[LMU-OSC News] new LMU guidelines on safeguarding good research practices

[LMU Open Science Center News]

For the attention of LMU-based community members:

The LMU recently implemented the "Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice<https://www.dfg.de/resource/blob/174052/1a235cb138c77e353789263b8730b1df/kodex-gwp-en-data.pdf>" (Aug 2019) of the German Research Foundation (DFG) - the so-called "Kodex". This is a mandatory step for all institutions that want to be eligible for DFG funding.

The derived  regulations (see Ordnung der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München zur Sicherung guter wissenschaftlicher Praxis vom 17. November 2023<https://cms-cdn.lmu.de/media/contenthub/amtliche-veroeffentlichungen/gwp-ordnung.pdf>, in German), are legally binding for all academics, researchers, research support staff, teachers, and students at LMU.

The new guidelines are noticeably progressive about Open Science and Responsible Research Assessment. Only the original text in German prevails, but here is our English summary:

Evaluation of researchers:

  *   Academic performance assessment is done in a multidimensional way, and research performance should primarily be assessed according to qualitative standards. When quantitative indicators are included in an overall assessment, this must be done in a differentiated and reflected manner. In addition to research performance, other aspects can be considered. (§6)
  *   An author is anyone who has made a genuine, comprehensible contribution to the content of a scientific text, data or software publication. (§14)

Appropriate level of documentation and standards to allow reproduction:

  *   Reproducible methods must be used. (§11)
  *   When research software is developed, its source code must be documented. (§12)

Appropriate level of documentation and standards to allow replication:

  *   All information relevant to the production of a research result must be documented comprehensively to enable replication. (§7 and §12)
  *   If specific professional recommendations exist for review and evaluation, the results must be documented in accordance with these respective specifications. (§12)
  *   Individual results that do not support the hypothesis must also be documented; a selection of results is not permitted. (§12)

Public access to research results:

  *   Apart from specific exceptions, all findings should be made public. For this, they must be described in a detailed and comprehensible manner which includes making available the research data, materials and information on which the results are based, as well as the methods used and the software employed (including appropriately licensed self-written software) according to the FAIR principles*. (§13)
  *   Data, material, software made publicly accessible must be appropriately archived, usually for a period of 10 years (§17).

*Personal note: The FAIR principles aren't defined further, but here what it implies:
- Findable: metadata should be deposited in a searchable repository and be assigned a permanent identifier
- Accessible: the data is either open, or accessible upon some authentication process, or closed, but with open metadata.
- Interoperable: the data is described with a standard terminology (so the dataset can be merged with other ones) and saved in a stable file format
- Reusable: the data is richly documented and is accompanied by a data usage license
See https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/ for more information.

Please feel free to disseminate this information as needed in your department and working groups.

Best wishes
Malika


--
Dr. Malika Ihle (she/her) (pronounciation<https://namedrop.io/malikaihle>)
LMU Open Science Center Coordinator

Website: https://www.osc.lmu.de<https://www.osc.lmu.de/>
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Please note that I will only work in the afternoons from 08.01. to 28.02.2024.

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