General information on submitting and publishing scientific work and on copyright, the rules of good scientific practice and data protection

Pursuant to § 86 para. 1 UA, positively assessed academic theses must be handed over to the university library as a complete copy and must be published. Dissertations are additionally published in the Austrian National Library.

Since 1 November 2023, delivery and publication must take place in electronic form. If parts of a cumulative work cannot be published in full in electronic form for copyright reasons, the handover of a full copy in print form is still required. The electronic version must indicate where the publication of the parts not included has taken place (with a link if possible). Should complete publication in electronic form be possible after the expiry of a so-called "embargo period", a block on publication can be requested for the duration of this period (below).

When a scientific work is handed over, the author is entitled to request the exclusion of the use of the delivered copies for a maximum of five years after the handover. The application shall be granted by the body responsible for study matters if the student can credibly demonstrate that important legal or economic interests of the student are at risk. (§ 86 para. 4 UA). It is recommended to clarify a planned blocking with the supervisor when registering the academic work.

When incorporating works by third parties into your work, especially photos, please observe copyright law and comply with the requirements of citation law. You will find detailed information on this in the OLAT legal information: https://lms.uibk.ac.at/dmz/1%3A1%3A0%3A0%3A0%3A_csrf%3A50ff3acc-bb85-42f3-905e-00c4936d7c6f/

All university members are obliged to comply with the guidelines for good scientific practice at the University of Innsbruck (https://www.uibk.ac.at/de/forschung/qualitaetssicherung/gwp/).
Further information on ethical issues in scientific work can be found at: https://www.uibk.ac.at/de/forschung/qualitaetssicherung/ethikbeirat/

If the study is conducted in the context of school research, the guidelines and questionnaire of the Review Board of the Faculty of Teacher Education must be observed: https://www.uibk.ac.at/fakultaeten/lehrerinnenbildung/forschung/ethik/

The most important sub-area in connection with scientific work concerns correct citation. All outside contributions must be acknowledged without exception, including ideas, data collection and other non-copyrighted sources. 

• Copyrights and references to own and external (preliminary) work and findings must be cited completely and without exception (citations in accordance with legal and subject-specific rules). Academic work that has already been submitted for assessment (including work from previous studies and/or other universities, e.g., seminar papers, master's theses, etc.) may not be resubmitted for assessment or reused, even in part! Only work completed as part of the degree program may be assessed; texts or parts of texts written and/or published before the start of the degree program may not be assessed.
• The republication of an already published text or parts of a text without a reference to the earlier publication is to be refrained from.
• Direct (text) copies are to be marked as such, in particular using inverted commas at the beginning/end of a literal quotation, and furthermore by appropriate copyright references for photos, images and other works or parts of works. In the case of indirect reproduction of third-party texts, the scope must be made clear by appropriate means. You must determine and observe subject-specific citation styles and rules in consultation with your supervisors.
• Please be sure to clarify the permissibility of using AI tools and the correct disclosure/citation with your supervisor. General information can be found here: https://www.uibk.ac.at/de/universitaet/digitalisierung/ki-uni-innsbruck/faqs/

In any case, § 2a para. 3 HS-QSG (excerpt) applies:
(3) In any case, it shall be considered scientific or artistic misconduct if someone

1. hinders or sabotages the research or artistic activities of other persons,
2. uses unauthorized aids, including the misuse of artificial intelligence applications,
3. unauthorizedly uses another person when writing a paper, taking an exam, or creating an artistic work, or makes use of a commissioned work created by a third party (ghostwriting);
4. takes over texts, ideas, or artistic works in whole or in part and passes them off as their own, including, in particular, the use of text passages, theories, hypotheses, findings, or data through direct, paraphrased, or translated adoption without identifying and citing the source and author (plagiarism), or
5. invents or falsifies data or results. https://www.uibk.ac.at/de/forschung/qualitaetssicherung/gwp/

Pursuant to Section § 73 para. 1 subparas 2 of the University Act, the assessment of academic work shall be declared null and void by the body responsible for academic affairs by means of a formal decision if, in the case of an examination or academic or artistic work, the assessment was obtained by fraudulent means, in particular through serious academic or artistic misconduct within the meaning of § 2a para. 3  subparas 2 to 5 of the Higher Education Act. The decision to award the academic degree shall be revoked and withdrawn by the body responsible for academic affairs in accordance with § 89 UG if it subsequently transpires that the academic degree or academic title was obtained by fraudulent means, in particular through forged certificates or serious scientific or artistic misconduct within the meaning of § 2a para. 3 subparas 2 to 5 HS-QSG. 

In general, in addition to copyrights, other rights of third parties must not be violated in scientific work. This also includes data protection. If you have any questions, you can contact the data protection coordination service or the data protection officer of the University of Innsbruck.