ETHICAL CODE OF CONDUCT

Preamble

The European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) is devoted to the development of communication research and higher education in Europe and beyond with a strong bottom-up organisational culture, where various projects and ideas emerge and materialise through the creative energy and enthusiasm of its members. We are aware of, and sensitive to, the fact that our members come from a variety of research and education backgrounds, which are governed by various legal, institutional, and cultural rules and regulations. While this code cannot be exhaustive, it is based on the principle of mutual trust and responsibility, and aims at highlighting the key ethical values ​and principles that will hold all ECREA members accountable in those practices that are integral to scientific and professional conduct.

Core Values ​​and Principles

1. Human rights: ECREA upholds the right of its members to enjoy full freedom of expression and freedom from discrimination of any kind as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

ECREA stands for diversity, equality, and inclusiveness, and rejects discrimination, harassment and bullying of its members on all grounds. As an international, scholarly organisation, ECREA is particularly attentive to issues of power imbalance related to race, ethnicity, colour, religion, wealth, language, sexual orientation, gender and/or gender identity or expression, marital or parental status, class, national origin, institutional affiliation or location, age, career stage, health status, or disability.

2. Academic freedom and autonomy: ECREA supports the freedom of its members to make their own free choices on academic and scientific issues and their autonomy to pursue scientific knowledge without undue or unreasonable interference, imposition or pressure from any higher authority (either from within their institutional structure or from without).

ECREA upholds the freedom of its members to investigate any subject of scholarly interest, to present and disseminate results without control or censorship and to teach in the manner they consider professionally appropriate, and to participate in professional or representative bodies (and in accordance with the values expressed above in 1.).

3. Academic integrity: ECREA endorses the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (the ALLEA code), as published in 2017 by the European Science Foundation and all European Academies.

ECREA is committed to promoting the fundamental values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage in all academic and scholarly activities of its members, as well as in the publications and events that it organises and sponsors and in its practices as an organisation. ECREA values and supports:

● ​open, respectful, and equitable communication and dialogue from and between its members;

● ​inclusive and accessible practices of communication;

● ​open, accessible, inclusive scholarly networks that foster mutually supportive collaboration among scholars from diverse academic cultures and backgrounds;

● ​honest and impartial research practices, free from plagiarism, fabrication and fraud, falsification, piracy, and censorship;

● ​transparent and equitable assignment of credit amongst contributors to work and its outputs

4. Responsibility and accountability: ECREA members should have a duty of care towards:

● ​their research data, to ensure its safety, relevance, appropriate scope and storage through adherence to the terms of the EU General Data Protection Guidelines, the EU Digital Services Act and the EU Digital Markets Act;

● ​their research participants, to protect their rights, welfare, and dignity;

● ​the promotion of strategies against extractivism;

● ​their students, to enable a scholarly environment that is intellectually stimulating, equitable, accessible, encouraging, mutually supportive, and respectful;

● ​their colleagues, to provide accurate and dependable research that can be relied on to serve as a solid foundation for further research;

● ​the public, to be aware of the possible impact of their research and to disseminate and harness such knowledge for social good and/or the evolution of their fields, disciplines, and related professions.

Social Responsibility

ECREA is committed to promoting social good and preventing, or mitigating, social harm through research and education.

Violations of the ECREA Ethical code of conduct

In cases where ECREA members have substantial reason to believe that there may have been, by another member (or group of members, or institution with an institutional affiliation to ECREA), a breach of research integrity or misconduct as set out in the terms of the Ethical code of conduct, that relates to a research or pedagogical activity or output connected to ECREA (i.e. ECREA sponsored book, journal, or event), they may bring it to the attention of the ECREA Ethics Committee by providing a full description of the complaint, including an identification of the exact nature of the violation of the ECREA Ethical code of conduct, to the Chair of the Ethics Committee via the ECREA administration office (info@ecrea.eu).

The terms of the complaint and the identities of all those involved in the complaint will be kept strictly confidential within the Ethics Committee and, if the complaint becomes elevated, the ECREA Governing Body. However, if the complaint is upheld and the matter is judged to warrant the exclusion from membership of an individual or institution, then, according to Article 5 of the ECREA Statutes, the matter must be decided by the General Assembly, though the Governing Body can pronounce suspension until the next General Assembly. The identities of all those involved in the complaint will be anonymised for the General Assembly vote.

The procedure that will be followed once an allegation has been received by the Ethics Committee is set out in the separate document, Procedure for Addressing Violations of the ECREA Ethical code of conduct.

The ECREA Ethical code of conduct has been influenced and inspired by the following guidelines and codes from our sister organisations:

American Educational Research Association Code of Ethics
https://www.aera.net/About-AERA/AERA-Rules-Policies/Professional-Ethics

General Guidelines for Academic Integrity Report (amended version) by the European Network for Academic Integrity
https://www.academicintegrity.eu/wp/

The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity by the International Center for Academic Integrity https://academicintegrity.org/resources/fundamental-values

ICA Code of Ethics
https://www.icahdq.org/page/MissionStatement

Statement of the Ethical Guidelines of the European Sociological Association
https://www.europeansociology.org/about-esa/governance/ethical-guidelines

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Approved by ECREA General Assembly in June 2024.