Recommendation on the status of scientific researchers

adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO at its 18th session.

The General Conference – I. Scope of application – II. Scientific researchers in the context of national policy making – III. The initial education and training of scientific researchers IV. The vocation of the scientific researcher – V. Conditions for success on the part of scientific researchers – VI. Utilisation and exploitation of the present recommendation VII. Final provision

The General Conference

of the United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, meeting in Paris from 17 October to 23 November 1974, at its eighteenth session.

Recalling that, by the terms of the final paragraph of the Preamble to its Constitution, UNESCO seeks, by means of promoting (inter alia) the scientific relations of the peoples of the world, to advance the objectives of international peace and of the common welfare of mankind for which the United Nations was established and which its Charter proclaims.

Considering the terms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948, and in particular Article 27.1 thereof which provides that everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

Recognising that: (a) scientific discoveries and related technological developments and applications open up vast prospects for progress made possible in particular by the optimum utilisation of science and scientific methods for the benefit of mankind and for the preservation of peace and the reduction of international tensions but may, at the same time, entail certain dangers which constitute a threat, especially in cases where the results of scientific research are used against mankind’s vital interests in order to prepare wars involving destruction on a massive scale or for purposes of the exploitation of one nation by another, and in any event give rise to complex ethical and legal problems; (b) to face this challenge, Member States should develop or devise machinery for the formulation and execution of adequate science and technology policies, that is to say, policies designed to avoid the possible dangers and fully realise and exploit the positive prospects inherent in such discoveries, technological developments and applications,

Recognising also: (a) that a cadre of talented and trained personnel is the cornerstone of an indigenous research and experimental development capability and indispensable for the utilisation and exploitation of research carried out elsewhere; (b) that open communication of the results, hypotheses and opinions, as suggested by the phrase « academic freedom », lies at the very heart of the scientific process, and provides the strongest guarantee of accuracy and objectivity of scientific results; (c) the necessity of adequate support and essential equipment for performance of research and experimental development,

Observing that, in all parts of the world, this aspect of policy-making is coming to assume increasing importance for the Member States; having in mind the intergovernmental initiatives set out in the annex to this recommendation, demonstrating recognition by Member States of the growing value of science and technology for tackling various world problems on a broad international basis, thereby strengthening co-operation among nations as well as promoting the development of individual nations; and confident that these trends predispose Member States to the taking of concrete action for the introduction and pursuit of adequate science and technology policies,

Persuaded that such governmental action can considerably assist in the creation of those conditions which encourage and assist indigenous capability to perform research-arch and experimental development in an enhanced spirit of responsibility towards man and his environment,

Believing that one of the foremost of these conditions must be to ensure a fair status for those who actually perform and experimental-development in science and technology, taking due-account of the responsibilities inherent in and the rights necessary to the performance of that work,

Considering that scientific activity is carried out in exceptional working conditions and demands a highly responsible attitude on the part of the scientific researchers towards that work, towards their country and towards the international ideals and objectives of the United Nations, and that workers in this profession accordingly need an appropriate status,

Convinced that the current climate of governmental, scientific and public opinion makes the moment opportune for the General Conference to formulate principles for the assistance of member governments desirous of ensuring fair status for the workers concerned,

Recalling that much valuable work in this respect has already been accomplished both in respect of workers generally and in respect of scientific researchers in particular, notably by the international instruments and other texts recalled in this Preamble, and in the annex to this recommendation,

Conscious that the phenomenon frequently known as the « brain drain » of scientific researchers has in the past caused widespread anxiety, ant that to certain Member States it continues to be a matter of considerable preoccupation; having present in mind, in this respect, the paramount needs of the developing countries; and desiring accordingly to give scientific researchers stronger reasons for serving in countries and areas which stand most in need of their services;

Convinced that similar questions arise in all countries-with regard to the status of scientific researchers and that these questions call for the adoption of the common approaches and so far as practicable the application of the common standards and measures which it is the purpose of this recommendation to set out,

However, taking fully into account, in the adoption and application of this recommendation, the great diversity of the laws, regulations and customs which, in different countries, determine the pattern and organisation of research work and experimental development in science and technology,

Desiring for these reasons to complement the standards and recommendations set out in the laws and decrees of every country and sanctioned by its customs and those contained in the international instruments and other documents referred to in this Preamble and in the annex to this recommendation, by provisions relating to questions of central concern to scientific researchers,

Having before it, as item 26 of the agenda of the session, proposals concerning the status of scientific researchers,

Having decided, at its seventeenth session, that these proposals should take the form of a recommendation to Member States,

Adopts this recommendation this twentieth day of November 1974.

