Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity
The Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity provides researchers guidelines for their day-to-day activities in practice. The code of conduct has been adopted by all universities and applies as from 1 October 2018. The Code includes the five principles which form the basis of integrity in research: honesty, scrupulousness, transparency, independence and responsibility. In the code, these five principles are further elaborated into 61 standards for good research practices. The code also contains guidelines for dealing with alleged instances of research misconduct.
The TU Delft Executive Board has established the TU Delft Vision on Integrity on 25 September 2018: various proposals in that Vision are related to the Institutions’ duties of care as described in Chapter 4 of the Netherlands Code of Conduct. Also, in response to the Dutch Code of Conduct, the TU Delft Regulation on Complaints about Research Integrity has been revised.
The Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity is of huge importance for scientific research and is therefore fully supported by TU Delft. The new Netherlands Code of Conduct states amongst others that in the event of an investigation into alleged research misconduct, all relevant research and data will be made available for verification subject to the confidentiality safeguards established by the Executive Board (Art. 3.2, norm 12a). TU Delft values this provision highly. TU Delft will abandon the exception mentioned in norm 12b of article 3.2, and will not use the possibility mentioned in this norm to not disclose components of the research, including data, to an investigation into alleged research misconduct in highly exceptional cases.
The current code of conduct is a revised and expanded version of the code of conduct that was first introduced in 2004. The code was developed by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centres (NFU), Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), Associated Applied Research Institutes (TO2), Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences (VH), and the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU). The Netherlands Code of Conduct for Academic Practice (2014 revision) is revoked on 1 October 2018, except in respect of a. research completed before the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity entered into force, and b. research activities initiated before the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity entered into force and not yet completed when it did so.