Procedures to raise and process complaints against the Code of Practice for Mathematical Publication or the EMS Policy on Conflicts of Interest

Revised on 19 March 2025

The following procedures will guide the consideration of individual complaints that are brought to the attention of the Ethics Committee of the EMS (henceforth referred to as the Committee).

Submission of complaints

  1. Individuals or organisations considering raising a complaint against the Code of Practice for Mathematical Publication or the EMS Policy on Conflicts of Interest may make preliminary informal enquiries to the Chair of the Committee.

  2. Before submitting a complaint, a potential complainant should familiarise themselves with the procedures outlined in this document. The Committee will not initiate an investigation until a formal complaint is received by the Chair.

  3. Complaints submitted to the Committee must have a clear European connection.

  4. The Committee will consider only complaints from parties directly involved in claims of unethical behaviour; it will not consider submissions from those who have no standing in a dispute. The Committee will not itself seek out instances of apparent unethical behaviour.

  5. The Committee will not normally consider a complaint unless the complainant has already taken reasonable steps to resolve the issues involved. In the case of publications, the Committee expects the complainant to have utilised the publisher’s own procedure for dealing with ethical issues.

  6. A person who submits a complaint to the Committee should inform the Committee if the same complaint has been submitted to or is concurrently being considered by another body. The Committee will not normally consider complaints which are currently under investigation elsewhere.

  7. The Committee will not consider any complaint in which formal legal proceedings have been instigated and may cease to consider a case if such proceedings are commenced.

    The Committee will not consider any complaint that is a matter of direct dispute between a mathematician and the institution that employs that person.

  8. The Committee normally only considers complaints they regard as current. Other issues will be considered at its discretion. The Committee will not reconsider a case after a conclusion has been reached unless substantial new information which could lead to a different outcome is made available.

  9. Formal complaints should be submitted to the Chair. The submitter should provide a clear summary, with sufficient information for the Committee to understand the nature of the complaint and the timeline involved. This should be accompanied by all relevant supporting documentation.

Processing of complaints

  1. The Committee will review the materials presented by the submitter of the complaint and make a decision as to whether it warrants being accepted as a case to be handled by the Committee; the complainant will be informed about this decision in a timely manner.

  2. The normal procedure of the Committee when it accepts a formal complaint as a case will be as follows.

    • The Committee will investigate the underlying facts of the case.
    • As part of this process the Chair will write to the party under investigation to inform them that the Committee is handling a case against them.
    • The Committee may ask independent experts to examine and report on the evidence.
    • After the Committee has considered all evidence available to it an opinion will be formulated. The opinion, and a justifying report, will be communicated to all parties involved and the EMS President.

  3. All members of the Committee, the Executive Committee Liaison, Officers of the EMS as well as the independent experts will keep all complaints and cases confidential.

  4. The Committee expects any party deemed to have acted unethically to make appropriate and timely amends. The Committee normally advises on how such amends should be made.

  5. At the conclusion of a case, if the party deemed to have acted unethically does not make timely and adequate amends, the President of the EMS may take further action.

  6. Summary documentation concerning the case will be passed to the Secretary of EMS after the case is closed.

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Links

Code of Practice for Mathematical Publication