This is a list of short summaries of advisory opinions. The list also includes decisions. In these cases, LOWI has declared the petition inadmissible. It has therefore not examined the substance of the petition and has not issued an advisory opinion.
The full text of the advisory opinion is only available in Dutch. If you want to read the full text in English, you can use the Dutch text for translation purposes.
- Advisory opinion 2021-14Scientist in the capacity of editor of a scientific journal. Code of conduct applies. Based on standards of scientific integrity, editors cannot be required to enter into a discussion with the author when an article is rejected. The scientist has not violated any standard of the code of conduct and is not to be blamed.
- Advisory opinion 2021-13Accusation of data falsification. The report of the ad hoc committee and the provisional opinion based on it have not been drawn up with the required care. All things considered, LOWI comes to the conclusion that it is insufficiently equipped to conduct the necessary fact-finding. LOWI therefore advises the Board to reopen the investigation.
- Advisory opinion 2021-12No plagiarism of ideas and no other reason why interested parties should have referred to the publication. No priority claim has been made and there is also no authoritative publication by the petitioner to which the interested parties should have referred from the point of view of scientific integrity.
- Decision 2021-11The discussion about whether or not to use the term Armenian genocide is mainly a political-social controversy. Research Integrity Committees and the LOWI are not intended to settle such discussions in terms of research integrity. The petition is manifestly unfounded.
- Advisory opinion 2021-10Case concerning the representation of conflicts of interest in a publication. No possible conflicts of interest that should have been mentioned in the scientific article. LOWI considers that the RIC was allowed to refuse a further document from the Complainant that was submitted 5 minutes before the end of the hearing.
- Advisory opinion 2021-09The complaint the Petitioners lodged with the Research Integrity Committee (RIC) is not substantially different from the criticism they have already expressed in the scientific debate and which belongs there. The Petitioners use highly loaded terms such as data manufacturing and falsification, but in the opinion of the LOWI this is not the case.
- Advisory opinion 2021-08This case concerns policy research. There is a penetrating attempt by a direct interested party to influence the results of an investigation. The LOWI qualifies the lack of transparency about this in the reporting by interested parties as questionable behaviour.
- Advisory opinion 2021-07Publication in a legal journal. The scientists should have presented knowledge from another field more carefully, less one-sidedly and with more uncertainty. They should also not have diagnosed an individual. The rectification offered is inadequate. The LOWI advises to enter into consultation on appropriate recovery measures. One can think of withdrawing the article.
- Advisory opinion 2021-06Violation of research integrity. See 2021-07.
- Advisory opinion 2021-05This case concerns an unfinished dissertation. The fact that different doctoral candidates are awarded a PhD on the same subjects, or that a supervisor supervises different dissertations on the same subject, does not lead to questions about research integrity.