The World Assembly:
Convinced that international scientific cooperation is an important pursuit, despite past difficulties in developing a comfortable model on the subject.
Recognizing that each member nation has its own interest in the scientific progress made by its people, and that other nations have no right to demand the fruits of that labor or dictate how it will be handled.
Deciding to avoid prior pitfalls by building a basic framework for scientific cooperation, without imposing demands that frustrate scientific progress, politicize scientific work, and cause quality and ethics problems.
Therefore, the General Assembly resolves as follows:
Article I:
Definitions
When used in this resolution:
- "Science" or "scientific" refers to the systematic exploration and study of the world (such as through experiment and observation), which is intended to produce or contribute to knowledge, and which is capable of being critically analyzed by others.
- References to "member nations" include member nations' governments, public and private organizations, and citizens.
- "Peer review" means having at least one expert in a particular field review a piece of scientific work and provide written feedback commenting on the validity of the work's methods, findings, and conclusions.
Article II:
Cooperation Agency
(1) The International Scientific Cooperation Agency (ISCA) is established. ISCA's primary budget shall be allocated from World Assembly general funds. ISCA may also receive charitable donations, but may not accept any funds that are contingent on pursuing a particular policy or viewpoint. ISCA is tasked with the following primary duties:
- To establish an international forum or medium for the free exchange of scientific ideas.
- To receive submissions of scientific experiments, studies, articles, comments, notes, and other papers, and to establish a publicly-accessible database for them.
(2) Member nations are strongly encouraged to make all of their scientific literature available to the international community through the ISCA.
(3) Member nations are strongly encouraged to collaborate with other nations on scientific endeavors whenever international collaboration would make the endeavor more effective or efficient. For instance, when studying biodiversity, climate, oceanography, outer space, and other topics of international scope and importance.
Article III:
Grants and Symposiums
- ISCA shall periodically host symposiums on science topics of international importance. All member nations shall have reasonable and convenient access to ISCA symposiums.
- ISCA shall provide monetary support (grants) to member nations for their science projects. ISCA shall award grants in reasonable amounts based on the overall cost of the project, the potential benefit to the international community, and the competing obligation to fund other worthy projects. ISCA grants are conditional on an agreement that the project will adhere to all applicable ethics and quality standards, and that the finished work will be submitted to ISCA for international publication.
Article IV:
Rights of Member Nations
Member nations shall have the following rights with respect to the ISCA:
- The right to determine whether their scientific work may be received by ISCA, according to national laws on subjects such as copyright, privacy, ethics, and security.
- The right to equal and convenient access to the content of ISCA's database, subject to the condition that they have contributed science of their own to the database or are making good faith efforts to do so.
Article V:
Responsible Research
Recognizing that standards for responsible science continue to develop, the following apply to ISCA submissions and publications:
- Member nations must ensure their ISCA submissions comply with their national ethical standards and set international ethical standards;
- Member nations must ensure their ISCA submissions have been peer reviewed and provide the peer review commentary along with the submission.
- ISCA will evaluate each submission for compliance with quality and ethics requirements. If a submission does not meet relevant standards, ISCA will explain the deficiency and decline publication pending resubmission.
- To promote transparency in science, ISCA will annotate each of its publications to indicate (1) if it was modified for international publication for any reason, and (2) if it received substantial negative treatment from peer review.
Article VI:
Oversight
Recognizing the potential for a science agency to be unduly politicized without sufficient oversight, the ISCA Oversight Board is established with the following duties:
- To hear any complaints from member nations alleging that they were improperly denied ISCA database access, publication, or grant money, or were otherwise aggrieved by an act or omission within ISCA's jurisdiction.
- After hearing a complaint, to either affirm ISCA's action or redirect ISCA's action, with a public explanation for the result.
