RAEC

FOREWORD: THE CHARTER AND ITS PURPOSE The Research Advisory Ethics Charter (“Charter”) is the foundational ethical instrument governing every engagement between the Center for Contemporary & Emerging Technologies (CCET) and subscribers to the Research Intelligence Service (RIS). It is not a procedural formality. It is the living expression of CCET’s institutional commitment to ethical integrity, the rule of law in academic practice, and the developmental imperative of producing researchers who are not only competent but principled. The RIS is delivered through the RIS Platform; a secure online system through which Subscribers discover, unlock, and access technology-aligned Statement of the Problem (SOP) products. In its first release, the service is delivered principally through these structured SOP products, made available at defined access levels and through subscription. This Charter defines, with precision and enforceability, the ethical boundaries within which the RIS operates, the rights and obligations of every Subscriber, and the non-negotiable principles that govern the relationship between CCET and the researcher. FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLE: CCET guides, informs, challenges, and refines. The researcher conceptualises, owns, develops, interprets, and defends. Every SOP product is an intellectual scaffold; never a finished submission. This boundary is absolute, non-negotiable, and formally embedded in every subscriber engagement. No provision of this Charter, and no aspect of the RIS, shall be construed as permitting, facilitating, or condoning any circumvention of the academic integrity requirements of the Subscriber’s institution. ARTICLE I: DEFINITIONS For the purposes of this Charter, the following terms carry the meanings set out below: ● “CCET” means the Center for Contemporary & Emerging Technologies, a technology foresight institution operating in Lusaka, Zambia. ● “RIS” or “Research Intelligence Service” means CCET’s subscription and product-based academic research intelligence service for postgraduate and other researchers. ● “RIS Platform” or “Platform” means the online system through which CCET delivers the RIS, comprising its public website, user dashboard, SOP Bank, payment and subscription facilities, and administrative backend. ● “Subscriber” means any individual researcher, academic unit, or institution that registers for, purchases from, or subscribes to the RIS. ● “SOP Bank” means CCET’s curated repository of technology-aligned Statement of the Problem frameworks made available to Subscribers as intellectual scaffolding. ● “SOP Product” means an individual Statement of the Problem entry in the SOP Bank, made available at one or more access levels. ● “Access Level” means the level at which SOP content is made available: SOP Preview (free), Full SOP (Brief description & Full scope) - paid unlock or subscription entitlement. ● “Individual Purchase” means a one-off payment unlocking a specified Full SOP (Brief description & Full scope), on a time-limited or otherwise defined basis as configured on the Platform. ● “Subscription” means a recurring paid plan granting access to a defined quota of SOP Products for a defined period or credits) ● “Acceptance” means the Subscriber’s electronic (click-wrap) acceptance of this Charter through the Platform, recorded with a timestamp, the Subscriber’s user identifier, and the Charter version. ● “Personal Data” means information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person, as defined under the Data Protection Act No. 3 of 2021 of the Laws of Zambia. ● “Academic Integrity” means the commitment to honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage in all scholarly activity, as defined by the Subscriber’s institution and applicable national frameworks. ● “Misuse” means any use of the RIS, or SOP Bank content that violates this Charter, the Terms of Use, or the Subscriber’s institutional academic integrity policies. ARTICLE II: THE TEN PRINCIPLES OF ETHICAL ENGAGEMENT Every engagement under the Research Intelligence Service including the browsing, purchase, subscription, unlocking, and use of SOP Products is governed by the following ten foundational principles. These principles bind both CCET and all Subscribers and shall be interpreted broadly to give effect to their purpose. 01 PRINCIPLE OF INTELLECTUAL OWNERSHIP ● The Subscriber is, and shall at all times remain, the sole intellectual author and owner of their research work. CCET’s role creates no co-authorship, intellectual partnership, or proprietary claim over any research output produced by the Subscriber. ● All ideas, arguments, analyses, interpretations, and conclusions in the Subscriber’s Work belong exclusively to the Subscriber, who accepts full intellectual and academic responsibility for it. ● SOP Products are inputs to the Subscriber’s thinking process, not a substitute for it. Ownership of the SOP Bank content itself is addressed in Article VI. 02 PRINCIPLE OF NON-SUBSTITUTION ● The RIS is complementary to the Subscriber’s scholarly effort and is never a replacement for it. No SOP Product, is designed, intended, or permitted to substitute for the researcher’s own scholarly effort, critical thinking, or independent judgement. ● Subscribers must independently engage with, critically evaluate, substantially develop, and originalise all SOP content before incorporating it into any academic work. ● The RIS does not write, complete, or draft any portion of a Subscriber’s thesis, dissertation, assignment, research proposal, or academic submission, and provides no submission-ready academic work. 03 PRINCIPLE OF TRANSPARENCY AND DISCLOSURE ● CCET operates transparently and expects Subscribers to engage transparently with their institutions regarding the nature of the support received. ● Subscribers must not misrepresent, conceal, or distort the nature or extent of their use of the RIS to supervisors, examiners, or institutional authorities. ● CCET will, upon request from a Subscriber or an institution, provide written confirmation of the nature and scope of the engagement, consistent with the RIS Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Where institutional policy restricts external research support, the Subscriber bears sole responsibility for compliance before subscribing. 