Guidelines for Good Scientific Practice

An important learning objective of the lab course is to become familiar with scientific working methods. Honesty is an essential requirement for sound scientific work. The following principles for working in the physics lab have been derived from the recommendations of the German Research Foundation for good scientific practice from 1998. The KIT presidency adopted its guidelines for safeguarding good scientific practice in May 2010.

For the participants:

Honesty and truthfulness are paramount in every scientific endeavor. All significant results must be recorded truthfully, unchanged, and complete to ensure the seamless traceability of the experiment. Falsifications (such as inventing or altering data, selecting and rejecting undesirable results without disclosing this) are serious scientific misconduct that can lead to expulsion from the lab course.

Quotations must be fully identifiable and referenced with accurate source information. Copying text or illustrations from an undisclosed source constitutes theft of intellectual property. This, too, is scientific misconduct that, in the lab course, results in reworking the report and, in case of repeat offense, expulsion from the lab course.

In general, a self-critical attitude should always be maintained with every acquired result, in order to avoid any bias, a widespread systematic source of error.

The report is usually prepared by two students, as a team. Only those who have significantly contributed to the experiment, data analysis and interpretation, and the formulation of the report can be named as co-authors.

The authors share responsibility for the content of the work. Consequently, in the case of proven plagiarism, both parties are equally sanctioned. Imagine signing your name at the end of every submitted report, vouching for its authenticity.

For the supervisors:

The supervisor of an experiment assumes the responsibility for adhering to the rules of good scientific practice. Maintain good communication with the students throughout the experiment day. Ideally, carefully compare the evolving report of the students with your own experiences and measurement results as it is being developed.