In general, LARI follows the recommendations made in the ENRIO Handbook on Whistleblower Protection in Research and, of course, also all applicable legal requirements, such as those related to data protection and privacy. Data sharing between LARI Member Organizations and LARI. for example, is governed by a dedicated Data Sharing Agreement and information flows between the FNR and LARI are governed by a tailored memorandum of understanding because of the FNR’s unique role as research funding organization in the Luxembourgish research system.
A typical protective measure is not mentioning the names of collaborating witnesses and case reporters/complainants in communications with other parties to the investigation and in final reports, unless the persons explicitly consent to be identified by name. However, due to the nature of research integrity conflicts, LARI cannot guarantee that other parties to the investigation will not be able to infer the identities of case reporters/complainants and witnesses because often only a limited number of people has knowledge of certain situations, data, conflicts, and so on. In authorship conflicts, for example, there typically are only few people involved.
When it comes protecting persons involved in a case from pressure or retaliation (regardless of whether they are case reporters/complainants, witnesses, or the person to whom the allegations refer), LARI requests due protection from the LARI member organization involved in the case and closely collaborates with the respective institutional leaders in setting up protective arrangements. Persons involved in a case may always reach out to LARI to ask for more information on the protective measures in place.
