Academic Honesty and Code of Conduct

The METU Honour Code is as follows:

“Every member of METU community adopts the following honour code as one of the core principles of academic life and strives to develop an academic environment where continuous adherence to this code is promoted. The members of the METU community are reliable, responsible and honourable people who embrace only the success and recognition they deserve, and act with integrity in their use, evaluation and presentation of facts, data and documents.”

So, we fully commit ourselves to this code!

The PhiloMath Lab’s Research Code of Conduct can be read on PhiloMath Research Code of Conduct, which is our bluprint for maintaining integrity and honesty.

The following Research Code of Conduct is adapted from Argonne Research Code of Conduct and will continuously be updated (and possibly be simplified for us).

PhiloMath Research Code of Conduct

Each member of the PhiloMath community is expected to conduct and communicate their research and development work in accordance with the highest scientific, professional, and ethical standards and in a way that fosters mutual respect and enhances the reputation of the individual researcher, his/her colleagues, or any other third parties addressed.

As a member of the PhiloMath community, I will adhere to the following principles.

When developing new ideas and proposals, I will:

• Record my ideas in notebooks or using another medium
• Appropriately acknowledge ownership of ideas that are generated
• Create and support a collaborative climate
• Keep confidential any unpublished research shared with me by other researchers
• Inform all collaborators of PhiloMath correspondence with respect to intellectual property

When performing research activities, I will:

• Take responsibility for safety and for the impacts of my research on my co-workers, the physical or electronical environments
• Conduct, manage, judge, and report scientific research objectively, honestly, and thoroughly
• Be honest and realistic in stating claims or estimates based on available data and understand the limitations of my knowledge
• Make sure that I abide with guidance related to the use of generative AI for analysis and output of my own research relevant to my scientific discipline
• Preserve and maintain documentation, such as original data and auxiliary information, with sufficient diligence to enable others to verify and reproduce results
• Acknowledge all conflicts of interest
• Refrain from knowingly engaging in activities where a conflict of interest impedes my ability to act in an objective, honest, and ethical manner

When communicating and proposing research, I will:

• Claim authorship in a work only if I have made a significant intellectual contribution as part of conception, design, data collection, data analysis, or interpretation and made significant contributions to the scientific communication’s preparation
• Claim authorship only if I am willing to take responsibility for the validity of the raw data and its interpretation in my area of expertise and for the conclusions as a whole
• Ensure that all collaborators and co-authors on publications and proposals have the opportunity to review, comment on, and approve scientific communications prior to their release
• Clearly define expectations for proposals and projects for which I am responsible,
  including research roles and support for others
• Use technical review to achieve the high-quality research product essential to maintaining both my reputation and that of the scientific community in PhiloMath
• Submit my research results for publication only when I believe that they represent substantive new contributions to the field
• Accurately describe research methodology and data processing in all research products, including the ability to trace all figures and images back to the original data
• Recognize past and present contributors to my research and not accept or assume credit for another’s accomplishments
• Properly reference and acknowledge past work and accomplishments of my colleagues and others in the scientific community

When dealing with others, I will:

• Be honest and professional in my interactions which includes being cognizant of, and vigilant against, the negative consequences of conscious or unconscious bias
• Create an environment in which sexual and other forms of harassment are not tolerated in order to avoid potential risks to my own research integrity and that of my colleagues
• Foster a diverse and inclusive research environment that welcomes a diversity of thought and approaches
• Welcome constructive criticism of my personal scientific research and offer the same to my colleagues in a manner that fosters mutual respect and objective scientific debate
• Mentor new colleagues, students, and guests on the PhiloMath Research Code of Conduct, leading them by example on how to conduct and report their research in an ethical manner

Once again, we acknowledge that this is adapted from Argonne Research Code of Conduct, which was also adapted from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Research Code of Conduct.