Discovery must be supported by honesty, rigor, and responsibility.

Scope

This policy is intended to apply to research, testing, analysis, fieldwork, demonstrations, pilot programs, archival work, data projects, publications, and other knowledge-producing activities associated with the Institute.

It applies to trustees, officers, employees, researchers, fellows, students, volunteers, contractors, collaborators, sponsors, and partners when acting on behalf of or with the Institute.

Research Planning and Review

Research should begin with a clear purpose, defined methods, appropriate expertise, realistic risk assessment, and a plan for data, records, publication, and oversight.

• Define the research question and intended use
• Document methods, assumptions, controls, and limitations
• Identify legal, ethical, safety, environmental, and security risks
• Determine whether independent or formal review is required
• Establish responsibility for data, equipment, supervision, and reporting

Human Participants and Community Impact

Research involving people may require informed consent, privacy safeguards, risk disclosure, additional protections for vulnerable populations, and formal ethics review.

Participation should be voluntary unless a lawful and approved alternative framework applies. People should not be pressured through authority, employment, financial dependency, or lack of information.

Data Stewardship and Research Records

Research records should be sufficient to understand, evaluate, reproduce where appropriate, and audit the work.

• Use documented collection and quality-control procedures
• Preserve original data and distinguish it from processed data
• Record material changes, exclusions, transformations, and corrections
• Protect confidential, personal, proprietary, and security-sensitive information
• Follow retention, backup, access, transfer, and disposal requirements
• Use access controls appropriate to the sensitivity and risk involved

Conflicts of Interest and Commitment

Researchers and decision-makers should disclose interests that could reasonably affect or appear to affect research judgment, procurement, funding, supervision, publication, or public communication.

Conflicts may be financial, personal, professional, organizational, political, intellectual, or related to outside commitments. Disclosure does not automatically prohibit participation, but it allows the Institute to evaluate safeguards or recusal.

Authorship, Attribution, and Intellectual Contribution

Authorship should reflect meaningful intellectual contribution and responsibility for the work. Administrative authority, funding, status, or supervision alone should not guarantee authorship.

• Agree on authorship expectations early
• Acknowledge technical, archival, community, and support contributions appropriately
• Identify the corresponding or responsible author where relevant
• Disclose use of automated, computational, or artificial-intelligence tools when material
• Avoid plagiarism, duplicate publication, and misleading attribution

Research Misconduct

Research misconduct may include fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, deliberate suppression of material evidence, serious misrepresentation, destruction of relevant records, retaliation, or interference with a good-faith review.

Honest error, scientific disagreement, or a failed hypothesis is not misconduct by itself. Concerns should be evaluated based on evidence, intent, standards of the field, and the seriousness of the conduct.

Publication, Peer Review, and Public Claims

Publications and public statements should distinguish established findings from preliminary results, projections, opinions, demonstrations, and conceptual work.

• Report material limitations and uncertainty
• Disclose funding and relevant conflicts
• Respect confidentiality, export, security, and publication restrictions
• Correct significant errors and retract unsupported work where necessary
• Avoid overstating institutional endorsement or research maturity

Reporting and Reviewing Concerns

Concerns should be reported in good faith with enough detail to preserve evidence and allow a fair review. The Institute should protect confidentiality as far as reasonably possible and prohibit retaliation.

Reviews may include preliminary assessment, conflict screening, evidence preservation, inquiry, formal investigation, corrective action, sponsor notification, publication correction, or referral to authorities when required.

Policy date: July 2026