A Guideline for USERN Interest Groups

All around the world, thousands of scientists are making the best of their efforts to find solutions for scientific problems in their field of specialty, in order to make the universe a more befitting host for all mankind.

We believe that our lives are too short, while once we learn some things, we realize that we are too old to do some things! Therefore, sharing experiences of top senior scientists with talent juniors could be possible in interest groups. USERN paved the way toward this glorious aim by providing opportunity of establishing various research and educational groups within the network. Individuals who are interested in joining one of the USERN Interest Groups (UIGs), can simply search the relevant field on the website (https://usern.tums.ac.ir/Group) and directly send their request to the available email address of the UIG.

USERN’S VISON

We envision a reliable network of universally validated resources including ideas, facilities, human, financial and educational resources in order to launch and facilitate authentic, ethical and professional scientific research intended to improve human life

USERN’S MISSION

Our mission is to provide scientific and technical infrastructure in order to universally:
1. Validate ideas, facilities, human, financial and educational resources and determine their scientific credibility and reliability
2. Classify and grade ideas, facilities, human, financial and educational resources
3. Improve ideas, facilities, human, financial and educational resources
4. Connect and share ideas, facilities, human, financial and educational resources considering their scope and their grades and establish their collaboration
5. Allocate facilities, human, financial and educational resources to ideas with the most importance for improvement of human life

BENEFITS OF ESTABLISHING USERN INTEREST GROUPS (UIG)

1. Being a part of a transdisciplinary network in the context of science without borders

1. Exchange of experiences and ideas between experts and junior researchers
2. Promoting hopefulness, self-confidence, and effort-value among young researchers
3. A voluntary activity in promoting universal peace in the scientific world
4. Becoming familiar with different tastes and views based on different cultural and economic aspects.
5. Creating a scientific brand
6. Opportunity of participating in an efficient teamwork
7. Benefiting from USERN Publicity for international promotion of scientific activities
8. Co-publication of articles and book chapters
9. Contribution to international scientific events
   

PROCESS & REQUIREMENTS OF ESTABLISHING A USERN INTEREST GROUP (UIG)

Each interest group within USERN is established by a USERN member who meets the criteria of being a founder. The proposal of group establishment is reviewed by the faculty members of USERN advisory board and it must be approved by this board. The process of proposal review usually takes 4-6 weeks. In addition, accreditations at 6-month intervals which is performed by the central administrative team of USERN determines the eligibility of continuation of the group.

USERN members who are eligible to be a founder can submit a proposal to develop an interest group affiliated with USERN. A UIG could be founded by 1 or maximum 2 eligible USERN Members.

Founderswith expertise and background related to the group’s scope must meet at least 1 criterion from category A and at least 1 criterion from category B:

Category A – Degree & Position:

-       Faculty member

-       Graduate with doctoral degrees

-       Last-Year student of doctoral degree

Category B – Research Experience:

-       Published Scopus-indexed papers & book chapters ≥ 20

-       Citations ≥ 50

-       H index ≥5

Other Positions:

Managing director: A USERN Member who is responsible for managing the groups’ activities. Only one managing director must be introduced and the managing director is not changeable without sending an official request to the USERN Administrative team.

Supervisor(s): USERN Members who are faculty members and can support or supervise the group’s activities. Introducing one supervisor is necessary for establishing a UIG. Please note that the founder must contact the faculty member and she/he must accept to be supervisor before sending the proposal to the USERN Administrative team. If the founder is a faculty member, he/she could be a supervisor as well. There is no limit for the number of supervisors, and in future, more faculty members could be invited by the group managing team to expand the group.

Supporting Advisor: A member of USERN Advisory Board (https://usern.tums.ac.ir/Info/Board) who has accepted to support the group’s activities. This is an optional position and introducing a supportive advisor who accepted to support the group will facilitate the process of proposal reviewing. In an accelerated mode, the process of proposal review takes 1-2 weeks. Please note that the founder must contact the member of USERN Advisory Board and he/she must accept to be supervisor before sending the proposal to the USERN Administrative team.

