Court ruling deals blow to Croatia’s research ethics body

National ethics committee for science and higher education cannot issue opinions on individual misconduct

Croatia’s embattled national committee for research ethics, which has been out of action since 2018, has suffered a major blow that could bring an end to meaningful national-level investigations of misconduct in the country.

According to local media, in March the Croatian constitutional court overruled the committee’s opinion on plagiarism charges brought against four academics at the University of Zadar, on the basis that the committee does not have the right to rule on individual misconduct cases—which has so far been its main activity, as defined by law. The court ruling was made in a case brought by the accused academics.