Qualitätsstandards für Rezensionen: (k)ein Problem der guten wissenschaftlichen Praxis

Do the rules of good scientific practice apply to scientific book reviews? The standardsetting guidelines of the German Research Foundation (DFG) do not mention the review system. There are no general guidelines for best practice. Proceedings for violations of good scientific practice rules through reviews are also not known. Since standards of good scientific practice are legal rules that are intended to protect the objective-legal functional conditions of academic freedom, it seems sensible to form corresponding social norms – as is also done in case law – as a derivative of the socially bound exercise of freedom that is adequate to fundamental rights, irrespective of the legal basis for the obligation. In this respect, rules for reviews also offer the opportunity to mobilize the generally ailing (book) review system in German jurisprudence as a format for serious academic debates.