Education Deputy: This is an optional position and it is not recognized as an official position. The Education Deputy is responsible for managing educational activities in concordance with the managing director.

Research Deputy: This is an optional position and it is not recognized as an official position. The Research Deputy is responsible for managing research activities in concordance with the managing director.

Members: UESRN members who joined the UIG and will be affiliated with the UIG.

Title of UIG: The title or its abbreviation must not be as the same as any other previously established UIG. The title must be relevant to the scope and activities. Moreover, it should not only represent the field or the scope but also it needs to contain a word such as “Interest Group”, “Group”, “Association”, “Network”, “Platform”, etc., indicating an organized body.

-Please note that the FOUNDER and the TITLE/ABBREVIATION are not changeable after the establishment.

-In case of any agreement for changing the MANAGING DIRECTOR, an official request must be submitted to the USERN Administrative team by the founder.

PROPOSAL OF GROUP ESTABLISHMENT

The proposal needs to be a word file containing all of the following items:

*TITLE OF GROUP:

*ABBREVIATION OF THE TITLE:
*MAJOR, FIELD OF THE GROUP:

*FOUNDER:

Name, Academic Major, Academic degree, Primary affiliation, username in USERN website, email address

-* Which criteria from Category-A does he/she meet?

-*Please provide a university affiliated homepage URL for faculty members, a certificate for graduates, and a student card or certificate for last-year students of doctoral degree.

-*Which criteria from Category-B does he/she meet?

*MANAGING DIRECTOR:

Name, Academic Major, Academic degree, Primary affiliation, username in USERN website, email address

*SUPERVISOR:

Name, Academic Major, Academic degree, Primary affiliation, username in USERN website, email address

-*Has she/he accepted to be a supervisor?

SUPPORTING ADVISOR (OPTIONAL):

Name, Academic Major, Academic degree, Primary affiliation, username in USERN website, email address

-*Has she/he accepted to be a supporting advisor?

*DEFINITION:

Describing the definition and significance of the proposed group

*PLAN: 

Describing the strategy of the group in organizing a team in research and/or education, Explaining the types of activity.

* The proposals must be submitted through usern.interestgroup@gmail.comand 2 USERN Advisory Board Members for reviewing the proposal could be suggested by the founder in the text of email but not in the proposal file. The names of opposite reviewers could also be mentioned. The list of USERN Advisory Board Members is viewable and searchable at: https://usern.tums.ac.ir/Info/Board.

TYPES OF ACTIVITY

Various activities with UIG Affiliation are eligible to be conducted:

-Research Outputs:

• Publishing papers, books, book chapters, and journals
• Oral or Poster Presentation
• International Patent

-Educational Outputs:

• Holding journal clubs, workshops, seminars, webinars, congresses, schools, and festivals
• Preparing and publishing educational contents

-Executive Outputs:

• Publicizing activities
• Requiting new members
• Charity
• Executive meetings

UIG ESTABLISHMENT FOR COMPANY SHAREHOLDERS

There are some rules for the company owners/co-owners/shareholders who are interested in establishing an Interest Group within USERN:

• The name of the Interest Group should not be as same as or similar to the name of the company.
• The logo of the Interest Group should not be as same as or similar to the logo of the company.
• The collaboration of the Interest Group and the company should be specified and declared.
• The USERN's logo cannot be used on the website or posters of the company.

Guidelines for established UIGs to organize events and prepare social media content: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_vA6RReZwZGuUaPMQc44RZtet9uvpAkK?usp=sharing

TERMINATION OF GROUPS

The groups which meet the following criteria are not eligible for continuing their activities and will be terminated:

-Not sending the evaluation form for ≥ 1 year

-Inactivity for ≥ 1 year

-Any types of unethical or unprofessional activities such as:

• Promotion of Pseudoscience
• Falsification, Fabrication, Plagiarism
• Any fraud in titles, academic degrees, activities, financial relations
• Unresolved complaints

The founders whose group has been terminated are not eligible to establish a new group for 1 year. In the second year, they are eligible to establish no more than one group.

More questions could be asked from us at usern.interestgroup@gmail.com.