Dear colleagues first of all, thank you all for the support you have shown. As you may have gleaned from the petition text, the infamous 'recommendation 17' is not yet decided (which is why the petition focuses on the different, yet related set of recommendations proposed by the HSK). However, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft will presumably present it on July 4th 2013 at its annual press conference. It would be great, if we could garner more support until then. So please contact colleagues you believe to be interested in this topic, so they may sign the petition, too. You can easily provide more information by pointing to this blog post: http://www.change.org/petitions/deutsche-forschungsgemeinschaft-hochschulrektorenkonferenz-preserve-the-freedom-to-publish-findings-of-academic-misconduct-in-germany It also contains links to German blog posts on the topic. Again, thank you all very much for your cooperation.