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Research Integrity

The safeguarding of good research practice is a core responsibility of the University of Hildesheim and of all its members and affiliates. The university therefore promotes good research practice and has procedures in place to prevent, identify, and sanction research misconduct. 

The Senate has adopted regulations on safeguarding good research practice (German only). These set out the relevant framework and establish a procedure for self-regulation within the university’s research community. This procedure involves the university’s ombudspersons and—where necessary—an ad hoc commission convened to conduct a formal investigation into suspected cases of research misconduct. The regulations implement, in a legally binding manner, the DFG’s “Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice”.

All members and affiliates of the University of Hildesheim can contact the ombudsperson for good research practice, or their deputies, with questions relating to good research practice. The ombudspersons act independently and in an honorary capacity, provide confidential advice, and can mediate—within the ombudsperson procedure—in conflicts related to good research practice. They also serve as the first point of contact in cases where research misconduct is suspected.

The Senate has appointed the following individuals as ombudspersons and deputy ombudspersons:

Alternatively, members and affiliates of the University of Hildesheim may contact the Ombuds Committee for Research Integrity in Germany, which operates at national level.

Further information and guidance on questions of research integrity are available via the DFG’s online portal of the same name. In addition to the 19 guidelines and the accompanying commentary on the DFG Code, the portal includes discipline-specific annotations, case studies, FAQs, and references to legislation and other standards, related DFG statements, and external sources. The portal is intended to be expanded on an ongoing basis with further quality-assured contributions from members of the research community. 

In addition, three discussion hubs for fostering research integrity address the following topics: “Authorship criteria and best practices in authorship conflicts”, “Dealing with research data as well as artificial intelligence and research integrity”, and “Dealing with plagiarism in academia”. They develop recommendations for action in relation to the standards defined in the DFG Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice and are located within the Ombuds Committee for Research Integrity in Germany. 

KIT provides an online course on Good Research Practice aimed at students and doctoral researchers at an early stage; the course may also be used and adapted for teaching purposes.