Safeguarding good scientific practice and research ethics

IDOS is committed to the highest ethical standards in all its activities.

Two core elements to ensure good scientific practice at IDOS are the Ombuds Office for Good Scientific Practice and the Research Ethics Committee (REC).

The Ombudspersons are the first contact in case of any suspected scientific misconduct, as described in the „Guidelines on Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice and Preventing Research Misconduct at IDOS“.

The Ethical Research Committee must be contacted to obtain an ethical clearance prior to any research involving primary data along the principles and procedures defined in the document “Research Ethics at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability”.

All research involving primary data collection requires ethical clearance from the IDOS Research Ethics Committee. The committee evaluates that the principles of do-no-harm, transparency and fairness are built in the project design, with a special emphasis on the rights of research participants and research partners. The committee consists of IDOS researchers from different programmes of the institute and benefits from diverse personal and academic backgrounds being represented.

On this website you find links to documents and guidelines on which the committee relies, as well as contact details. Please refer to the Research Ethics Committee via E-mail at ethics@idos-research.de for any questions regarding ethical standards at IDOS or the clearance procedures more generally.