COSIMA Code of Ethics

COSIMA
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This post is related to the COSIMA Purpose Statement.

As we envision it, things might look a bit like:

  • Purpose statement: short description of what COSIMA aims to bring about
  • Code of Ethics: general principles and foundations that COSIMA is build on (linking and relating to its purpose)
  • Code of Conduct: specific expectations and practices within COSIMA

Below are the Code of Ethics in its current form and then a new version of it modified after @edoddridge, @PSpence, and myself hanged out over a long lunch. This is not final. Also note that even the three above-mentioned people above don’t agree with all proposed modifications. But we all agreed that we should put it out there to kick off the discussion…

We aim to conclude and solidify on a purpose statement by the end of this year’s annual Workshop on Thu July 4th.

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Current version

[@ Ethics – COSIMA]

COSIMA Code of Ethics

Five ethical principles form the foundation of COSIMA:

Integrity, Trust, Collaboration, Clarity, Fairness.

We expect these principles to be honored by everyone who officially or informally participates in or benefits from COSIMA. The fundamentals of each principle is outlined below. People are expected to follow this code in spirit as much as in letter.

Integrity:

Integrity is the soul of science. It takes a life-time to earn and a moment to lose. We will demonstrate sound moral principles, always acting with honor and truthfulness. We will be honest in presenting goals and intentions, in reporting methods and procedures, and in conveying interpretations1.

Trust:

Just as with integrity, trust is tough to earn yet easy to lose. Trust strengthens and enhances any consortia2. COSIMA fundamentally relies on the integrity and trustworthiness of its members.

An environment of trust3 and integrity allows members to

  • Know that they are safe to express new ideas, ideas others may disagree with and ideas that may make them vulnerable;
  • Seek reliable information before entertaining negative assumptions;
  • Do what they say and say what they will do;
  • Tolerate conflict enough to resolve it.

Collaboration:

COSIMA exists to reap the benefits of collaboration. Collaboration reduces redundancy and improves the quality of our work4. Collaboration allows for synergy to produce novel and unexpected science that pushes back the envelope of understanding. Internally and externally, we celebrate good collaboration.

“What we produce is a complex whole made of many parts, it is the sum of many dreams. Collaboration between teams that each have their own goal and vision is essential; for the whole to be more than the sum of its parts, each part must make an effort to understand the whole” (Ubunto Code of Conduct5).

Clarity:

We are committed to having coherent and explicit communication between team members. We understand that having clearly specified roles for team members is the key to achieving scientific goals6.

In pursuit of our scientific goals, COSIMA team members will

  • Ensure research methods and results are open to scrutiny and debate.
  • Aim to work transparently and involve interested parties as early as possible.
  • Encourage a research culture that is innovative, open and transparent.
  • Declare any potential, perceived, or actual conflicts of interest.

Fairness:

We are committed to objective, unbiased, inclusive and equitable actions. All members of the COSIMA community have a right to expect, and a duty to give fair treatment to others. Fair treatment includes offering collaborative research roles to

  • People who contributed to the conception or design of the work
  • People who undertake model development essential to the research
  • People who acquired, analyzed or interpreted data for the research

Appropriate acknowledgement of the role of others in research is always expected7.

References:

  1. Research Integrity : European Science Foundation
  2. Sarkar, M., Aulakh, P., and Taner Cavusgil, S. The strategic role of relational bonding in interorganizational collaborations. An empirical study of the global construction industry. Journal of International Management, 4(2) 85-107, 1998.
  3. http://www.sherbrookeconsulting.com/Trust.pdf
  4. Sonnenwald, D. Scientific Collaboration. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 41(1) 643-681, 2007.
  5. http://www.ubuntu.com/about/about-ubuntu/conduct
  6. Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams
  7. ICMJE | Recommendations | Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors
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A modified version

COSIMA Code of Ethics

Four ethical principles form the foundational pillars of COSIMA.

Integrity, Trust, Openness, Fairness

all of which feed into and nurture our collaborative and community-spirit purpose.

We expect these principles to be honoured by everyone who participates or benefits from COSIMA. The fundamentals of each principle are outlined below. Everyone is expected to follow this code in spirit as much as in letter.

Integrity

Integrity is the soul of science; it takes a life-time to earn and a moment to lose. We demonstrate sound moral principles, always acting with honour and truthfulness. We are honest in presenting goals and intentions, in reporting methods and procedures, and in conveying interpretations.

Trust

Just as with integrity, trust is tough to earn yet easy to lose. COSIMA is a community built on trust and trust should underlie all of our practices.
An environment of trust and integrity allows members to

  • Feel safe to express new ideas, ideas others may disagree with, and ideas that may make them vulnerable;
  • Tolerate conflict enough to resolve it.

Openness

Open methods, open data, open collaborations, open communication.

COSIMA is committed to developing and sharing model configurations, model output, and model analyses. We believe that modern climate science cannot be separated from software. Science informs model development and model results push science forward. We equally value science and software–model development contributions.

We are committed to a spirit of receptiveness to input from and promote an expansive collaborative spirit in our undertaken research projects. We are committed to having coherent and explicit communication between team members.

In pursuit of our scientific goals, COSIMA community members

  • Ensure research methods and results are open to scrutiny and debate.
  • Aim to work transparently and involve interested parties as early as possible.
  • Encourage a research culture that is innovative, open and transparent.
  • Declare any potential, perceived, or actual conflicts of interest.

Fairness

We are committed to objective, unbiased, inclusive and equitable actions. All members of the COSIMA community have a right to expect, and a duty to give fair treatment to others.

Collaboration – the backbone of it all

Collaboration underlies all of the above pillars. Collaboration nurtures a team spirit that enables new science. The group’s potential is not merely sum of the potential of its individuals; 1+1≠2 but it is much more!

Collaboration reduces redundancy and improves the quality of our work. Collaboration allows for synergy to produce novel and unexpected science that pushes back the envelope of understanding. We celebrate collaboration, internally and externally.

“What we produce is a complex whole made of many parts, it is the sum of many dreams. Collaboration between teams that each have their own goal and vision is essential; for the whole to be more than the sum of its parts, each part must make an effort to understand the whole.”

[Ubuntu Code of Conduct]

References

The document was partially inspired or influenced by the following:

  1. http://www.esf.org/coordinating-research/mo-fora/research-integrity.html
  2. Sarkar, M., Aulakh, P., and Taner Cavusgil, S. (1998). The strategic role of relational bonding in interorganizational collaborations. An empirical study of the global construction industry. Journal of International Management, 4(2), 85-107.
  3. http://www.sherbrookeconsulting.com/Trust.pdf
  4. Sonnenwald, D. (2007). Scientific Collaboration. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 41(1), 643-681.
  5. https://ubuntu.com/community/ethos/code-of-conduct
  6. https://hbr.org/2007/11/eight-ways-to-build-collaborative-teams
  7. http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html
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Some remarks:

  • Note that the 5 pillars become 4 with Collaboration overseeing everything. Also “clarity” → “openness”

  • Numbered references within text (as original version) or just a list of reference below? Some felt strongly of latter, others of former.

  • Notice the conversion from American to Australian spelling.

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I like the improvements in the updated version. I could add some comments and suggestions, but it’s awkward to do that on the forum, and unclear for others to see what’s changed - can we do this in a google doc or github gist instead?

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It is possible to make it a wiki post, so keep a single copy and update it, and all changes are tracked, see who made them and they can be reverted.

In case that was useful.