Open Science

The Institute is committed to the principles of Open Science. We understand it as sharing research outputs and processes so they are accessible and auditable, fostering rigor, reproducibility, and replicability. These practices improve research quality and efficiency, strengthen national and international collaboration, and increase the societal impact of our work.

Open Access

We encourage researchers to make their findings freely available to the scientific community and the broader public. Support includes:

• Centrally managed Open Access Gold agreements negotiated by the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL), covering publication costs with numerous publishers.
• Deposit of publications in MPG.PuRe, the Max Planck publication repository.
• Since October 2023, supporting membership and founding institutional membership in CrimRxiv, criminology’s global Open Access hub and repository. 

Open Materials and Software

We share research materials and software whenever possible. In particular, we release Virtual Environment (VE) soft­ware and scenarios to enable reuse and adaptation, supporting reproducibility and standardized stimulus sets in crim­i­nology. The VE developed for the ABISS project is available at the project website 360º Virtual Scenario Method. We will expand this practice to additional projects.

Research Data Management

In 2022, the Institute introduced binding Research Data Management (RDM) rules aligned with FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). They apply to all empirical research projects and include:

• Recording metadata in the internal RDM database and publishing it via DataCite with a stable DOI, making projects visible from the outset.
• Storing pseudonymized or anonymized datasets in the internal archive after project completion; where sensitivity permits, deposit in an external repository is strongly encouraged.
• When feasible, preregistering projects on platforms such as the Open Science Framework to publicly document hypotheses, designs, and analysis plans before data collection.

The Institute's Research Data Management and Data Protection Coordinator is Dietrich Oberwittler. 

Open Science Ambassador

Since June 2026, Sera-Maren Wiechert  has served as the Institute’s Open Science Ambassador through the Max Planck Society’s Open Science Ambassadors Program (OSAP). The Ambassador supports implementation, curates Internet sources, and connects the Institute with the wider Max Planck Open Science community.

Open Criminology Award

The Institute sponsors the MPI-CSL Open Criminology Award for Established Researchers, presented annually by the European Network for Open Criminology (ENOC), recognizing outstanding contributions to Open Research practices in criminology.