Ethics
Researchers can be faced with ethical dilemmas that concern their research work or research topics, their responsibilities, the impact of their research on society, the way of conducting and publishing their research, and other aspects. Studying written artefacts as cultural heritage especially requires a global perspective that is sensitive towards different research contexts and attitudes in societies and states across the world. The Ethics Working Group provides researchers at the CSMC and the Cluster of Excellence ‘Understanding Written Artefacts’ with recommendations for ethical and responsible research. In doing so, discussions are organised around three key aspects:
- Interpersonal relationships and relations with institutions
- Objects and their provenance
- Data management
The Ethics committee may be consulted by researchers on all matters pertaining to the ethical conduct of research.
Our Short Lecture Series ‘Handle with Care’ provides a forum to discuss ethical aspects of research with a wider range of scholars and students at UHH.
Code of Conduct: Ethical and Responsible Research at CSMC
To provide colleagues at CSMC (and manuscript researchers more generally) with some practical guidance on how to carry out their research responsibly, the Ethics Working Group has worked out an overview of basic rules of conduct regarding other people, written artefacts, and research data. These recommendations are based on experiences shared by a wide range of researchers and profited from discussions with other organisations including DFG, Blue Shield International and the European Research Council.
Ethics Committee
The ethics committee can be contacted by any member of the centre. It provides confidential and non-binding advice for researchers on all matters pertaining to the ethical conduct of research (for instance on how to handle non-publishable data or written artefacts with problematic provenance): ethics-committee.csmc@uni-hamburg.de.