Advisory opinions

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.
By placing keywords in the search bar (click on the magnifying glass in the top right corner) you can search specifically within the advice.
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 2021-18
    Code of conduct applies to a legal opinion. The nature thereof may mean that not all standards from the Code can reasonably be considered applicable. In this case there is no question of violation of norms. The content of the legal opinion must be contested by Petitioner in legal proceedings, not with CWI or LOWI.
  • Advisory opinion 2021-17
    The Board should have taken a more critical look at the CWI-advice. LOWI not only takes into account power imbalance between student and professor, but also that they have submitted an integrity complaint about each other. Under these circumstances, there is no indication parties are still willing to further investigate the issue together, as stated ...
  • Advisory opinion 2021-16
    Complaint about a podcast. Not all standards from the code of conduct apply. A podcast is an audio product with a certain accessibility. In principle, the assessment must be against the standards and not against the principles of the Code of Conduct. The question is whether a scientist has exceeded a lower limit.
  • Advisory opinion 2021-15
    The Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity 2018 applies to a statement that has been signed by various scientists and has been published as correspondence in a scientific journal. According to its nature and content it can be considered scientific practice and concerns scientific research in the broadest sense (art. 1.1 code of conduct).
  • Advisory opinion 2021-14
    Scientist 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 2021-13
    Accusation 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 2021-12
    No 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 2021-11
    The 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 2021-10
    Case 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 2021-09
    The 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.