The ombudsperson for safeguarding good scientific practice at the Leibniz-Institut for Polymerforschung Dresden e. V. (IPF Dresden) serves a three-year term. Re-election is permitted.

Dr. Klaus Werner Stöckelhuber was nominated and then appointed by the board. His term expires on 30.09.2026. You can reach him at:

Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e. V.
Dr. Klaus Werner Stöckelhuber
Hohe Straße 6
01069 Dresden

E-Mail: stoeckelhuber@ipfdd.de
Phone: +49 (0)351/ 4658 579

As a result of an election proposal and a resolution of the Board of Management on September 20, 2023, Dr. Eva Bittrich was appointed deputy ombudsperson until September 30, 2026.

Both provide assistance to all researchers in questions involving good scientific practice and scientific misconduct and he can be contacted directly.

Both task is to investigate allegations of scientific misconduct, to advise and to mediate accordingly. Such problems in scientific work are, for instance, conflicts concerning authorship, plagiarism allegations, wrong handling of scientific data, accuracy of quotation, restrain of research, etc.

With his neutral and confidential work, he refers to the following rules:

• DFG Code of Conduct “Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice”
• Leibniz Code for Good Research Practice
• Regulations to ensure good scientific practice at the Leibniz-Institut for Polymerforschung Dresden e. V. and procedures for handling scientific misconduct
• Publication policy of IPF Dresden (document in German)

If the ombudsperson and his or her deputy are suspected of bias, or if there are conflicts of interest, those seeking advice or making a complaint can refer the matter to the following ombudsperson bodies:

• Central Ombudsperson Board of the Leibniz Association
• Ombudsman für die Wissenschaft - Ombuds Committee for scientific integrity in Germany

As a matter of principle, the IPF omudsperson, as also these ombudsperson boards handle all inquiries neutrally, fairly and in strict confidence.

To ensure good scientific practice and to avoid any conflicts comply with the following points

• work lege artis (according to accepted scientific rules)
• document all steps of your scientific work (in detail and comprehensible) 
• archive your data (for at least ten years) 
• be critical on all of your results (double check, be sure about reproducibility)
• be honest in all parts of your work and interaction with colleagues (this includes proper citation/referencing)

From the above mentioned sentences it is absolute clear that the following things are clear don´ts:

• removing results from a dataset that does not fit in the concept
• faking or polishing data
• submitting contributions for conferences and journals without explicit approval by all co-authors 
• copy and paste scientific statements, data, and figures from whatever source or taking any scientific information without referencing (plagiarisms)