Code of Ethics

The “Digital, Governance and Sovereignty” chair has officially adopted the following code of ethics. This document notably includes the pledge to not accept any research projects that would be subject to any publication restrictions. All sponsored research must be allowed to be rendered public, following a potential initial delay of three months, without any further agreement from the sponsor.
Furthermore, the analytical methods utilized will be entirely transparent. These conditions are necessary for the guaranteed credibility of the research conducted under the auspices of this chair.

Conflicts of interest, and even suspected conflicts of interests, weigh heavily on institutions and assessors (whether academic or from the public and/or private sectors), and can damage the reputation of these institutions and more broadly discredit the work of researching and experimenting. Given this fact, and to prevent any appearance of such conflicts of interest, the “Technology, Policy & Institutional Innovation” chair is committed to installing the following guidelines.

Publishing Works and Results

  1. Research activities and results conducted under the auspices of the chair must be rendered public and widely diffused.
  2. No researcher may undertake a research project under the auspices of the chair without a prior agreement to freely publish the entirety of their results.
  3. Sponsors cannot block the publication of any works or results, nor may they seek any censure of particular results or conclusions, either in whole or in part.
  4. Nevertheless, in certain circumstances agreed upon by all parties (sponsors and evaluators), results may be distributed exclusively to the sponsor(s) during an initial period that shall last no longer than three months. The date of diffusion to the public shall always be within six months of the end of the research contract.

Preventing conflicts of interest and the risk of conflicts of interest

  1. A situation engendering a conflict of interest is defined as a situation in which one’s professional judgement is susceptible to being excessively influenced by a personal interest, whatever its nature.
  2. The “core value” of research is the guarantee that it be conducted rigorously and frankly. Conflicts of interest or the risk of conflicts of interest arrive as soon as a person sees their own interests entering into conflict with the research that they are overseeing.
  3. In order to prevent any appearance of conflicts of interests or the risk of conflicts of interest, each researcher must sign a declaration of their lack of conflicts of interest, or, if need be, of their avowed conflicts of interest.
  4. Particularly, any financial links and any verified institutional, professional or personal links to any parties interested in the research at hand (parties including sponsors, businesses, political parties, unions, lobbying groups, associations or inter-professional groups) must be disclosed, along with any other arrangement with these parties, in order to avoid any possible discrediting of the research and its authors, as well as the chair, that could come about if said links were to be revealed following the publication of the research in question.
  5. The conflicts of interest noted by the authors shall be made public by the participating institutions as part of the published research, in the form of a notice to the reader (published at the beginning of the evaluation report) and, when appropriate, of a listing of potential conflicts of interest (published as an annex to the work and its results).

Ensuring the integrity and sincerity of the methods employed

  1. Published works must adhere to the standards of rigor and honesty promulgated by academia. The methods employed and the proposed hypotheses must be entirely transparent.
  2. The authors of works financed by the chair pledge to act in ways that maintain the independent and nonpartisan reputation of the chair, notably by maintaining throughout the work and its diffusion a neutral tone and critical distance that fit the standards of scientific work. They also pledge to note, when necessary, the limits and scientific incertitudes that could be linked to hypotheses and/or gathered data.

Ensuring publicity and integrity of the works conducted under the auspices of the chair

  1. All written work produced under the auspices of the chair shall be diffused and promoted, in
    English and/or in French, directly and/or through any partnerships.
  2. When conducted at a partner’s request, the works undertaken as “research papers” shall be supervised by a scientific committee composed of four individuals selected for their academic qualifications. Only this committee, referenced in the contract linking Sciences Po to the sponsoring organization, is able to provide a judgement on the quality and academic validity of any work. The role and composition of the scientific committee shall be agreed upon by the various parties. It is recommended that the sponsor designate one member of the committee, that the chair designate another, and that these two initial members shall agree among themselves upon the two final members of the committee.