CODE OF CONDUCT

The purpose of this policy is to address the conduct expected of PAS Meeting participants and to outline steps that may be taken when conduct does not align with expectations. For purposes of this policy, “participant” is defined as any individual registered attendee, speaker, organizer, staff, sponsor, guest, or exhibitor associated with any official PAS events. The PAS Code of Conduct applies to all PAS Meeting activities. A PAS Meeting activity includes but is not limited to activities throughout the year preparing for the PAS Meeting or activities published in the PAS Program guide or activities taking place in PAS-contracted venues, including social events, or taking place online or via social media (i.e., postings to PAS Meeting facebook, twitter and similar pages, including meeting hashtags).

Expected Conduct

The PAS is committed to fostering a welcoming environment that is safe, collaborative, and productive for dialogue and discovery for all participants. All who register to participate, attend, speak, sponsor or exhibit at a PAS event agree to comply with this policy.

PAS expects all participants associated with any official PAS events will adhere to the
following principles:

  • Respect common sense rules for public behavior, personal interaction, courtesy, and respect for private property.
  • Be considerate and respectful of differing perspectives during the meeting.
  • Respect the rules and policies of participating societies, the meeting venues, and hotels.
  • Comply with all local, state and federal laws.

PAS prohibits any form of harassment, sexual or otherwise. Accordingly, some behaviors,
including but not limited to the following, are specifically prohibited:

  • Intimidation, stalking, harassment, inappropriate physical contact, unwelcome sexual attention, or discrimination
  • Abusive, harassing, or threatening behavior
  • Yelling at, threatening, or personal insults by verbal or physical means

Participants asked by anyone to stop engaging in hostile or harassing behaviors are expected to comply immediately. This behavior will not be tolerated and may result in immediate expulsion from a session, event, or the PAS Meeting, including future PAS Meetings.

Reporting A Violation

Violations of this Code of Conduct Policy should be reported immediately.
All participants are expected to alert venue security personnel or PAS staff of any dangerous situations, violations of this Conduct Policy, or of anyone in distress as detailed below.

Participants who feel physically unsafe or believe a crime has been committed, should contact local police immediately.

To report a Code of Conduct violation, participants may:

  • Visit Room 306 of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, May 1-4, 2020, 7:00am-6:30pm and May 5, 2020, 7:00am-12:30pm
  • Visit the designated link on the PAS Meeting website, which will collect and promptly
    relay information in a confidential and sensitive manner, and/or
  • Call PAS at 346.980.9717.

Complaints may be raised during or after the PAS Meeting. Allegations regarding misconduct by participants are taken very seriously. PAS encourages prompt reporting of violations so immediate action can be taken to address the concern. Reports may not be submitted anonymously as that would preclude adequate follow up action.

Procedures Regarding Reported Violations:

During the PAS Meeting

  • Once an allegation is received, the incident will be reviewed promptly by the PAS Executive Director, PAS Meeting Director, and members of a PAS Advisory Group, a subset of the Board of Directors.
  • Based on this initial information, the complainant will be interviewed either in person or by telephone promptly by the PAS Executive Director and the PAS Meeting Director together. The complainant will be asked to provide his/her preferred resolution.
  • Note: if any of the above individuals are named in an allegation, they may be excluded from any review actions.
  • Based on the sole assessment of the PAS Executive Director, PAS Meeting Director and PAS Advisory Group, in consultation with legal counsel, as needed, PAS may enact a range of next steps, up to and including immediate expulsion from a session, event, or the PAS Meeting, without prior warning or refund. PAS reserves the right to remove any participant whose social attentions become unwelcome to another and who persists in such attentions after their unwelcome nature has been communicated. PAS also reserves the right to remove any participant who appears inebriated or who engages in conduct that interferes with the ability of other participants to participate in and enjoy the meeting.

After the PAS Meeting

  • If PAS, in its sole determination, concludes the allegation requires further review or scrutiny, the PAS Executive Director, Meeting Director and Advisory Group member will raise the complaint with the alleged offender, who will be given a chance to respond.
  • Other individuals may be contacted to provide information. Participants are expected to cooperate with PAS information gathering related to a reported violation of this Code of Conduct Policy by providing information requested by PAS that is relevant.
  • Action will be taken by the PAS Board based on its assessment of the level of misconduct.
  • PAS may, in its reasonable judgement, refer the allegation to venue security or to the alleged offender’s home institution (Office of Research Integrity or similar), employer, licensing board, or law enforcement for investigation and decision.
  • If PAS, in its reasonable judgment, determines an individual has violated this Code of Conduct Policy, PAS may bar the individual from participation in future PAS events.
  • PAS will report on the outcome of any investigation to individuals who have reported a violation of this Code of Conduct Policy.

