IISER Kolkata

The Guidelines for Conduct and Governance

As employees of this MHRD-funded Institution, the faculty members will be governed by the
conduct rules specified under Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964, as laid down by the
Central Government for its employees from time to time. In addition, the Conduct Rules as framed
under the Statutes of the IISER Kolkata will also be applicable.
However, apart from the rules and regulations that apply to all government employees, certain
practices are desirable from the members of the faculty of an institution that aspires to excel in
science education and research. The reputation of an institute is built by its human capitalthe
faculty, the staff, and the students. Unless each member of the IISER community exhibits high
moral and ethical standard and accountability, the Institute cannot achieve the excellence that it
aspires. This document is meant to enumerate these issues.

The Guidelines for ConductFaculty

1. A faculty member should maintain absolute integrity and devotion to duty, and should be
honest and impartial in his/her official dealings.
2. A faculty member is expected to maintain a healthy and professional work atmosphere with
mutually respectful behaviour between the authorities, faculty members, staff, and students.
No one should make insulting comments to or about fellow members of the institute,
irrespective of authority or hierarchy, directly or through electronic media.
3. There will be zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment.
4. A faculty member should try to achieve a very high standard in imparting knowledge to the
students. All faculty members are thus expected to put sufficient time and effort for
achieving this goal.
5. Every faculty member should be engaged in creation of new knowledge, and should strive to
attain a standard in research that reflects excellence at the highest international level.
6. Faculty members are expected to be ethical and objective in scientific research and
publications. They should sensitize the students working with them against research
misconduct and must consciously avoid those themselves. For details, see Appendix-I.
7. A faculty member should shoulder the departmental and the institutional responsibilities that
help in the building and smooth running of the Institute, when called on to do so.
8. A faculty member's responsibility goes well beyond teaching and research, and he/she is
expected to participate in all Institute events, and to carry out duties as may be assigned to
him/her by the Institute. He/she may have to perform such duties even during holidays and
weekends. It is also expected that the administration will make the best effort to inform
him/her sufficiently ahead of time on such occasional requirements.
9. A faculty member should be present in the Institute during the office hours on all working
dayseven if he/she has no classunless he/she has taken leave of absence. Medical
emergencies or a mishap or accident will be treated as special situations for which the leave
may be sought post-facto.

10. Examinations are important and integral part of the educative process in an Institute, and all
faculty members must cooperate in the process.
11. A faculty member is normally expected to follow appropriate channels (HoD --> Dean -->
Director) in mitigating difficulties and in addressing grievances, except in special situations
that warrant direct appeal to the relevant higher authority.
12. A faculty member should not engage directly or indirectly in any business or remunerative
private tuition or undertake any employment outside his official assignments, unless
explicitly permitted by the Director. In case one is approached for being a visiting/adjunct
faculty of another Institution, or to take up an academic role in another institution, one
should seek the permission of the Director, and may take up such position if permission is
given.
13. Faculty members are expected to exercise discretion regarding mass emails (mails sent to
more than one person through a common alias).

Guidelines for conductStaff members

1. A staff member should maintain absolute integrity and devotion to duty, and should be
honest and impartial in his/her official dealings.
2. A staff member is expected to maintain a healthy and professional atmosphere at his/her
place of work.
3. A staff member should discharge whatever duty is assigned to him/her, to the best of his/her
ability. In specific situations he/she may also be required to perform such duties during
holidays and weekends.
4. A staff member is expected to maintain cordial and respectful behaviour towards the
authorities, faculty members, fellow staff members, and students.
5. A staff member is expected to keep himself/herself abreast of all rules and regulations of the
Institute.
6. A staff member, at all times, should act according to the policies, rules and regulations
defined by the Acts and Statutes of the Institute, and the ones that are framed by the BoG
from time to time.
7. A staff member should refrain from abusive behaviour and harassment. No one should
make insulting comments to or about fellow members of the institute, irrespective of
authority or hierarchy.
8. There will be zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment.
9. A staff member is expected to participate in all Institute events.
10. A staff member shall be required to observe the scheduled hours of work, during which
he/she must be present at the place of duty.
11. A staff member should avail leave with prior permission only, except for any unforeseen
contingencies or any valid reason(s). If he/she has to be out of station during the period of
leave, he/she should take permission to leave station.

