Good scientific practice

The Ethics Committee of Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences supports its researchers by advising them on ethical and data protection aspects of research projects. This does not affect the responsibility of the researchers for the research project and its implementation.

The Ethics Committee acts at the request of the researchers, whereby it only assesses applications from Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. The committee makes the following decisions on the applications, which are communicated in writing:

• Approval of application,
• Follow-up work is requested,
• Rejection of the application.

The resolution “Approval of application” confirms that ethical and data protection advice on this application was provided by the Ethics Committee before the start of the project. This resolution can be attached, for example, when submitting own contributions to scientific conferences.

Further information can be found in the “Regulations for the Establishment and Procedure of a Committee for Ethics at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences (Ethics Committee)”. The regulations can be found in the intranet.

The members of the Ethics Committee were appointed at the Senate meeting on 25.01.2023 for the term of office from 01.03.2023 to 28.02.2025.

In 2025, there are two fixed meeting dates for which applications can be submitted:

1. Meeting on 24th of April at 15:30 - AF0401

2. Meeting on 30th of October at 15:30 - AF0401

Applications can be submitted to the office of the Ethics Committee (ethikkommission@hs-osnabrueck.de) up to four weeks before the date of the meeting.

The applicant will be invited to the meeting.

The Ombuds Committee for Safeguarding Good Research Practice at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences (OUAS) is a committee set up by the OUAS to:

• provide advice on questions of good research practice.
• mediate in the event of conflicts relating to scientific misconduct.
• receive and process reports of possible scientific misconduct.
• provide information on the topic of good research practice.

The ombudspersons base their work on the German Research Foundation (ger. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaf, DFG) Code of Conduct ‘19 Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice’ (DFG, 2019).

The ombudsman committee acts on requests and information. Cases are handled objectively, fairly, and in strict confidence if requested. All members of Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences can contact committee members.

The following persons belong to the ombudsperson committee and can be addressed independently of their faculty assignment (alphabetical order). Information can also be provided via the internal reporting office under the HinSchG.

The Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences expects its academics and researchers to base their work on the guidelines for ensuring good scientific practice of the DFG.

Furthermore, an e-learning tool on good scientific practice is available to all cooperative doctoral students and other interested parties.