This code of conduct is inspired by the ICLR Code of Ethics, and through it by the codes by which it was inspired, among them (1) the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, and (2) the AAAI Ethics and Plurality, which is itself an adaptation of the ACM Code of Ethics. Drafted in February 2026.

The goal of this code is to provide general guidelines for those organizing the ECML PKDD Conference and participating in it: this includes individual researchers in different roles, as attendees, authors, reviewers (at all reviewing levels, including area chairs), organizers of the different tracks and adjoint events, as well as institutions who contribute or support the organization of the event, e.g. as sponsors.

1. Actively contribute to high standards of scientific excellence

This encompasses authoring, evaluation, presentation of and feedback to scientific work. Research is done by researchers, who are humans, and is supported by institutions which may be universities, companies, public administration authorities and further for-profit or non-for-profit organizations.

• Authors should strive for excellence when conducting research and aim to produce and disseminate work of the highest quality. This implies a commitment to open inquiry, intellectual rigor, integrity, and collaboration and transparency.
• Authors should report their findings accurately and honestly. They should not make false or misleading claims, neither deliberately nor as the result of interaction with generative AI. They should not fabricate or falsify data, nor misrepresent results. Methods and results should be presented in a way that is transparent and reproducible.
• Approval from ethical review boards must be acquired whenever experiments are conducted that involve humans or animals.
• Authors must acknowledge all contributions to their research. Agreements relating to intellectual property, publication and authorship must be complied with.
• Researchers must be honest, trustworthy and transparent. This is particularly important in their roles as authors and as reviewers: they must report any open circumstances that might lead to either real or perceived conflicts of interest or otherwise tend to undermine the independence of their judgement, including but not limited to sources of the funding, and report any possible conflicts. They should not misrepresent work that might be competing or related, and should not misrepresent an organization's policies or procedures.
• Authors and reviewers must respect the work required to produce new ideas and artifacts, disclose nothing that is private and must credit the creators of ideas, inventions, work, and artefacts, and respect copyright, patents, trade secrets, license agreements, and other methods protecting authors' works. Authors must ensure that citations are to existing works attributed to their real authors.
• All researchers, especially those in a reviewing role must honor confidential information disclosed to them, especially during the evaluation of submitted papers. Cases that indicate law violations or violations of this code must be reported to the conference organizers.

2. Adhere to general ethical principles during authoring, reviewing and evaluating submissions, and while participating at the conference

In addition to actively contributing to high standards of scientific excellence, those involved at the conference in any roles are expected to be aware of their societal role and to respect human well-being. They

• should minimize negative consequences, including threats to health, safety, personal security, and privacy
• should consider whether the results of their efforts will respect diversity, will be used in socially responsible ways, will meet social needs and will be broadly accessible
• be aware that they may face conflicting interests of multiple groups, and then they should give increased attention and priority to the needs of those less advantaged
• avoid harm
• be honest, trustworthy and transparent
• be fair and take action not to discriminate
• respect the work required to produce new ideas and artefacts, not least those being presented during the conference
• respect privacy and honor confidentiality

How to deal with concerns about violations of this Code

Concerns can be raised regarding any conduct and contributions that contravene this Code. Where ethical concerns are raised during the review of research contributions, or in the conduct of scientific communication and exchange, they must be brought to the attention of the Steering Committee. The conference reserves the right to reject and refuse the presentation of any scientific work found to violate the ethical guidelines put forth here, at any point, in agreement with the ECMLPKDD Steering Committee.