The General Conference recommends that Member States should apply the following provisions by taking whatever legislative or other steps may be required to apply within their respective territories the principles and norms set forth in this recommendation.

The General Conference recommends that Member States should bring this recommendation to the attention of the authorities, institutions and enterprises responsible for the conduct of research and experimental development and the application of its results, and of the various organisations representing or promoting the interests of scientific researchers in association, and other interested parties.

The General Conference recommends that Member States should report to it, on dates and in a manner to be determined by it, on the action they have taken to give effect to this recommendation.

I. SCOPE OF APPLICATION

1. For the purposes of this recommendation: (a) (i) The word « science » signifies the enterprise whereby mankind, acting individually or in small or large groups, makes an organised attempt, by means of the objective study of observed phenomena, to discover and master the chain of causalities; brings together in a co-ordinated form the resultant subsystems of knowledge by means of systematic reflection and conceptualisation, often largely expressed in the symbols of mathematics; and thereby furnishes itself with the opportunity of using, to its own advantage, understanding of the processes and phenomena occurring in nature and society; (ii) The expression « the sciences » signifies a complex of fact and hypothesis, in which the theoretical element is normally capable of being validated, and to that extent includes the sciences concerned with social facts and phenomena;

(b) The word « technology » signifies such knowledge as relates directly to the production or improvement of goods or services;

(c) (i) The expression « scientific research » signifies those processes of study, experiment, conceptualisation and theory-testing involved in the generation of scientific knowledge, as described in paragraphs 1(a)(i) and 1(a)(ii) above; (ii) The expression « experimental development » signifies the processes of adaptation, testing and refinement which lead to the point of practical applicability;

(d) (i) The expression « scientific researchers » signifies those persons responsible for investigating a specific domain in science or technology; (ii) On the basis of the provisions of this recommendation, each Member State may determine the criteria for inclusion in the category of persons recognised as scientific researchers (such as possession of diplomas, degrees, academic titles or functions), as well as the exceptions to be allowed for;

(e) The word « status » as used in relation to scientific researchers signifies the standing or regard accorded them, as evidenced, first, by the level of appreciation both of the duties and responsibilities inherent in their function and of their competence in performing them, and, secondly, by the rights, working conditions, material assistance and moral support which they enjoy for the accomplishment of their task.

2. This recommendation applies to all scientific researchers, irrespective of:

(a) the legal status of their employer, or the type of organisation or establishment in which they work;

(b) their scientific or technological fields of specialisation;

(c) the motivation underlying the scientific research and experimental development in which they engage;

(d) the kind of application to which that scientific research and experimental development relates most immediately.

3. In the case of scientific researchers performing scientific research and experimental development on a part-time basis, this recommendation applies to them only at such times and in such contexts as they are engaged upon the activity of scientific research and experimental development.

II. SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHERS IN THE CONTEXT OF NATIONAL POLICY MAKING

4. Each Member State should strive to use scientific and technological knowledge for the enhancement of the cultural and material well-being of its citizens, and to further the United Nations ideals and objectives. To attain this objective, each Member State should equip itself with the institutions and mechanisms necessary for developing and putting into practice national science and technology policies aimed at directing scientific research and experimental development efforts to the achievement of national goals while according a sufficient place to science per se. By the policies they adopt in respect of science and technology, by the way in which they use science and technology in policy-making generally, and by their treatment of scientific researchers in particular, Member States should demonstrate that science and technology are not activities to be carried on in isolation but part of the nation’s integrated effort to set up a society that will be more humane and really just.

5. At all appropriate stages of their national planning generally, and of their planning in science and technology specifically, Member States should:

(a) treat public funding of scientific research and experimental development as a form of public investment the returns on which are, for the most part, necessarily long term;

(b) take all appropriate measures to ensure that the justification for, and indeed the indispensability of such expenditure is held constantly before public opinion.

