5. Work ethics

At its core, science is a discipline about finding out the truth of the world. We must therefore hold ourselves to the highest standard of honesty in our work. Moreover, as experimental scientists, we must preserve the trust the scientific community has in our data and presentation. Without this, our work is meaningless. Finally, although students and postdocs come and go, the research of the group is my life’s work. I will not allow this to lose its worth. Because of these reasons, we have the following rules for our group.

The Code Rule

• Every group member now and in the future should be able to reconstruct the analysis for a paper. Analysis code for figures in papers, posters, presentations, etc. must be in the appropriate manuscript folder. It must be self-contained (i.e., any additional scripts or functions must also be in that folder).
• During the onboarding, you will be introduced to a shared folder and a GitHub repo (associated with the lab’s organization) that you are expected to keep up to date.
• The code should be as clean as possible and always hosted in GitHub. Write it with others in mind. This will require extra time.
• Put frequently used analysis routines in functions. This allows you to debug and maximizes consistency.

The Double Check Rule

• We all make typos when writing papers. The same is true when we are calculating, and it is especially true when we are coding. The purpose of the double-check rule is to eliminate such typos and other more serious errors.
• No figures, analysis, simulations, calculations, etc. will be submitted or posted online unless at least two people have agreed that the work is correct. This can mean the following: One person did the work and another person read through every line of the code or calculation, Two people independently performed the work.
• The double-check rule applies without exception to papers. It also applies to presentations and posters, depending on the context.

The Plagiarism Rule

• Plagiarism is never acceptable.
• Plagiarism means copying someone else’s work (words, pictures, thoughts, etc.) without providing credit.
• When you cite a reference, that means you are quoting the ideas of the reference. It does not mean that you are directly quoting words from the reference.
• If you must copy text, use quotation marks.
• Plagiarism applies to figures.
• Do not plagiarize

1. Violations

Accidents will happen. In accordance with our core value of honesty, please let us know of any mistakes that have happened immediately, and we will attempt to fix them. Fixing such mistakes becomes progressively harder the farther along a paper is in the publication process, so it is much better to fix them early. For any violations of the rules listed above, in addition to other unethical or dishonest behavior, including fabricating or altering data, we will have a serious discussion. I may dismiss you from the group.

2. Data Sharing

• The basic premise of our data-sharing policy is that data and analysis code should be made available once a paper is published. There are different ways to do this.
• Even better, the raw data files and analysis code can be shared.
• Prior to publication, data can be shared in certain circumstances. Let us consider the following types of people: Non-collaborator, someone not involved in the data taking or analysis, Experiment collaborator, someone who is actively involved in the data taking and analysis, Analysis collaborator, someone whom we give data to for further analysis. They may ask for additional data sets, but they will not be actively involved in the data taking.
• If a non-collaborator asks for data, the data can only be made available to them after it has been part of a published paper.
• If an analysis collaborator asks for data, most of the time, the data should only be made available to them after it has been part of a published paper. In rare circumstances, the data can be shared before publication, once vetted, provided they agree to the rules below. The data and analysis code must be vetted in the same way as for a paper.
• The data is confidential and not to be shared without the PIs permission until published.
• Before publication, the PI reserves the right to deny permission to use the data in any publications.
• All students involved in data-collection and analysis should be co-authors.
• An experiment collaborator should effectively be treated as a member of the group. This means that the integrity rules above should be followed with respect to any shared data, and that all members involved in the data acquisition need to be consulted about any papers or other distribution of the data.