New Code of Conduct in the Netherlands

by Claudia Lüttke (NRIN)

On September 14th the new Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity was published and entered into force on 1 October 2018. 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) worked together intensively to thoroughly amend and expand the Code of Conduct that has been in use since 2004. This amendment process, which included a public consultation, was led by a committee chaired by Prof. Keimpe Algra. The code is available in English and Dutch.

What is new compared to the previous version of 2004?

The code distinguishes between research misconduct, questionable research practices, and minor shortcomings.
With the new institutions’ duties of care, the research organizations show that they are responsible for providing a working environment that promotes and safeguards good research practices.
It describes how an institution must address potential research misconduct.
It can apply to both public and public-private scientific and scholarly research in the Netherlands.
It allows for multidisciplinary approaches, as it takes into account the differences between different institutions. It defines five principles of research integrity and 61 standards for good research practices.

(Source: VSNU)

If you want to read more about the new code and its international context, you can have a look at a recent comment written by Prof. Lex Bouter, chair of the Netherlands Research Integrity Network (NRIN) and professor of Methodology and Integrity: From punish to empower: A blame-free approach to research misconduct – Research institutions have a duty to foster integrity, and that includes monitoring

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