6. Member States should make every effort to translate into terms of international policies and practices, their awareness of the need to apply science and technology in a great variety of specific fields of wider than national concern: namely, such vast and complex problems as the preservation of international peace and the elimination of want and other problems which can only be effectively tackled on an international basis, such as pollution monitoring and control, weather forecasting and earthquake prediction.

7. Member States should cultivate opportunities for scientific researchers to participate in the outlining of national scientific research and experimental development policy. In particular, each Member State should ensure that these processes are supported by appropriate institutional mechanisms enjoying adequate advice and assistance from scientific researchers and their professional organisations.

8. Each Member State should institute procedures adapted to its needs for ensuring that, in the performance of publicly supported scientific research and experimental development, scientific researchers respect public accountability while at the same time enjoying the degree of autonomy appropriate to their task and to the advancement of science and technology. It should be fully taken into account the creative activities of scientific researchers should be promoted in the national science policy on the basis of utmost respect for the autonomy and freedom of research necessary to scientific progress.

9. With the above ends in view, and with respect for the principle of freedom of movement of scientific researchers, Member States should be concerned to create that general climate, and to provide those specific measures for the moral and material support and encouragement of scientific researchers, as will:

(a) ensure that young people of high calibre find sufficient attraction in the vocation, and sufficient confidence in scientific research and experimental development as a career offering reasonable prospects and a fair degree of security, to maintain a constantly adequate regeneration of the nation’s scientific and technological personnel;

(b) facilitate the emergence and stimulate the appropriate growth, among its own citizens, of a body of scientific researchers regarding themselves and regarded by their colleagues throughout the world as worthy members of the international scientific and technological community;

(c) encourage a situation in which the majority of scientific researchers or young people who aspire to become scientific researchers are provided with the necessary incentives to work in the service of their country and to return there if they seek some of their education, training or experience abroad.

III. THE INITIAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHERS

10. Member States should have regard for the fact that effective scientific research calls for scientific researchers of integrity and maturity, combining high moral and intellectual qualities.

11. Among the measures which Member States should take to assist the emergence of scientific researchers of this high calibre are: (a) ensuring that, without discrimination on the basis of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic condition or birth, all citizens enjoy equal opportunities for the initial education and training needed to qualify for scientific research work, as well as ensuring that all citizens who succeed in so qualifying enjoy equal access to available employment in scientific research;

(b) encouragement of the spirit of community service as an important element in such education and training for scientific workers.

12. So far as is compatible with the necessary and proper independence of educators, Member States should lend their support to all educational initiatives designed to foster that spirit, such as:

(a) the incorporation or development, in the curricula and courses concerning the natural sciences and technology, of elements of social and environmental sciences;

(b) the development and use of educational techniques for awakening and stimulating such personal qualities and habits of mind as: (i) disinterestedness and intellectual integrity; (ii) the ability to review a problem or situation in perspective and in proportion, with all its human implications; (iii) skill in isolating the civic and ethical implications, in issues involving the search for new knowledge and which may at first sight seem to be of a technical nature only; (iv) vigilance as to the probable and possible social and ecological consequences of scientific research and experimental development activities; (v) willingness to communicate with others not only in scientific and technological circles but also outside those circles, which implies willingness to work in a team and in a multi-occupational context.

IV. THE VOCATION OF THE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHER

13. Member States should bear in mind that the scientific researcher’s sense of vocation can be powerfully reinforced if he is encouraged to think of his work in terms of service both to his fellow countrymen and to his fellow human beings in general. Member States should seek, in their treatment of and attitude towards scientific researchers, to express encouragement for scientific research and experimental development performed in this broad spirit of community service.

