"The Public and the University Have a Legal Right to the Expert Reports"

As the client of the "Freiburg Sports Medicine Evaluation Commission," the University of Freiburg was right to publish the expert report "Joseph Keul: Wissenschaftskultur, Doping und Forschung zur pharmakologischen Leistungssteigerung" ("Joseph Keul: Scientific Culture, Doping, and Research on Pharmacological Performance Enhancement"). Coauthor Dr. Andreas Singler had previously demanded without just cause that the university pay him an additional fee of almost €100,000 for the completed report. Rector Prof. Dr. Hans-Jochen Schiewer states in no uncertain terms: "The public and the university, as the client, have a legal right to the expert reports." He calls upon Singler to also submit the remaining expert report on Prof. Klümper to the university for publication upon completion of the revisions he is already aware need to be made as a result of the legal review.

The University of Freiburg appointed an "evaluation commission" in 2007 to evaluate all aspects of Freiburg sports medicine and bring to light misconduct pertaining to doping activities. It promised to make all results available to the public on the internet in the form of expert reports. The university has kept this promise, thus bringing to light the highly dubious past of the Freiburg sports medicine department.

The university has published five expert reports written by members of the commission on the internet so far (https://www.uni-freiburg.de/universitaet/einzelgutachten/einzelgutachten).

At the request of the commission's chair, the authors received a fee of €5000 for each report. One expert declined to accept the fee.

Andreas Singler received a total of €33,000 in fees as the author or coauthor of five expert reports. Moreover, the university paid to have these reports copyedited and subjected to a legal review.

The last report to be published, "Joseph Keul: Wissenschaftskultur, Doping und Forschung zur pharmakologischen Leistungssteigerung" ("Joseph Keul: Scientific Culture, Doping, and Research on Pharmacological Performance Enhancement"), was ready for publication after the results of the legal review had been incorporated and was therefore eligible for publication by the University of Freiburg yesterday.

One of the two authors of this report, Andreas Singler, refused to submit the report to the university, the client, without receiving an additional fee from the university. He demanded almost €100,000, although there are no legal grounds for an additional fee. On the contrary, the university has already fulfilled all agreements with regard to fees. Singler refused to accept the special fee of €20,000 the university nevertheless freely offered to him, as he considered this amount too low.

Singler allowed journalists to access the expert report via password but excluded the public. Taxpayers have a right to the reports, as they were completed with considerable public funding. The university therefore made the report available to the general public on the internet yesterday.