Creating a safer climate for questions of integrity

Academics should not fear complaints about procedure—they improve science

Last year the Dutch association of universities, VSNU, published the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity in an attempt to guarantee the quality of scientific practice.

The code provides guidelines for setting up, carrying out and publishing research. It also indicates how to deal with violations. Researchers, as well as people outside the university, can use it to file complaints if they believe that there has been a case of misconduct, such as the fabrication or falsification of research data or plagiarism.