04 PRINCIPLE OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY PRIMACY ● The academic integrity requirements of the Subscriber’s institution, whether in Zambia or elsewhere, are paramount and take precedence over any other consideration. The RIS serves both Zambia-based and international Subscribers, and each Subscriber remains bound by the policies of their own institution. ● CCET will not knowingly facilitate, assist, or condone plagiarism, contract cheating, fabrication, falsification, or misrepresentation, and reserves the right to suspend or terminate any engagement reasonably believed to be circumventing institutional integrity requirements. 05 PRINCIPLE OF CONFIDENTIALITY AND DATA PROTECTION ● All information shared by Subscribers is treated with the highest standard of professional confidentiality; research-in-progress is recognised as sensitive intellectual matter. ● CCET processes Personal Data only as necessary to deliver the RIS, in accordance with the Data Protection Act No. 3 of 2021 and the RIS Privacy Policy (see Article V). Engagement content is accessible only to authorised CCET staff on a strict need-to-know basis. 06 PRINCIPLE OF PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE AND CURRENCY ● CCET delivers SOP Products grounded in current, evidence-based knowledge of emerging technologies, development priorities, and postgraduate research methodology, informed by Zambia’s National AI Strategy (2024–2026), the Eighth National Development Plan, and the Smart Zambia Master Plan. ● SOP content is grounded in peer-reviewed literature, credible policy frameworks, and validated methodology, not opinion or speculation, and is subject to expert review and Super Admin approval before publication. ● Where a research area falls outside CCET’s current competence, CCET will communicate this transparently and, where possible, provide appropriate referral. 07 PRINCIPLE OF NON-DISCRIMINATION AND EQUAL ACCESS ● RIS services are delivered without discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, institutional affiliation, disciplinary background, or prior academic performance. ● Every Subscriber is entitled to the full inclusions of their access level or subscription tier without prejudice, and CCET commits to making the RIS as accessible as possible across all Zambian universities and affiliated institutions, to researchers in underserved regions, and to international Subscribers. ● CCET does not discriminate between Subscribers based on the topic, discipline, or orientation of their research, provided the research is lawful and ethically sound. 08 PRINCIPLE OF DEVELOPMENTAL INTENT ● The RIS exists to build lasting research capacity, not to create dependency. Every engagement is designed to increase the Subscriber’s own capability. ● SOP Products are designed to transfer analytical frameworks and research thinking to the Subscriber, not merely to deliver outputs; success is measured by the growth in the Subscriber’s own research thinking. ● CCET actively supports national knowledge-economy goals by developing research-competent, technology-aware scholars whose work contributes to evidence-based policy and innovation. 09 PRINCIPLE OF RESPONSIBLE AI USE ● Where AI-assisted tools are used in generating RIS materials, including elements of the SOP Bank, all such content is subject to expert review and quality assurance by CCET before delivery, and is clearly identified as requiring substantial scholarly development and originalisation by the Subscriber. ● The Platform’s AI-powered recommendation and matching feature uses platform-approved content only, recommends SOP Products by the Subscriber’s discipline and relevant technology area, and does not generate submission-ready academic work. ● CCET does not represent AI-assisted content as peer-reviewed output or as ready for submission, and Subscribers remain responsible for complying with their institution’s policies on AI use in academic work. 10 PRINCIPLE OF MUTUAL RESPECT AND PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT ● The relationship between CCET and its Subscribers rests on mutual professional respect, good-faith engagement, and a shared commitment to research quality. ● CCET commits to treating every Subscriber with courtesy and professionalism; Subscribers commit to engaging honestly and without misrepresentation of their intentions, institutional context, or research goals. ● Neither party shall engage in conduct that is abusive, harassing, threatening, or demeaning, and CCET reserves the right to terminate any engagement that violates this principle without prejudice to other remedies. ARTICLE III: CCET’S COMMITMENTS UNDER THIS CHARTER 3.1 Service and Product Quality ● SOP Products are created by qualified faculty with current expertise in the relevant technology domain and research methodology, and are expert-reviewed and Super Admin-approved before publication. ● Access to purchased or subscribed SOP content is activated automatically upon confirmed payment, and a receipt or invoice is issued for every successful payment. ● All SOP content is specific, evidence-grounded, and clearly presented as an intellectual scaffold, and CCET maintains accurate records of engagements and Charter acceptance for accountability and, where required, institutional disclosure. 