentionally or unintentionally, produce knowledge, products or technologies that can be misused (possibly by third parties) for significant harmful purposes. If such a risk exists, the researcher is responsible for assessing the risk/benefit ratio and taking measures to minimize that risk. In doing so, the recommendations for dealing with security-relevant research (see DFG and Leopoldina Handbook on Scientific Freedom and Scientific Responsibility – Recommendations for Handling Security-Relevant Research, as of May 28, 2014, as well as the EU Commission´s Recommendations for controls of research involving dual-use items[HND1] ) should be observed.

In addition, foreign trade regulations (in particular the War Weapons Control Act, Regulation EC No. 428/2009 “Dual Use”, Foreign Trade and Payments Act, Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance, embargo regulations) on the non-proliferation strategy and the handling of potentially critical goods, including technologies, software and sensitive know-how transfer, must also be observed. Beyond military goods in the narrower sense, civilian goods that are or may be intended for the use as or the development of such weapons (even if they are predominantly used for civilian purposes in everyday life; so-called dual-use goods) are also subject to export control regulations.

Information for the scientific community can be found on the website of the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA).

Violations of export control regulations can lead not only to high reputational damage for the university, but also to personal criminal consequences such as fines and/or imprisonment for the acting and institutionally responsible persons. These risks can be avoided by complying with export control regulations.

Support is available at the University of Siegen from Ms. Sabrina Patitucci (Customs Officer, Department 1.3).

In order to obtain an assessment of whether a project may be subject to licensing, detailed information is required. Therefore, you will find here our “preliminary” checklist for export control as well as the circular letter Sanction Lists as an Instrument to Combat Terrorism[HND2] .

The University of Siegen is committed to the principles formulated in the HRK-Recommendations and Guidelines for information security in science and for a culture of sustainability at universities.

HRK-Empfehlung Informationssicherheit
HRK-Empfehlung Kultur der Nachhaltigkeit