AQUACOSM Symposium Terms and Conditions and Code of Conduct

The AQUACOSM project is committed to providing a safe, open, and respectful environment for participants to its Symposium. The AQUACOSM project encourages all symposium participants to pursue integrity, honesty, respect, courtesy, responsibility, rigour, and equity in their professional activities.

All participants at the 2^nd International Aquatic Mesocosm Research Symposium are expected to follow the Code of Content and the Rules of Conduct that are outlined here. Should you observe violations against these rules please contact the Organising Committee chair at symposium@aquacosm.eu. Messages to this address are treated confidentially. They are read by the Organising Committee and only AQUACOSM persons of trust will be notified. Violations to the rules will be taken seriously and appropriate actions will be taken where necessary.

Respectful behaviour

• Professional and respectful conduct of all attendees is expected.
• Bullying, harassment, intimidation, and discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated – and may result in immediate exclusion from the meeting.
• These rules are valid for all kinds of content and interaction during the Symposium: display materials, presentations, discussions, text-based chats, online commenting on display materials, as well as social gatherings online.

Recording and screenshots

It is prohibited to take screenshots or record live online presentations in any sessions unless the presenter authorizes it. Presenters are encouraged to inform the audience if they welcome screenshots or sharing on social media.

Social media

The AQUACOSM project encourages open discussion on social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and blogging platforms during the Symposium. The following rules aim to provide means by which Symposium participants can embrace social media, while at the same time remaining respectful of presenting authors’ work and protecting their research output:

• Never post any images or video online related to the presentations without the authors’ explicit permission.
• The default assumption is to allow open discussion of Symposium presentations on social media. However, please respect any request from an author not to disseminate the contents of their presentation.
• If you will be presenting your work at a press conference after your scientific presentation, please ask those in the online session not to post about your research until after the press conference has taken place.

Personal and Scientific Data

All Personal Data collected from the Abstract Submission and Registration Platforms (managed by “ERA CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION TOURISM ENTERPRISES LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY LTD”), and shared with the AQUACOSM project, are treated and processed in accordance with the provisions of the European Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on the Protection of Personal Data (“GDPR”) and the applicable legislation implementing or supplementing the same or otherwise relating to the Processing of Personal Data of natural persons, together with the binding guidance and codes of practise issued from time to time by relevant supervisory authorities (“Data Protection Laws”).

The detailed Personal Data Protection Policy can be found at ERA’s website:

www.era.gr/personal-data-policy   

All Personal and Scientific Data shared with the AQUACOSM project will be stored and used for processing your access application, for statistical and administrative purposes according to the EC funding and reporting obligations as well as for statistical analysis of the AQUACOSM network projects services and User community. Data saved by the AQUACOSM project on behalf of the European Commission will be forwarded to the European Commission for official use only, and will remain confidential. The AQUACOSM project will not make personal details available to other organisations without the knowledge of the Users, unless obliged by law.

The information listed below, connected to abstract submission, will be made public on the AQUACOSM website and Social Media and will appear on the “Book of Abstracts” only if the abstract is accepted for presentation. 

• Title
• Keywords
• Name and affiliations of all authors (including email address of the presenting and/or corresponding author)
• Abstract text

Code of Conduct

General Principles

The AQUACOSM project is committed to providing an ethically correct, equitable, safe, open, and respectful environment for scientific and networking activities. The AQUACOSM project encourages all Symposium participants to pursue integrity, honesty, respect, courtesy, responsibility, rigour and equity in their professions.

In particular:

• The AQUACOSM project values diversity and equality as essential values to ensure an ethically correct and respectful approach to scientific research. Discrimination, harassment, bullying, coercion, intimidation, censorship and plagiarism are considered unethical behaviours.
• The AQUACOSM project requires that Symposium presenters carry out research and draw their conclusions based on critical analysis of the evidence. Findings and interpretations are expected to be reported fully, accurately and objectively, along with the related uncertainties.
• The AQUACOSM project encourages the use of reporting methods that ensure verification and reproducibility by others. Making data findable, openly accessible and interoperable, and allowing data exchange and re-use between researchers, are encouraged, as are making software and codes accessible.
• The AQUACOSM project emphasises that author/contributor credit should only be given to those who have meaningfully contributed to research. The names and roles of all people who made significant contributions should be properly acknowledged.
• The Symposium attendees are required to disclose any conflict of interest that could compromise the trustworthiness of their work.
• The AQUACOSM project encourages attendees to clearly distinguish professional, scientific-based comments from their personal opinions when publicly presenting their work and/or engaging in public discussions related to Symposium activities.

For Presenters and Authors

Presenters are expected to carefully report methodology, assumptions and uncertainty in order to present a precise and accurate account of the research performed and its results and conclusions. All authors on a presentation and/or abstract should have agreed to their co-authorship and must have contributed significantly to it, and vice versa—all persons who contributed to the work need to be named in the list of authors. Corresponding authors are required to inform all co-authors of the changes that are made to the submitted manuscript when preparing revised versions. All co-authors share responsibility for the quality and integrity of the submitted and published abstract.

For Reviewers

Reviewers are expected to conduct a clear and unbiased abstract review in a timely manner. Reviewers are required to avoid any conflict of interest and to adhere to the highest ethical standards set out by the relevant scientific community. Each abstract should be judged based on its merits without any personal bias. Reviewers are required to adhere to the review criteria set out by the Scientific Committee. Reviewers may never use or disclose unpublished information, arguments, or interpretations contained in a submitted abstract under consideration and should never include personal criticism of an author.

For Symposium Attendees

An open and respectful conduct, based on basic politeness, is expected of all meeting attendees. Presenters are asked to familiarise themselves with specific presenter guidelines for the meeting, as well as with the Symposium Online Platform.

Attendees at the AQUACOSM symposium should be aware that:

• It is prohibited to copy any presentation materials (unless it is permitted by the presenter)
• It is prohibited to take photos or record scientific material shown in any type of presentation unless the presenter authorises it
• AQUACOSM project follows the guidelines for consent related to pictures of a person in a public space established in the country where the activity is being held. The AQUACOSM project recommends obtaining the permission of any person recorded if they appear in an identifiable way.

Reporting violations during or after meetings

Violations should be reported to the Organising Committee via email: symposium@aquacosm.eu

Messages to this address are treated confidentially. They are read by the Organising Committee and only AQUACOSM persons of trust will be notified about them.