3.2 Ethics Enforcement ● CCET will not knowingly participate in any arrangement that constitutes or facilitates academic misconduct. ● Every SOP Preview, Full SOP, checkout or unlock screen, and downloaded file carries the standard academic integrity notice. ● CCET will act on credible information of Charter violations promptly, in accordance with Article VII, and will review and update this Charter periodically. 3.3 Transparency ● CCET maintains a publicly accessible statement of its advisory ethics principles on its RIS Portal www.risscholar.com. ● CCET discloses the general nature of its AI tool usage, including AI-assisted content generation and the AI recommendation feature, without compromising proprietary methodologies. ● CCET provides written confirmation of the nature and scope of a Subscriber’s engagement upon request. 3.4 Data Protection and Security ● CCET applies encryption in transit and at rest, does not store payment card details (card processing is handled by the Platform’s payment provider), performs daily encrypted backups, and maintains append-only audit logs of critical actions. ● CCET operates data-subject request workflows for access, export, correction, deletion, and account closure, subject to legal and tax retention requirements (see Article V). ARTICLE IV: SUBSCRIBER OBLIGATIONS UNDER THIS CHARTER Every Subscriber, by accepting this Charter, makes the following binding commitments: 4.1 Academic Integrity Obligations 1. Use SOP content solely as an intellectual scaffold and starting point, and independently develop, contextualise, and substantially rework it before incorporating it into any academic submission; 2. Not submit any SOP Product, SOP Bank content, or AI-assisted material in its original or near-original form to any academic institution; 3. Comply with all applicable academic integrity policies of their institution throughout the engagement, and disclose the use of the RIS where their institution so requires; 4. Not use the RIS as a mechanism for contract cheating, ghost-writing, or any form of academic fraud. 4.2 Conduct and Platform-Use Obligations 5. Engage with CCET in good faith and with professional courtesy, and not misrepresent their institutional affiliation, research goals, or intended use of SOP content; 6. Not resell, redistribute, publish, or otherwise share SOP Products or SOP Bank content with any third party; 7. Not share account credentials or subscription access, and not permit any other person to use their account; 8. Not scrape, bulk-download, or systematically extract SOP content, and not use the RIS to bypass institutional academic integrity rules; 9. Access SOP content only in accordance with the applicable Access Level, Individual Purchase terms, and Subscription quota, and respect the time-limited or credits nature of any access so configured. 4.3 AI Content and Acceptance Obligations 10. Treat all AI-assisted materials as preliminary intellectual scaffolding requiring substantial scholarly development, and comply with their institution’s policies on AI use before incorporating any such content; 11. Not represent AI-assisted content obtained through the RIS as entirely their own unaided work where institutional policy requires disclosure of AI assistance; 12. Accept this Charter through the Platform (separately from the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy) before payment activation, and re-accept it when it is materially revised. ARTICLE V: DATA PROTECTION AND CONFIDENTIALITY CCET collects and processes Personal Data including identity, account, subscription, transaction, service, technical, and communication data, solely to deliver, secure, and administer the RIS, in accordance with the Data Protection Act No. 3 of 2021 and the RIS Privacy Policy. ● Payment card details are not stored by CCET; all card processing is handled by the Platform’s payment provider. ● Personal, account, and transaction data are hosted in Zambia or in a jurisdiction offering equivalent data-protection safeguards; non-personal content and static assets may use international infrastructure for performance and cost efficiency. ● Subscribers may request access to, export of, correction of, or deletion of their Personal Data, and account closure, subject to legal and tax retention requirements, which are stated in the Privacy Policy. ● Charter acceptance records, audit logs, and engagement records are retained for accountability, security, and compliance, and are protected against unauthorised alteration. ARTICLE VI: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND CONTENT LICENCE ● CCET owns all SOP Bank content, SOP Products, frameworks, research-product structures, repository content, platform materials, and any downloadable SOP documents, together with all intellectual property rights in them. ● The Subscriber owns their own research outputs; CCET claims no ownership, authorship, co-authorship, or academic credit over the Subscriber’s Work, consistent with Principle 01. ● Upon payment, the Subscriber receives a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to