Our institute places great value on conforming to the highest standards of scientific practice. Toward this end the institute has formulated a policy covering authorship and primary data used in scientific publications. This policy conforms with the guidelines of good scientific practice of the Max Planck Society (MPG) and the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Further information about the policy for good scientific practice and the role of the ombudsperson at the MPI-M is available to all institute members on the intranet. The policies for scientific practice will be repeatedly reviewed and updated.

Beginning with publications submitted for publication on or after 1 July 2015 the MPI-M requires that all primary data for an investigation be archived for a period of at least ten years. The MPI-M accepts responsibility for maintaining this archive and making it available upon request. The MPI-M also maintains the highest standards for authorship of scientific papers. The corresponding author for a published study is responsible for ensuring that their study complies with the guidelines for good scientific practice. The policies for scientific practice will be periodically reviewed and updated, and questions or concerns about the practice can be forwarded to the head of a department, or the institutes ombudsperson.

As further element of Good Scientic Practice MPI-M encourages and supports the publication of software written at the institute as "Free and Open Source Software". Part of this policy is the distribution of usage and distribution rights between the authors of the software and the Max Planck Society (see the Contributors License Agreement form under PDF). In this way, the authorship of the software remains identifiable even in the case of distribution and further development of the software.  More details can be found in the MPI-M "Software Policy" PDF. Questions to this topic? Send an Email!

Questions or concerns in this area can be forwarded to the department heads, or the institutes ombudspersons.

Further information on good scientific practice:

• Institute's Policy on Good Scientific Practice   PDF
• Max Planck Society Rules of Good Scientific Practice   PDF
• DFG Proposals for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice  PDF
   
• Example for a Publication Data Archive  ZIP
• Internal Approval Form for Publications    PDF
   
• Contributors License Agreement PDF
• MPI-M Software Policy PDF
   
• Flyer: Scholarly publishing of papers or software PDF