The civic and ethical aspect of scientific research

14. Member States should seek to encourage conditions in which scientific researchers, with the support of the public authorities, have the responsibility and the right:

(a) to work in a spirit of intellectual freedom to pursue, expound and defend the scientific truth as they see it;

(b) to contribute to the definition of the aims and objectives of the programmes in which they are engaged and to the determination of the methods to be adopted which should be humanely, socially and ecologically responsible;

(c) to express themselves freely on the human, social or ecological value of certain projects and in the last resort withdraw from those projects if their conscience so dictates;

(d) to contribute positively and constructively to the fabric of science, culture and education in their own country, as well as to the achievement of national goals, the enhancement of their fellow citizens’ well-being, and the furtherance of the international ideals and objectives of the United Nations;

it being understood that Member States, when acting as employers of scientific researchers, should specify as explicitly and narrowly as possible the cases in which they deem it necessary to depart from the principles set out in paragraphs (a) to (d) above.

15. Member States should take all appropriate steps to urge all other employers of scientific researchers to follow the recommendations contained in paragraph 14.

The international aspect of scientific research

16. Member States should recognise that scientific researchers encounter, with increasing frequency, situations in which the scientific research and experimental development on which they are engaged has an international dimension; and should endeavour to assist scientific researchers to exploit such situations in the furtherance of international peace, co-operation and understanding, and the common welfare of mankind.

17. Member States should in particular provide all possible support to the initiatives of scientific researchers undertaken in search of improved understanding of factors involved in the survival and well-being of mankind as a whole.

18. Each Member State should enlist the knowledge, industry and idealism of those of its citizens who are scientific researchers, especially of the younger generation, in the task of furnishing as generous a contribution as its resources can permit to the world’s scientific and technological research effort. Member States should welcome all the advice and assistance scientific researchers can provide, in socio-economic development efforts that will contribute to the consolidation of an authentic culture and of national sovereignty.

19. In order that the full potentialities of scientific and technological knowledge be promptly geared to the benefit of all peoples, Member States should urge scientific researchers to keep in mind the principles set out in paragraphs 16, 17 and 18.

V. CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESS ON THE PART OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHERS

20. Member States should:

(a) bear in mind that the public interest, as well as that of scientific researchers, requires moral support and material assistance conducive to successful performance in scientific research and experimental development by scientific researchers;

(b) recognise that in this respect they have, as employers of scientific researchers, a leading responsibility and should attempt to set an example to other employers of such researchers;

(c) urge all other employers of scientific researchers to pay close attention to the provision of satisfactory working conditions for scientific researchers, notably in respect of all the provisions of the present section;

(d) ensure that scientific researchers enjoy conditions of work and pay commensurate with their status and performance without discrimination on the basis of sex, language, age, religion or national origin.

Adequate career development prospects and facilities

21. Member States should draw up, preferably within the framework of a comprehensive national manpower policy, policies in respect of employment which adequately cover the needs of scientific researchers, in particular by:

(a) providing scientific researchers in their direct employment with adequate career development prospects and facilities though not necessarily exclusively in the fields of scientific research and experimental development; and encouraging non-governmental employers to do likewise;

(b) making every effort to plan scientific research and experimental development in such a way that the scientific researchers concerned are not subjected, merely by the nature of their work, to avoidable hardship;

(c) considering the provision of the necessary funds for facilities for readaptation and redeployment in respect of the scientific researchers in their permanent employ, as an integral part of scientific research and experimental development planning, especially, but not exclusively, in the case of programmes or projects designed as limited duration activities and where these facilities are not possible, by providing appropriate compensatory arrangements;

(d) offering challenging opportunities for young scientific researchers to do significant scientific research and experimental development, in accordance with their abilities.

Permanent self re-education

22. Member States should seek to encourage that:

(a) like other categories of workers facing similar problems, scientific researchers enjoy opportunities for keeping themselves up to date in their own and in related subjects, by attendance at conferences, by free access to libraries and other sources of information, and by participation in educational or vocational courses; and where necessary, scientific researchers should have the opportunity to undergo further scientific training with a view to transferring to another branch of scientific activity; (b) appropriate facilities are provided for this purpose.

Mobility in general and the civil service in particular

23. Member States should take measures to encourage and facilitate, as part of a comprehensive national policy for highly qualified manpower, the interchange or mobility of scientific researchers as between scientific research and experimental development service in the government and in the higher education and productive enterprise contexts.

