Benjamin Doerr: Ombudsmann of the MPII

Thanks for electing me as "Ombudsmann" of the MPII. Here are some informations that might be useful.

"An independent, appropriately qualified person of considerable personal integrity should be elected from among the academic staff at each institute or research establishment of the Max Planck Society to act as an ombudsperson in cases of conflict on matters of good scientific practice. It is the job of the ombudsperson in particular to be available to all concerned as a confidential advisor in cases where there is suspicion of a violation of the principles of good scientific practice." [from the Guidelines of the Scientific Council for Electing Ombudspersons to Max Planck Institutes and the Sections of the Max Planck Society]

In simple words: If you think that something is going wrong in terms of good scientific practice, we should confidentially discuss this matter.

This raises the problem of good scientific practice. The complete "Rules of good scientific practice" can be found here. Most rules are very natural and need no discussion, others are may-be not too relevant to computer science. Two issues, though, might be interesting and you should be aware of them:

Scientific publications: […] The only persons who may be credited as co-authors are those who themselves made a considerable contribution to the design of the studies or experiments, to working out, analysing or interpreting the data and to drawing up the manuscript […]. The authors always bear joint responsibility for the content; "honorary authorship" is not permitted. Support from third parties is to be recognised in a note of thanks.
Securing and storing primary data: Primary data as a basis for publications must, as far as possible, be stored for at least ten years on durable, secure carriers in the institutes or research establishments in which they arose. Access to the data has to be granted for persons with a justifiable interest.

I emphasized these two points, but please note that it is your responsibility to make sure that you do not violate any of the "Rules of good scientific practice". Note also that violations may result in unpleasant consequences.

List of useful links: