# Ethics & Responsible Discovery Policy

**Project**: Universal Science Discovery Repository (USDR)  
**Last Updated**: May 2026

## Our Commitment

Scientific discovery carries power and responsibility. USDR exists to accelerate understanding of the universe, but we recognize that knowledge can be used for good or harm. This document outlines our ethical principles and expectations for all participants.

## Core Ethical Principles

1. **Truth-Seeking First**
   - Prioritize accuracy and evidence over speed or impact.
   - Clearly distinguish between established knowledge, well-supported hypotheses, speculative ideas, and unknowns.
   - Never present unverified claims as fact.

2. **Do No Harm (Non-Maleficence)**
   - Do not contribute or promote hypotheses, methods, or data that could reasonably enable:
     - Biological or chemical weapons
     - Mass surveillance or oppression
     - Environmental destruction without mitigation
     - Other catastrophic risks
   - When in doubt, label clearly and seek community review.

3. **Beneficence & Public Good**
   - Prioritize research directions that address humanity's greatest challenges (climate, health, energy, understanding consciousness, etc.).
   - Make high-impact unknowns visible and actionable.

4. **Respect for Persons & Autonomy**
   - Protect privacy and dignity of research participants.
   - Never attempt to re-identify anonymized data.
   - Respect indigenous knowledge and cultural sensitivities.

5. **Justice & Equity**
   - Actively work to reduce barriers for underrepresented researchers and regions.
   - Avoid "helicopter research" or extractive practices.
   - Ensure benefits of discoveries are shared broadly.

6. **Transparency & Accountability**
   - All contributions are versioned and attributable.
   - AI-assisted work must be clearly labeled.
   - Negative results and failed experiments are valued equally with positive ones.

## Dual-Use Research of Concern (DURC)

Certain areas of research carry higher risk of misuse. Contributors working in these areas must:

- Explicitly label any hypothesis or method as "Dual-Use Potential"
- Provide a brief justification for why the work should be openly shared
- Consider publishing only high-level concepts while keeping sensitive details restricted (coordinate with maintainers)

Examples of DURC areas include (but are not limited to):
- Pathogen engineering or enhancement
- Advanced AI systems with autonomous goal-setting
- Neurotechnology that could enable mind reading or control
- Quantum technologies with clear weapons applications

## AI-Assisted Contributions

- All AI-generated or AI-assisted content (summaries, hypotheses, gap analyses) must be clearly labeled as such.
- Human review and accountability are required for every contribution.
- Do not use AI tools to generate content that violates any other section of this policy.

## Reporting Ethical Concerns

If you believe a contribution violates these principles:

1. Open a private issue or email **ethics@usdr.dev**
2. Provide specific evidence and the relevant section of this policy
3. Maintainers will review within 7 days

We take these concerns seriously and will take appropriate action, up to and including removal of content and restriction of contributor access.

## Living Document

This ethics policy will evolve as the project and the broader scientific landscape change. Major updates will follow the RFC process described in `GOVERNANCE.md`.

We welcome community input on strengthening these principles.

**In the spirit of open science, we choose to be explicit about our values rather than assume shared norms.**

Thank you for helping us build a discovery engine that is not only powerful, but also wise and responsible.