DTU Danish Code of Conduct for Research Integrity Scientific Advice: Political documents Departments with advisory functions are required to perform scientific research on subjects defined by the authorities and to deliver their results to these authorities, for which they receive a fee. By definition work at this level of scope supports regular publication of the research in scientific journals. However, problems can occasionally arise when final reports are modified by the au-thorities to convey a different conclusion than the one made by the researchers in-volved. If such a change of conclusion is not explicitly stated and the final report is still credited to the department, researchers can find themselves supporting a politi-cally preferred conclusion that their research did not support. Thus, it is important to ensure that final reports and conclusions made by authorities are not credited to the researchers. However, the researchers should be credited by reference to their orig-inal report/paper/work. It would be prudent to include some text on this in the general collaboration agreement between the department and the authorities. Scientific Advice: Dissemination of results When collaborating with public authorities, the timing of dissemination can often be an issue, e.g. when research contributes to legislation. The authorities are depend-ent on dissemination in accordance with the political processes, which might be in contradiction with the researchers’ need to publish the results of their research. To avoid potential conflicts, it is recommended to clarify from the outset the condi-tions regarding the dissemination of results. The point of departure for cooperation should be that all research can be published independently of the political process. However, some degree of pragmatism is necessary. External collaboration and intellectual property On occasion, when material – in particular cells, DNA vectors, and in some cases commercial mediums – is needed from public repositories or external companies, the terms given by the public repository or the license agreement from the commer-cial vendor state that the supplier of the material owns all data and/or intellectual property generated using the material. Thus, in case the researcher acquires materi-al and then afterwards generates data without the involvement of the provider of the material, the researcher should either: i) be aware of this and avoid using materials with these clauses attached, ii) have the terms of the agreement changed, or iii) if possible with company and budget, get another license, where no ownership of data is retained with the supplier of the material. DTU – Technical University of Denmark 11
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