I. General Standards

In the sense of a self-obligation, this document serves to concretize basic ethical guidelines for the conduct of research and teaching at the Faculty of Informatics at TU Wien. This document is addressed to all members of the faculty, including students and graduates, and obliges them to adhere to these ethical guidelines.

In addition to the guiding principles for universities (see Universities Act 2002 § 2¹), the following requirements must be met for good scientific practice:

• Scientific work must be carried out lege artis, i.e. in accordance with legal regulations, ethical standards and in line with the current state of knowledge in the respective discipline. Scientists must be aware of their responsibility for the foreseeable consequences of the technical realization of their work.
• Scientific results should be made available in the form of publications to as broad a public as possible, but in any case to the scientific community. In particular, we are committed to the requirements of the Open Access Policy². The methods used and the findings must be documented. In the case of experimental work, it is imperative that the scientific procedure and results are precisely recorded and documented, as the repeatability of the research is a characteristic feature of this type of research.
• Results must be consistently and critically scrutinized. This also includes openness to criticism and doubts from colleagues or staff, careful, disinterested and unbiased evaluation of colleagues’ work, as well as waiving evaluation in the event of bias.
• Strict honesty with regard to the contributions of partners and competitors must be maintained. Obstruction of the scientific work of competitors is to be avoided.
• The recognized principles of scientific work in the individual disciplines are to be observed. In particular, originality and quality should always take precedence over quantity in examinations and the awarding of academic degrees, in staff recruitment and appointments, and in the evaluation of research achievements.
• The Faculty of Informatics makes it its business to convey the principles of scientific work and good scientific practice to the students already in the courses of the basic studies and to encourage them to be honest and responsible in science. The members of the Faculty of Informatics feel obliged to prevent and avoid scientific misconduct in their own work (and within the scope of their possibilities in their environment).

II. Scientific Publishing

• The work of others must be clearly delineated, properly referenced and carefully interpreted.
• Exactly those persons involved in a research work or in the writing of a scientific report must be named as authors. Participation counts as participation if a significant contribution has been made to the formulation of the research question, the implementation of the research project, the evaluation or interpretation of the results, and the preparation of the publication or the critical revision of its content.
• Participation in the collection of data, the provision of financial resources or the general management of the project, the group or the institute where the research was carried out is not a sufficient reason to be named as co-author. The same applies to the mere proofreading of the manuscript without co-designing the content.
• The agreement to be named as co-author justifies the co-responsibility that the publication meets scientific requirements. This applies not only to the area for which the co-author has made a contribution, but to the entire publication. The co-author is responsible both for the correctness of his/her own contribution and for ensuring that it is incorporated into the publication in a scientifically acceptable manner.
• The order of authors is determined exclusively by the authors themselves. This decision is made jointly by the authors taking into account the usual standards of the respective discipline.

III. Students and Graduates

• Students and graduates begin to work scientifically at the latest with their master/diploma thesis or dissertation. The Faculty of Informatics teaches them not only methodological skills, but also a basic ethical attitude for scientific work, for the responsible handling of results, for cooperation with other scientists and for their work in professional practice.
• Students and especially young scientists are entitled to regular scientific supervision, advice and support.
• These guidelines are also to be applied to examinations and non-scientific works that are prepared in the context of courses. For other work, such as software, media productions and hardware design, the respective license regulations must also be observed. This shall not affect the relevant laws (in particular the Universities Act 2002³ and the Copyright Act⁴) and the provisions of the respective course.