access and use the purchased SOP Product for their own personal academic development only; this licence confers no right to reproduce, resell, redistribute, or sub-license the content. ● Paid content carries a visible copyright notice (“© CCET 2026”) and the standard academic integrity notice. CCET protects its content through account-based access, watermarking bearing the Subscriber’s name, account identifier, and a timestamped serial, download tracking, expiring links, session and device controls where feasible, scraping detection, and audit logs. ARTICLE VII: BREACH, REPORTING, AND CONSEQUENCES 7.1 What Constitutes a Breach A breach occurs when any party fails to comply with its obligations under Articles II to VI. Subscriber breaches include, without limitation: ● Submitting SOP content verbatim, or with minimal modification, as the Subscriber’s own original academic work; ● Misrepresenting the nature of the Subscriber’s use of the RIS to supervisors, examiners, or institutional authorities; ● Sharing account credentials or subscription access, or account sharing of any kind; ● Reselling, redistributing, scraping, or bulk-downloading SOP content; ● Payment failure or chargeback, credential compromise, academic integrity misuse, fraud, or abusive conduct toward CCET staff. 7.2 Reporting Process Any party who believes a breach has occurred may report the concern to CCET at ccetzm@gmail.com. Reports will be treated confidentially to the extent practicable. CCET will acknowledge all reports within five (5) business days and communicate the outcome of its review within thirty (30) days. 7.3 Consequences of Breach CONSEQUENCES OF CHARTER BREACH Where CCET determines that a Subscriber has materially breached this Charter, CCET may, at its sole discretion and without prejudice to any other remedy: (a) issue a formal written warning; (b) suspend the engagement or account pending investigation; (c) restrict or revoke access to SOP content; (d) terminate the subscription or account; and (e) where required by law or institutional policy, refer the matter to the Subscriber’s institution. Any refund following termination shall be determined in accordance with CCET’s Refund Policy; termination for a Subscriber’s breach does not of itself entitle the Subscriber to a refund. CCET is not responsible for any academic, professional, or reputational consequences arising from the Subscriber’s own breach of their institutional integrity policies. ARTICLE VIII: INTERNATIONAL LEGITIMACY AND PRECEDENT This Charter is grounded in an established international tradition of ethical research advisory practice. The RIS draws its ethical legitimacy from the following recognised frameworks: Framework / Institution Relevance to this Charter UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Enhancing Research Culture Endorses research coaching and advisory support as legitimate capacity-building, provided clear ethical boundaries between advisor and researcher are maintained. Research Coaching Australia Provides a model of institutional research coaching endorsed by university research offices, demonstrating the legitimacy of structured advisory support. Harvard University Academic Coaching Offers institutionally recognised academic coaching as a formal student support service, validating the ethic of guided advisory engagement. World Bank Group Scholarship Programme Recognises research advisory support as a legitimate mechanism for developing research capacity in developing countries. African Development Bank, Research Capacity Building Funds institutional research advisory support across Africa as a core component of development, affirming the developmental legitimacy of CCET’s model. Zambia National AI Strategy 2024–2026 Identifies building human capital and fostering research as foundational to realising AI’s potential, validating the developmental mandate of the RIS. ARTICLE IX: ACCEPTANCE, AMENDMENTS, AND REVIEW 9.1 Click-wrap Acceptance This Charter is presented for acceptance through the RIS Platform as a distinct, click-wrap agreement, separate from the Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policy, before account creation or first payment activation. Acceptance is recorded with a timestamp, the Subscriber’s user identifier, and the Charter version number, and, where implemented, a scroll-to-accept confirmation. The Subscriber’s acceptance is logged in the Platform’s audit records. 9.2 Re-acceptance on Material Revision Where this Charter is materially revised, active Subscribers will be required to re-accept the revised Charter through the Platform before continued use of the RIS. 9.3 Amendments and Review CCET reserves the right to amend this Charter to reflect developments in academic integrity standards, AI ethics frameworks, higher education policy, data-protection law, or CCET’s institutional practices. Material amendments will be communicated to active Subscribers by email at least thirty (30) days before they take effect. Subject to the re-acceptance requirement in 9.2, continued use of the RIS following notification constitutes acceptance of the revised Charter. The current version is published on RIS Portal at www.risscholar.com. ARTICLE X: GOVERNING LAW This Charter is governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Zambia, including the Data Protection Act No. 3 of 2021. It shall be read and interpreted together with the RIS Terms of Use, and the RIS Privacy Policy, which together constitute the complete binding framework governing the Subscriber relationship.