Code of conduct for scientific integrity

The scientific landscape has changed considerably since the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences published Integrity in scientific research: Principles and procedures in 2008. Consequently, an expert group was set up with members from the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, the Swiss National Science Foundation, swissuniversities, and Innosuisse to review the changes that have taken place in recent years and to draw up this Code of conduct for scientific integrity. This Code is aimed at everyone involved in the generation, dissemination, and advancement of knowledge within the Swiss higher education system. This includes scientists, institutions, and funding organisations. Institutions and funding organisations have a special role to play in creating and maintaining the conditions in which scientific integrity can thrive. Scientific integrity is based on the observance of fundamental principles and their many different contextual concretisations. These principles guide scien- tists in their research and teaching and help them to deal with the practical, ethical, and intellectual challenges they can expect to encounter. The aim of this code of conduct is to promote appropriate attitudes and to help build a robust culture of scientific integrity that will stand the test of time. Ethical scientific behaviour rests on the basic principles of reliability, honesty, respect, and accountability and supports the concretisations of these basic principles within a specific frame of reference. This Code is intended to be a dynamic document. Its aim is to strengthen scientific integrity in all avenues of research and education, with a particular emphasis on the training and development of young people. Another of its aims is to establish a culture of research integrity in the scientific community, with the Code providing a welcome framework rather than imposing its own set of rules. It promotes common understanding and parity of treatment in dealing with violations of scientific integrity within and between institutions. The Code also considers current developments in the fields of Open Science and social media, and it examines the issue of time limitation from several points of view. In addition, it offers practical recommendations on how to set up an organisation for the protection of scientific integrity and describes the processes involved

Identification of regulatory variants associated with genetic susceptibility to meningococcal disease.

Non-coding genetic variants play an important role in driving susceptibility to complex diseases but their characterization remains challenging. Here, we employed a novel approach to interrogate the genetic risk of such polymorphisms in a more systematic way by targeting specific regulatory regions relevant for the phenotype studied. We applied this method to meningococcal disease susceptibility, using the DNA binding pattern of RELA - a NF-kB subunit, master regulator of the response to infection - under bacterial stimuli in nasopharyngeal epithelial cells. We designed a custom panel to cover these RELA binding sites and used it for targeted sequencing in cases and controls. Variant calling and association analysis were performed followed by validation of candidate polymorphisms by genotyping in three independent cohorts. We identified two new polymorphisms, rs4823231 and rs11913168, showing signs of association with meningococcal disease susceptibility. In addition, using our genomic data as well as publicly available resources, we found evidences for these SNPs to have potential regulatory effects on ATXN10 and LIF genes respectively. The variants and related candidate genes are relevant for infectious diseases and may have important contribution for meningococcal disease pathology. Finally, we described a novel genetic association approach that could be applied to other phenotypes

Search for flavor changing neutral current interactions of the top quark in final states with a photon and additional jets in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

International audienceA search for the production of a top quark in association with a photon and additional jets via flavor changing neutral current interactions is presented. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data recorded by the CMS detector at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The search is performed by looking for processes where a single top quark is produced in association with a photon, or a pair of top quarks where one of the top quarks decays into a photon and an up or charm quark. Events with an electron or a muon, a photon, one or more jets, and missing transverse momentum are selected. Multivariate analysis techniques are used to discriminate signal and standard model background processes. No significant deviation is observed over the predicted background. Observed (expected) upper limits are set on the branching fractions of top quark decays: $\mathcal{B}$(t$\to$u$\gamma$) $\lt$ 0.95$\times$10$^{-5}$ (1.20$\times$10$^{-5}$) and $\mathcal{B}$(t$\to$c$\gamma$) $\lt$ 1.51$\times$10$^{-5}$ (1.54$\times$10$^{-5}$) at 95% confidence level, assuming a single nonzero coupling at a time. The obtained limit for $\mathcal{B}$(t$\to$u$\gamma$) is similar to the current best limit, while the limit for $\mathcal{B}$(t$\to$c$\gamma$) is significantly tighter than previous results

Luminosity determination using Z boson production at the CMS experiment

International audienceThe measurement of Z boson production is presented as a method to determine the integrated luminosity of CMS data sets. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data, recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in 2017 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. Events with Z bosons decaying into a pair of muons are selected. The total number of Z bosons produced in a fiducial volume is determined, together with the identification efficiencies and correlations from the same dataset, in small intervals of 2 pb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity, thus facilitating the efficiency and rate measurement as a function of time and instantaneous luminosity. Using the ratio of the efficiency-corrected numbers of Z bosons, the precisely measured integrated luminosity of one data set is used to determine the luminosity of another. For the first time, a full quantitative uncertainty analysis of the use of Z bosons for the integrated luminosity measurement is performed. The uncertainty in the extrapolation between two data sets, recorded in 2017 at low and high instantaneous luminosity, is less than 0.5%. We show that the Z boson rate measurement constitutes a precise method, complementary to traditional methods, with the potential to improve the measurement of the integrated luminosity

Observation of WWγ\gamma production and search for Hγ\gamma production in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

International audienceThe observation of WW$\gamma$ production in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$ is presented. The observed (expected) significance is 5.6 (4.7) standard deviations. Events are selected by requiring exactly two leptons (one electron and one muon) of opposite charge, moderate missing transverse momentum, and a photon. The measured fiducial cross section for WW$\gamma$ is 6.0 $\pm$ 0.8 (stat) $\pm$ 0.7 (syst) $\pm$ 0.6 (modeling) fb, in agreement with the next-to-leading order quantum chromodynamics prediction. The analysis is extended with a search for the associated production of the Higgs boson and a photon, which is generated by a coupling of the Higgs boson to light quarks. The result is used to constrain the Higgs boson couplings to light quarks

Search for a third-generation leptoquark coupled to a τ\tau lepton and a b quark through single, pair, and nonresonant production in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

International audienceA search is presented for a third-generation leptoquark (LQ) coupled exclusively to a $\tau$ lepton and a b quark. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. Events with $\tau$ leptons and a varying number of jets originating from b quarks are considered, targeting the single and pair production of LQs, as well as nonresonant $t$-channel LQ exchange. An excess is observed in the data with respect to the background expectation in the combined analysis of all search regions. For a benchmark LQ mass of 2 TeV and an LQ-b-$\tau$ coupling strength of 2.5, the excess reaches a local significance of up to 2.8 standard deviations. Upper limits at the 95% confidence level are placed on the LQ production cross section in the LQ mass range 0.5-2.3 TeV, and up to 3 TeV for $t$-channel LQ exchange. Leptoquarks are excluded below masses of 1.22-1.88 TeV for different LQ models and varying coupling strengths up to 2.5. The study of nonresonant $\tau\tau$ production through $t$-channel LQ exchange allows lower limits on the LQ mass of up to 2.3 TeV to be obtained

Search for pair production of scalar and vector leptoquarks decaying to muons and bottom quarks in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

International audienceA search for pair production of scalar and vector leptoquarks (LQs) each decaying to a muon and a bottom quark is performed using proton-proton collision data collected at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. No excess above standard model expectation is observed. Scalar (vector) LQs with masses less than 1810 (2120) GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level, assuming a 100% branching fraction of the LQ decaying to a muon and a bottom quark. These limits represent the most stringent to date