Zusammenfassung

There is a need to act with regard to research ethics in the social and economic sciences in Germany. More recently, this realisation has led to a rise in ethics commissions. This paper discusses the German Data Forum’s recommendations of the emergence of a new infrastructure comprised of different ethics commissions, which are embedded into a harmonised comprehensive concept for ethical reflexivity in research. To this end the Forum recommends promoting ethical reflexivity among researchers, ethic committees (Institutional Review Boards) and project advisory boards. The promotion of an overarching culture of reflection and debate will especially require intensifying the exchange on ethical issues in scientific communities as well as the efforts to integrate research ethics into methods training, academic advisory and teaching.