24. Member States should also bear in mind that the machinery of government at all levels can benefit from the special skills and insights provided by scientific researchers. All Member States could therefore profitably benefit from a careful comparative examination of the experience gained in those Member States which have introduced salary scales and other conditions of employment specially designed for scientific researchers, with a view to determining to what extent such schemes would help meet their own national needs. Matters which appear to require particular attention in this respect are:

(a) optimum utilisation of scientific researchers within the framework of a comprehensive national policy for highly qualified manpower;

(b) the desirability of providing procedures with all the necessary guarantees allowing for the periodic review of the material conditions of scientific researchers to ensure that they remain equitably comparable with those of other workers having equivalent experience and qualifications and in keeping with the country’s standard of living;

(c) the possibility of providing adequate career development prospects in public research bodies; as well as the need to give scientifically or technologically qualified researchers the option of transferring from scientific research and experimental development positions to administrative positions.

25. Member States should furthermore turn to advantage the fact that science and technology can be stimulated by close contact with other spheres of national activity, and vice versa. Member States should accordingly take care not to discourage scientific researchers whose predilections and talents, initially cultivated in the scientific research and experimental development context proper, lead them to progress into cognate activities. Member States should on the contrary be vigilant to encourage those scientific researchers, whose original scientific research and experimental development training and subsequently acquired experience reveal potentialities lying in such fields as management of scientific research and experimental development or the broader field of science and technology policies as a whole, to develop to the full their talents in these directions.

Participation in international scientific and technological gatherings

26. Member States should actively promote the interplay of ideas and information among scientific researchers throughout the world, which is vital to the healthy development of science and technology; and to this end should take all measures necessary to ensure that scientific researchers are enabled, throughout their careers, to participate in international scientific and technological gatherings and to travel abroad.

27. Member States should furthermore see to it that all governmental or quasi-governmental organisations in which or under whose authority scientific research and experimental development are performed, regularly devote a portion of their budget to financing the participation at such international scientific and technological gatherings, of scientific researchers in their employ.

Access by scientific researchers to positions of greater responsibility with corresponding rewards

28. Member States should encourage in practice that decisions as to access by scientific researchers in their employ to positions of greater responsibility and correspondingly higher rewards, are formulated essentially on the basis of fair and realistic appraisal of the capacities of the persons concerned, as evidenced by their current or recent performances, as well as on the basis of formal or academic evidence of knowledge acquired or skills demonstrated by them.

Protection of health; social security

29. (a) Member States should accept that, as employers of scientific researchers, the onus is on them, in accordance with national regulations, and the international instruments concerned with the protection of workers in general from hostile or dangerous environments, to guarantee so far as is reasonably possible the health and safety of the scientific researchers in their employ, as of all other persons likely to be affected by the scientific research and experimental development in question. They should accordingly ensure that the managements of scientific establishments enforce appropriate safety standards; train all those in their employ in the necessary safety procedures; monitor and safeguard the health of all persons at risk; take due note of warnings of new (or possible new) hazards brought to their attention, in particular by the scientific researchers themselves, and act accordingly; ensure that the working day and rest periods are of reasonable length, the latter to include annual leave on full pay;

(b) Member States should take all appropriate steps to urge like practices on all other employers of scientific researchers.

30. Member States should ensure that provision is made for scientific researchers to enjoy (in common with all other workers) adequate and equitable social security arrangements appropriate to their age, sex, family situation, state of health and to the nature of the work they perform.

Promotion, appraisal, expression and recognition of creativity

Promotion

31. Member States should be actively concerned to stimulate creative performance in the field of science and technology by all scientific researchers. Appraisal

32. Member States should, as regards scientific researchers in their employ:

(a) take due account, in all procedures for appraisal of the creativity of scientific researchers, of the difficulty inherent in measuring a personal capacity which seldom manifests itself in a constant and unfluctuating form;

(b) enable, and as appropriate encourage scientific researchers in whom it appears this capacity might be profitably stimulated: (i) either to turn to a new field of science or technology; (ii) or else to progress from scientific research and experimental development to other occupations in which the experience they have acquired and the other personal qualities of which they have given proof can be put to better use in a new context.