Guidelines for conductstudents

1. A student should constantly endeavour the enrich himself/herself by absorbing knowledge

through interaction with the faculty members and through self-study.
2. The Institute expects the students develop harmoniously in all aspects of personality. For
this, a student should take part in extracurricular activities and should participate in the
activities of at least one club.
3. A student should participate in all Institute events and should take part, enthusiastically and
voluntarily, in the Institute's science festival Inquivesta.
4. A research student is expected to know the safety and security aspects of the laboratory
he/she works in, and to observe these with utmost care.
5. A research student is expected to be ethical and objective in his/her research and
publications. He/she should consciously avoid actions that are identified as research
misconduct. For details, see Appendix-I.
6. Objects of common use should be maintained with care. They should be kept clean and tidy,
after one's useage of the objects.
7. Common areas should be maintained clean and tidy. Littering or defacing should be avoided.
8. Respect for fellow students (Including peers, seniors and juniors) should be maintained.
Interactions with all fellow students must be civil and polite.
9. Interactions with room-mate(s) must be mutually respectful. A student should not indulge in
activities that disturb his/her room-mate(s) or, which cause them discomfort of any type,
physical or mental.
10. Interactions with faculty and staff should be polite, civil and respectful, at all times.
11. There will be zero tolerance policy towards ragging and sexual harassment.
12. Students should exercise discretion regarding mass emails (mails sent to more than one
person through a common alias).

Guidelines for Good Governance

The role of the administration of an academic institute is that of a facilitator. The administration
should take care so that the academic work like learning and research can be carried out smoothly
where teachers/researchers/students need not have to bother much about procedures and
paraphernalia.
1. Democratic, fair and transparent process of functioning should be followed in all aspects of

the Institute.
2. All administrative jobs should be handled efficiently and amicably by the various sections of
the Institute.
3. It should not take more than a week to take a decision on any appeal by a member of faculty,
staff, or student. In case there is a possibility of delay due to unavoidable reason, that must
be conveyed to the applicant within one week.
4. The people in the administration, faculty, staff, and students should maintain a cordial and
mutually respectful relationship with one another so that any member of the IISER
community can approach anyone holding an appropriate office to mitigate difficulties.

Appendix-I
What constitutes research misconduct
Research misconduct means and includes fabrication, distortion, or plagiarism in proposing,
performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results, breach of confidentiality, and
interference with other researchers works. The individual terms have the following meanings.
1. Fabrication means wilful making up fake data or results, and recording or reporting them.
2. Distortion means purposefully manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or
changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in
the research record.
3. Plagiarism means the appropriation of another persons ideas, processes, results (including
formulas and computer codes) or expressions without giving appropriate credit. Publishing
or communicating the same content to multiple journals/conferences amounts to selfplagiarism.
4. Breach of confidentiality means making public data of confidential nature (such a personal
data or those under contractual obligation from the sponsors).
5. Interference means unnecessarily creating hurdles for another researchers work by wilfully
damaging or concealing materials, processes, hardware, data, text, or similar research
objects.
Research misconduct does not include honest error or honest differences in interpretations or
judgements of data. Inadvertent errors, experimental mistakes, or programming bugs are not
considered to be research misconduct.
A finding of research misconduct means that:
1. there is a significant departure from accepted practices followed by the relevant research
community;
2. the misconduct is committed intentionally, or knowingly, or recklessly; and
3. the allegation is proven by a significant volume of evidence.

The following situations are also treated as research misconduct:

1. Any researcher publishes another co-researchers work without including him (or her) as

coauthor or even acknowledging him (or her).

2. A student communicates a paper containing the work carried out as part of the
thesis/project/dissertation without the supervisors consent.

Further points to note:

1. The data generated by any earlier work may be used in any subsequent work with due
reference and acknowledgement. But such data cannot be reported in a dissertation/thesis in
a manner implying to have been generated by the students own research.
2. All the members of any research group shall have access to the experimental/
observational/computational results and should be able to check if a co-authored manuscript
does adequately and accurately reflect the same. After a paper is published, if any dispute
arises regarding the validity of the results, the responsibility shall be of all the authors of the
paper.
3. If a student carries out a part of the research work independently, without significant
intellectual contribution from his (or her) supervisor, he (or she) may communicate the work
as a single-authored paper. But in such a case, prior written consent of the thesis
supervisor(s) is necessary. If such a work needs to be considered for inclusion in the
students dissertation/thesis, it can only be done with the approval of the concerned
supervisor(s).