If you are a RESEARCHER

As provided by the IPR Policy and Technology Transfer Regulation of the UNamur, a RESEARCHER is: « Any person who carries out, alone or within a team, research, studies or services within or under the responsibility of UNAMUR. This means any member of the academic, scientific, administrative and/or technical staff, as well as scholars (fellows), students, trainees and external collaborators carrying out research within UNAMUR or under its responsibility. »

There is also an extensive regulatory arsenal adopted at national or regional levels and ratified by our University that establishes the rules of scientific integrity for researchers:

• The UNamur Intellectual Property Regulations: (internal document) these regulations define the intellectual property rules relating to the results of research at the UNamur.
• The UNamur PhD Regulations: general framework within which PhDs carry out their doctoral programme and obtain their degree.
• The UNamur guidelines for Integrity in Scientific Research: available on the intranet (internal document).

Other documents

Code of Ethics of Scientific Research in Belgium of the FRS-FNRS: this code outlines the principles for “a scientific practice ethically justified” and establishes “standards of behaviour which the researcher has the duty to comply with”.

FRS-FNRS Guidelines of integrity in scientific research (availble in French only): these guidelines list the behaviours that indicate a breach of scientific integrity or professional misconduct and propose a procedure to implement in case of breaches. UNamur adopted these Guidelines in December 2007 and therefore any researcher in our institution is subject to them.

The European Charter for Researchers (EURAXESS Rights): principally its principle concerning « Professional responsibility » states that: « Researchers should make every effort to ensure that their research is relevant to society and does not duplicate research previously carried out elsewhere. They must avoid plagiarism of any kind and abide by the principle of intellectual property and joint data ownership in the case of research carried out in collaboration with a supervisor(s) and/or other researchers. The need to validate new observations by showing that experiments are reproducible should not be interpreted as plagiarism, provided that the data to be confirmed are explicitly quoted. Researchers should ensure, if any aspect of their work is delegated, that the person to whom it is delegated has the competence to carry it out. »

The UNamur ratified this charter in 2010. In this context and in order to obtain the logo “Excellence in Research”, it undertook an audit of its institutional practices with regard to the charter principles (« gap analysis»). On this basis, the Action Plan HRS4R (Human Research Strategy for Researchers) has been defined and identifies three different actions as regards scientific integrity:

• Developing an anti-plagiarism charter;

• Conducting an anti-plagiarism campaign and defining the most appropriate means for this campaign and its frequency;
• Establishing a procedure that ensures the communication of the IPR Policy and Technology Transfer Regulation of the UNamur to researchers either when they sign their contract of employment or their grant agreement.

Charter concerning the scientific integrity between French-speaking Countries

UNamur joined an international academic group including French-speaking countries (Belgium, France, Switzerland and Canada-Quebec), in order to actively participate in the drafting of a “common charter on plagiarism”. Currently, the JURIS UP Network (network of lawyers of the French educational system) is focusing on the results of a survey carried out in 20 universities (including UNamur) of all participating countries. 

The purpose of this group is to work together to establish common elements of policy to fight plagiarism in these universities, in order to understand all existing regulatory instruments and to propose a first draft of a common charter to be submitted for the approval of all participating universities.