33. Member States should urge like practices upon other employers of scientific researchers.

34. As elements pertinent to appraisal of creativity, Member States should seek to ensure that scientific researchers may: (a) receive without hindrance the questions, criticisms and suggestions addressed to them by their colleagues throughout the world, as well as the intellectual stimulus afforded by such communications and the exchanges to which they give rise; (b) enjoy in tranquillity international acclaim warranted by their scientific merit. Expression by publication

35. Member States should encourage and facilitate publication of the results obtained by scientific researchers, with a view to assisting them to acquire the reputation which they merit as well as with a view to promoting the advancement of science and technology, education and culture generally.

36. To this end, Member States should ensure that the scientific and technological writings of scientific researchers enjoy appropriate legal protection, and in particular the protection afforded by copyright law.

37. Member States should, in consultation with scientific researchers’ organisations and as a matter of standard practice, encourage the employers of scientific researchers, and themselves as employers seek: (a) to regard it as the norm that scientific researchers be at liberty and encouraged to publish the results of their work; (b) to minimise the restrictions placed upon scientific researchers’ right to publish their findings, consistent with public interest and the right of their employers and fellow workers; (c) to express as clearly as possible in writing in the terms and conditions of their employment the circumstances in which such restrictions are likely to apply; (d) similarly, to make clear the procedures by which scientific researchers can ascertain whether the restrictions mentioned in this paragraph apply in a particular case and by which he can appeal. Recognition

38. Member States should demonstrate that they attach high importance to scientific researchers receiving appropriate moral support and material compensation for the creative effort which is shown in their work.

39. Accordingly, Member States should: (a) bear in mind that: (i) the degree to which scientific researchers receive credit for and acknowledgement of their proven creativity, may affect their level of perceived job satisfaction; (ii) job satisfaction is likely to affect performance in scientific research generally, and may affect specifically the creative clement in that performance; (b) adopt, and urge the adoption of, appropriate treatment of scientific researchers with respect to their proven creative effort.

40. Similarly, Member States should adopt, and urge the adoption of, the following standard practices:

(a) written provisions to be included in the terms and conditions of employment of scientific researchers, stating clearly what rights (if any) belong to them (and, where appropriate, other interested parties) in respect of any discovery, invention, or improvement in technical know-how which may arise in the course of the scientific research and experimental development which those researchers undertake;

(b) the attention of scientific researchers to be always drawn by the employer to such written provisions before the scientific researchers enter employment.

Reasonable flexibility in the interpretation and application of texts setting out the terms and conditions of employment of scientific researchers

41. Member States should seek to ensure that the performance of scientific research and experimental development be not reduced to pure routine. They should therefore see to it that all texts setting out terms of employment for, or governing the conditions of work of scientific researchers, be framed and interpreted with all the desirable flexibility to meet the requirements of science and technology. This flexibility should not however be invoked in order to impose on scientific researchers conditions that are inferior to those enjoyed by other workers of equivalent qualifications and responsibility.

The advancement of their various interests by scientific researchers in association

42. Member States should recognise it as wholly legitimate, and indeed desirable, that scientific researchers should associate to protect and promote their individual and collective interests, in bodies such as trade unions, professional associations and learned societies, in accordance with the rights of workers in general and inspired by the principles set out in the international instruments listed in the annex to this recommendation. In all cases where it is necessary to protect the rights of scientific researchers, these organisations should have the right to support the justified claims of such researchers.

VI. UTILISATION AND EXPLOITATION OF THE PRESENT RECOMMENDATION

43. Member States should strive to extend and complement their own action in respect of the status of scientific researchers, by co-operating with all national and international organisations whose activities fall within the scope and objectives of this recommendation, in particular National Commissions for UNESCO; international organisations; organisations representing science and technology educators; employers generally; learned societies; professional associations and trade unions of scientific researchers; associations of science writers; youth organisations.

44. Member States should support the work of the bodies mentioned above by the most appropriate means.

45. Member States should enlist the vigilant and active co-operation of all organisations representing scientific researchers, in ensuring that the latter may, in a spirit of community service, effectively assume the responsibilities, enjoy the rights and obtain the recognition of the status described in this recommendation.

VII FINAL PROVISION

46. Where scientific researchers enjoy a status which is, in certain respects, more favourable than that provided for in this recommendation, its terms should not be invoked to diminish the status already acquired.