According to Article 19 of the Statutes for Safeguarding Good Research Practice at KIT, scientific misconduct includes in particular:

1. Falsification of scientific facts
   for example by

   • the invention / faking of results,
   • the falsification or ignorance of undesired data and results, e.g. by concealment or ignorance,
   • the intentionally distorted interpretation of results, and
   • the intentionally distorted reproduction of foreign research results.
2. Deception by intentional misinformation
   in e.g.

   • applications,
   • proposals for funding and reports on the use of funds,
   • publications, e.g. multiple publications without the corresponding citations. This implies that copying of larger text sections of already published publications or publications in print (also with small cosmetic corrections) or parallel submission of the same article to various journals is not permitted, if these copies are not marked and cited correctly. The same applies to qualification theses, such as dissertations.
3. Violation of intellectual property
   e.g. by

   • unauthorized use under the pretense of authorship (plagiarism). Plagiarisms in research do not only include cases of copyright violations, but also cases in which an author uses foreign, not protected material and pretends to be its author. [Cf. Schricker/Loewenheim/Loewenheim, 6th edition 2020, UrhG Art. 23, pars. 28-31] Examples of plagiarisms are copies and pastes of texts without correct citation (complete plagiarisms), plagiarisms with text changes / concealment / paraphrasing, translation plagiarisms, pawn sacrifices (a source is indicated, but the text is not marked as copied word by word), copies of figures, graphical representations, and tables without a correct citation, plagiarisms of ideas and structures,
   • exploitation of foreign, unpublished concrete ideas, methods, research results, or approaches without the approval of the authorized owner (theft of ideas), which does not necessarily represent a copyright violation. A foreign line of thought requires citation, even it if does not exist in written form (record, document, image, …),
   • pretense or unjustified assumption of scientific authorship or co-authorship,
   • refusal of co-authorship rights of others based on adequate contributions,
   • deliberate concealment of major relevant preliminary work of others,
   • intentional or unacceptable delay of the publication of a scientific work in particular as superior, editor, or reviewer,
   • intentional or unacceptable delay of the submission of a doctoral thesis,
   • unauthorized publication and unauthorized disclosure to third parties, as long as the work, the finding, hypothesis, theory or research approach has not yet been published.
4. Claiming of (co-)authorship
   of another person without his or her approval
5. Sabotage
   by malicious damage, destruction, or manipulation of equipment or materials, e.g.

   • devices and experimental setups,
   • data, documents, and electronic software,
   • consumables (e.g. chemicals).
6. Violation of the rules for the documentation, archiving, and use of research data
   (see Articles 10, 11, 12), in particular their manipulation and disposal
7. Participation in the scientific misconduct of others
   by e.g.

   • active participation in the misconduct of others,
   • deliberate co-authorship in false publications,
   • contribution of texts or passages to the qualification thesis of another person (ghostwriting).
8. Scientific misconduct as superior / head of a research work unit according to Article 5, par. 2; project managers
   • gross neglect of supervisors’ duties and quality assurance,
   • setup of contractual provisions or giving of instructions that contradict the rules of good research practice.

If misconduct is suspected, this must be reported.

Further information on reporting Scientific Misconduct can be found here: Report misconduct