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Science 21 November 2003:
Vol. 302. no. 5649, p. 1309
DOI: 10.1126/science.302.5649.1309b
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ScienceScope

BERLIN--Worried that high-profile media coverage of misconduct cases has tarnished the reputation of the country's scientists, the German research funding agency DFG is beefing up its response to fraud allegations. Last week, it announced plans to recruit two new groups of experts. One will advise DFG on legal issues surrounding misconduct investigations and the other will examine how to better protect whistleblowers. The agency also intends to establish a database of closed cases to better measure the scale of the problem and identify recurring patterns.

In recent years, Germany's strong data- and employee-protection laws have impeded several panels investigating misconduct allegations. For example, a committee investigating a clinical study in Göttingen had to get permission from all the patients involved before it could access the study's raw data (Science, 22 November 2002, p. 1531). An expert panel could advise investigators in such cases, says a DFG spokesperson.

The moves drew praise from Peter Hans Hofschneider of the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried, who has helped several whistleblowers make their charges public. DFG is "finally giving serious attention to the problem," he says.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)