Academic rules

of the Department of Computer Graphics and Interaction

FEE CTU in Prague (9.9.2010)

The goal of the Department of Computer Graphics and Interaction is the provision of a socially valuable, high-quality professional education. This process requires staff and students to cooperate intensively. In addition, our academic staff develop and extend their professional skills through research. The following rules and regulations are intended to maintain ethical standards in carrying out these activities, and are to be observed by students and employees of the Department. They supplement generally recognized and acknowledged standards of behaviour. Obedience to the regulations of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (FEE) of the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU), Czech law, and human rights legislation is thus a fundamental and inseparable requirement of this code.

A. Education

Academic staff are required to arrive at lectures and practicals fully prepared. The 15-minute rule is understood to be a solution intended only for exceptional situations, where a lecturer is for pressing reasons unable to teach or to arrange a replacement, and is furthermore unable to inform students of this fact. Students are then entitled to leave after 15 minutes have passed from the start of the lecture or practical in the knowledge that the session has been cancelled. The 15-minute rule is not an excuse for the late arrival of staff or students.
Students may not engage in distracting activities during lessons (e.g. using email, surfing the Internet, reading the news) or otherwise disturb their course (e.g. through talking in class, the use of mobile telephones, eating and drinking, leaving early, or arriving late).
Students and staff are to be neatly and appropriately dressed for lessons. It is self-evident that the basic principles of hygiene must be adhered to. Attending lessons under the influence of drugs, alcohol, and/or other mind-altering substances is unacceptable.
At the start of each semester, staff will present students with the requirements for the subject they teach, including any subject-specific rules. These rules are enforced consistently. Staff are to assess students impartially, and never according to their opinions of or personal relationships (positive or negative) with students.
Students may only request special consideration (e.g. extensions) from lecturers when there are valid reasons for doing so. Students must be timely in warning of and justifying their absences from compulsory components of the course (e.g. practicals). Extracurricular activities (voluntary or paid work, hobbies) cannot be accepted as excuses for late submissions or absences where attendance is compulsory.
Students are not to copy or plagiarise during exams, nor to present nor claim others’ opinions as their own. The rules governing dissertations and academic publications are set out in the following section.

B. Research

Naturally, research in the field of IT involves making use of the scholarly literature and other sources of information. Any outcome of such research (staff or students’ written work or projects) must contain references to all sources consulted, including detailed references, in such a way that these sources, and their influence on the submitted work, may be traced. Plagiarism, i.e. presenting the work (or sections thereof) and/or opinions of others as one’s own, is unacceptable. Giving others the task of completing essays, projects, experiments, etc., and then claiming the results (with or without modification) as one’s own is equally unacceptable.
It is unacceptable to alter (i.e. falsify) the results of scientific experiments and investigations to one’s own advantage.
Undertaking acadamic research is considered to be a fundamental part of an academic’s professional development. However, staff are not sanctioned for a lack of research findings.
When publishing research findings, only those who made a genuine and significant contribution to the creation of a specific article are to be mentioned as (co-)authors. In the publications of post graduate students, it is conventional to name the supervisor last. It is not permissible to add additional names (e.g. other members of a group collaborating on a project, but who did not contribute to the actual publication). Where research students contribute to a publication, their work will receive appropriate recognition, either through inclusion as co-authors or through an acknowledgment, depending on the extent of their contribution.
Publication of research findings depends on the principle that published findings are new findings. With the exception of research overviews, authors cannot publish articles which merely repeat already published findings and do not make any further significant contribution.
Academics and students may not suppress research findings, except by special permission or pre-defined agreement. Work that students have produced as part of their course may only be used for other purposes when the Department is informed in advance.
There is no league table for assessing the value of academic work; nevertheless quality, however hard to determine objectively, is a basic criterion. Authors should attempt to prove the quality of their research by publishing it in demonstrably peer-reviewed journals and by presenting at conferences. The work of other authors is to be cited on professional grounds only, never as a goodwill gesture.

C. Interaction

Research staff and students are to address each other using polite forms of address (excepting communication between personal friends and colleagues). Staff address students formally (e.g. Ms…), and never by surname alone. Students address staff using terms of respect; the use of (shortened) academic titles is recommended (e.g. Dear Dr., Dear Mr/Ms. Vice-Chancellor).
Outside of lessons, students greet staff politely on seeing them around the School. The greeting should be audible. A polite nod is an acceptable alternative. Staff should return the greetings in an appropriate fashion.
Staff and students should preserve the norms of good behaviour in their conversations.
Staff are obliged to publish their tutorial appointment times and the means of making an appointment; appointments are kept. For their part, students respect the time staff have set aside for lesson preparation or research.
Only School email addresses are to be used for online communication between staff and students. Each email that marks the beginning of a new topic begins with an appropriate form of address (Dear Dr., etc.) and ends with a valedictory formula. It is a given that all forms of communication (emails, reports, coursework, etc.) are error-free. In writing emails, the omission of diacritics is not considered a fault.
Privacy is to be observed carefully in computer rooms. When someone is typing a password, others turn away, to indicate that they would wish not to acquire such information even by accident. If a user has forgotten to log off from an available machine, the next user is responsible for doing so immediately.

D. Reputation

Staff owe the Department of Computer Graphics and Interaction their loyalty, and should always aim to act to its advantage in such a way that there is no connection between its reputation and any negative judgement. Failings and problems inside the Department should in the first instance be resolved internally, never in public.
Members of the Department are active in trying to further cooperation between the Department and external bodies (schools, companies etc.), and do not, under their professional guise, further their private interests to the Department’s cost.
Staff and students should avoid activities which could lead to a conflict of interest, and which might in any way harm the Department of Computer Graphics and Interaction. If anyone is uncertain whether his or her activities might constitute a conflict of interest, s/he is both entitled and obliged to raise the question with the head of Department or with a Higher Authority.

Prof. Jiří Žára
Department Head