To address ethical challenges, CETAPS appointed 3 Officers for
- Gender equality, Diversity & Inclusion (Goal 9 of our Strategic Project): Gender Equality Diversity & Inclusion Plan (Officer: Dr Iolanda Ramos)
- Data Management (to oversee data publication and compliance with FAIR principles; Goals 8 and 10): Guidelines for Data Management (Officer Dr Luciano Moreira)
- Ethics (to raise awareness about AI in humanities research and refer complex cases to existing Ethics Committees in the host institutions; Goal 8): Guidelines for Ethical Research (Officer: Professor Gualter Cunha)
1- Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Plan (Officer: Dr Iolanda Ramos)
Drawing on the policies on gender equality addressed both in NOVA University Lisbon[1] and University of Porto[2], the implementation of this Gender Equality Plan (GEP) will ensure that the research center fosters an inclusive and equitable environment for all scholars, promoting diversity and innovation in the Humanities. CETAPS aims to support the advancement of research and knowledge, thus integrating gender equality policies within the framework of ethical and social concerns.
- Gender policy and commitment
- CETAPS makes the commitment to promoting gender equality and raising awareness of the importance of intersectionality, diversity and inclusiveness in research and innovation (R&I).
- The Board, the researchers, the staff and all the members are fully committed to gender equality and support the GEP.
- The Gender Equality Officer is charged with overseeing the implementation of the plan, monitoring progress, addressing issues related to gender inequality, and reporting concerns related to bias or discrimination.
- Objectives and inclusive practices
- To aim for gender parity and to promote gendersensitive research.
- To develop clear, unbiased, and genderneutral recruitment and promotion criteria.
- To ensure gender balance in all committees and to minimize unconscious bias in decisionmaking.
- To ensure that decisionmaking bodies within the center (committees, boards, etc.) are genderbalanced and that voices from underrepresented genders are heard and respected.
- To ensure gender balance in conference and seminar speakers, striving for diversity.
- To encourage international research collaborations to uphold gender equality standards, working with international partners so as to share and promote best practices for gender equality.
- To promote the use of genderinclusive language in all internal and external communications, including emails, publications, and public presentations.
- To build shared understandings and insight, so as to enable policy dialogue and practice on emerging topics in R&I.
- To stimulate mutual learning, mentoring and self-reflection.
- To raise gender awareness of gender bias, harassment, discrimination, and encourage inclusive practices for all staff and researchers.
- To establish a clear, zerotolerance policy for genderbased harassment and discrimination, based on accessible, confidential mechanisms for reporting and addressing grievances.
- Career development and gendersensitive research
- To ensure a genderneutral professional development and to provide equal access to training, workshops, and conferences to all genders.
- To support the career development of earlycareer researchers, not only supporting women but nonbinary individuals in both leadership and cooperative roles.
- To ensure that training opportunities are designed to be inclusive and address any potential genderspecific barriers in career progression.
- To ensure that evaluation processes are free from gender bias.
- To support genderrelated research projects, avoiding gender bias in data collection, analysis, and interpretation.
- To encourage research that considers gender as a critical variable and emphasizes the importance of intersectionality in order to highlight the overlapping of gender with race, class, sexuality,ethnicity, disability and other factors, in research content and methodologies.
Implementation and Timeline (2024-2028)
- Year 1-2: To introduce the GEP, focusing on recruitment, mentoring, and research content, and to create monitoring schemes.
- Year 3-4: To set benchmarks, adjust strategies and achieve new goals based on outcomes and feedback, so as to assess the CETAPS’ gender equality status.
[1] Gender Equality Plan — NOVA University Lisbon, https://www.unl.pt/sites/default/files/gep_web_v5.pdf
[2] UP Equality. Gender Equality Plan of the University of Porto, https://www.up.pt/portal/en/explore/about-uporto/equality-inclusion-and-diversity/
2- Guidelines for Data Management (Officer Dr Luciano Moreira)
3 – Guidelines for Ethical Research (Officer: Professor Gualter Cunha)
CETAPS subscribes to the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (revised edition in 2023 <https://allea.org/code-of-conduct>),
We also subscribe to the principles outlined by the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers (2005 <https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter>.
By subscribing to these principles, CETAPS aligns itself with EU policies aimed at enhancing researchers’ careers, ensuring that ethical considerations are integrated into all aspects of research activity. At the same time, we abide by the two host institutions’ Ethics Commissions.
1 – Integrity and accountability
Ensure that research procedures are transparent, as the expression of honest and consciously unbiased work; make clear that the researcher is expected to assume full responsibility for the adopted methods and achieved conclusions of his/her/their work.
2 – Freedom of research
Guarantee that research is carried out at all stages without any kind of contextual interference, either personal or institutional; provide that conditions, instrumental or otherwise, facilitate the achievement of independent research.
3 – Objectivity
Insist on the necessity of elaborating and using clear and distinct ideas and critical assumptions purged of any cultural or ideological bias.
4 – Citation practice
Any kind of borrowed research material must be duly registered; a good citation practice presupposes that in no case, words, ideas, methods or conclusions elsewhere acquired are allowed to be presented without full reference to their sources.
5 – Plagiarism
Accredited research is incompatible with plagiarism. Not only direct reproduction of someone else’s work as one’s own, but also paraphrasing when too close to the original is considered plagiarism.
6 – AI-generated content
The use of AI-generated content in research raises novel ethical problems that must be tackled carefully and frontally. Though not plagiarism proper, as that content is just a prepared assemblage of bits of information collected elsewhere and not “someone else’s work”, its use without duly acknowledging the respective source must be considered incompatible with good research practice. As a new problem set to research, the implications and risks of using AI-generated content should be subject to a critical reflection to be carried out in CETAPS, especially with young researchers. With this end in view, the organization of workshops with JRAAS is envisaged.
Implementation
These guidelines are supposed to offer a framework for the carrying out of informal discussions centred on these or other questions that may arise within the subject.
At the beginning of every academic year, CETAPS will organize workshops revolving around the present guidelines, mainly addressed to young researchers, namely those starting work on their doctoral dissertations. Very special attention must be paid to the use of AI-generated content.