ACADEMIC ETHICS POLICY

This policy provides guidelines regarding PAS’s expectations as to submissions for presentations at the PAS Meeting. PAS strives to ensure presentations at the PAS Meeting are presented with the utmost ethical conduct and are free from any conflicts of interests. PAS is committed to fostering an environment where all PAS Meeting participants maintain the highest ethical and academic standards and where all conflicts of interest are fully and openly disclosed. PAS will proactively monitor, compare and analyze submissions to ensure compliance with PAS abstract submission guidelines and this policy. Failure to follow this policy may result in the immediate rejection of such submission.

Submission Guidelines

  • Submissions made for presentation at the PAS Meeting should adhere to  PAS Meeting Submission Guidelines as posted to the PAS Meeting.
  • There is no limit on the number of abstracts submitted by each author, but the submission of multiple, redundant or highly similar abstracts with only minimal changes in the abstract title or minor changes in data analysis from the same investigator(s) or laboratory is strongly discouraged. Such submissions may result in rejection of all abstracts that are deemed to be in violation of PAS guidelines; rejection may occur prior to, during or after review, even if submitted to different topical categories.
  • Previously submitted and rejected abstracts should not be resubmitted with only minimal or no changes. Such submissions may result in rejection prior to, during or after review. Please note: Previously submitted Scholarly Sessions or Workshops that have been accepted or rejected, may be resubmitted.
  • Abstracts submitted and/or presented at other Societies’ or national meetings within the 12 months prior to the PAS Meeting may be submitted to the PAS Meeting for consideration.
  • Research published in manuscript form prior to the submission of the abstract is not appropriate and should not be submitted. If data contained in the abstract is published after submission of the abstract, the PAS Office must be notified regardless of timing as soon as publication is recognized. At that time, the Program Committee Chair will make a determination concerning presentation at the PAS Meeting. Abstracts should not be submitted if there is knowledge and confirmation that this work will be published in an upcoming article prior to the meeting.
  • Upon submission the submitting author verifies that all authors have agreed to the submission.
  • Reviewer scores and comments are confidential and are not available to individuals (including authors) outside of the review process.
  • The decision of the Program Committee to accept or decline any submission is final.
  • The assignment of presentation format for accepted submissions (for example, platform, plenary or poster session, poster symposium) is at the sole decision of the PAS Program Committee.

Publication of Submissions

  • All submissions, if accepted for presentation, will be published in the PAS Program Guide.

Ethical Conduct & Conflict of Interest

  • Submissions should be free of plagiarism, misrepresentation and should align with the standards for research or academic work expressed by the home institution of submitting author(s) or presenter(s).
  • All authors of submissions must complete and submit Conflict of Interest Disclosures (COI) in accordance with PAS timelines and procedures. The submitting author should alert her/his colleagues about this requirement.
  • Work submitted for presentation must include an acknowledgment of funding sources of commercial nature and/or consulting or holding of significant equity in a company that could be affected by the results of the study. Even if indicated elsewhere in the submission, this must appear as the last sentence and read “funded by…” and/or “equity in…” if Required text is excluded from submission character count limits.
  • The text required by a granting agency acknowledging funding or support is excluded from submission character count.

Reporting Ethical Conduct Or Conflict Of Interests Concerns or Violations

Any individual who believes the research, content, information or data contained in a presentation within the PAS Meeting program:

  • violates the intellectual property rights of another and/or
  • was or may be presented without a full disclosure of all conflicts of interest by the submitting or presenting party(ies) should file a complaint with the PAS Program Chair by contacting the PAS Office at info@pas- meeting.org or 346.980.9717.

Complaints will be reviewed by the PAS Program Chair in consultation with an ad hoc committee comprised of the PAS Program Committee Vice-chair, if any, and up to two relevant subject matter experts drawn from the PAS Program Committee.

Consequences of Violations

Following consultation with the ad hoc advisory committee, the PAS Program Chair will communicate the outcome and decision to the individual(s) who completed the submission. If a violation of this policy is found, actions taken against such individual(s) may include:

  • Rejection of the submission
  • First offense, minor: Warning with reminder of submission guidelines and policy requirements
  • First offense, major: Prohibited from submission, presentation or attendance for the three PAS Meetings following violation
  • Second offense: Prohibited from submission, presentation or attendance for the three PAS Meetings following violation

All decisions of the ad hoc advisory committee shall be final.

Notwithstanding the above, if PAS, in its reasonable judgement, determines an individual has violated this policy in an egregious or flagrant manner, PAS may, without regard to the above tiers, bar the individual from participation of any kind in any future PAS Meetings. PAS reserves the right to immediately remove:

  • any Meeting participant whose actions violate this policy
  • any content or materials related to violations of this policy

and to cancel any related presentations if PAS, in its reasonable judgement, deems such presentations a risk to its ability to conduct a meeting free of ethical violations or conflicts of interest.

NOTE: For information regarding the conducted expected of attendees of the PAS Meeting, please refer to the PAS Meeting Participant Code of Conduct Policy.