Ethical Guidelines

The following “Ethical Guidelines in the Context of Doctoral Studies” shall create transparency about what constitutes proper ethical behavior between doctoral students, supervisors and third parties at ebs.

1. The basis of all guidelines is the understanding that during a dissertation, both supervisors and doctoral students possess rights and assume obligations. Thus, support for the dissertation shall both be regularly offered by the supervisor and requested by the doctoral student.
2. Both the supervisor and the doctoral student shall clarify goals and methods of the dissertation. Demands and complexity of the latter are to be formulated in a way that guarantees a “successful” completion for both parties within a time period that is reasonable for both parties.
3. The support of the supervisor is to be framed in a way that the character of the dissertation as an individual scientific effort remains guaranteed. In particular, any unreasonable influence on goals and methods of third parties (e.g. cooperation enterprises) should be ruled out.
4. If the doctoral student is employed at the chair or institute of his/her supervisor, he/she should, if possible, be assigned tasks that relate to his/her dissertation project.
5. For internal doctoral students, the delegation of tasks from supervisor to doctoral student has to leave sufficient time for the doctoral student’s research and preparation of his/her dissertation. In particular, this concerns the attendance of courses and activities within the scope of the doctoral studies at ebs and the preparation of the associated examinations.
6. The authorship of publications produced jointly by supervisor, doctoral student and, where applicable, student should reflect both the conceptual contribution and the time commitment. Ideally, authorship issues should be discussed upfront.
7. The understanding of academic dishonesty and plagiarism includes insufficient citation of the doctoral student’s own, supervised or otherwise accessible diploma thesis and seminar papers.
8. Supervisor and faculty make an effort to keep the time between the submission of the dissertation and the disputation/oral examination as short as possible.
9. Both the choice of the second assessor and the appointment of examiners should be on a neutral basis.
10. In case of conflict between supervisor and doctoral student and upon request by one of the parties involved, the faculty has the duty to mediate.
11. To avoid conflicts of interest, professors should avoid supervising doctoral students to whom family-, sexual- and/or private-business-relations exist. Potential conflicts of interest arising after committing to supervision are to be announced immediately.