ERIDOB 2024

Policy Statement of the European Researchers in Didactics of Biology (ERIDOB)

Approved at the ERIDOB 2022 conference

i) The term ‘members’ in this document refers to all people who presented a paper or a poster at the previous ERIDOB Conference and/or people whose papers or posters have been accepted at the forthcoming Conference.
ii) Due to the relatively small and voluntary nature of ERIDOB, these are general guidelines and some flexibility will need to be considered in specific circumstances.

This document provides guidelines for the activities of the European Researchers in Didactics of Biology (ERIDOB). Revisions of these guidelines should be discussed and agreed with ERIDOB members at conference business meetings.

1. ERIDOB Aims

1.1 To hold an international conference every two years to bring together researchers in didactics of Biology from Europe and across the world in order to share current research, to develop a greater awareness of the diversity of research traditions within Europe, and to provide opportunities for the discussion of issues specific to biology education and biology education research.

1.2 To produce a high quality conference proceedings publication, through selection and peer reviewing of the best conference papers.

1.3 To enhance the quality of research in biology education and support the development of new researchers.

2. ERIDOB Organization

2.1 ERIDOB is an informal group of researchers brought together under the aims stated above. At present, it is not an association with membership fees. Membership is open to anyone interested in biology education research.

2.2 An Academic Committee (AC) is appointed by participants at the ERIDOB conference Business Meeting, and is responsible for organisation of the conferences. The AC provides members with news and updates via email.

3. The Academic Committee

The Academic Committee (AC) shall make general decisions on behalf of the members, but should consult the members whenever controversial issues arise.

The AC should consist of eight elected members, including the AC Chair and the Chair of the Local Organising Committee (LOC). If the Chair of the LOC is not already a member of the AC, then the Chair of the LOC is co-opted onto the AC for the time up until the conference.

At least one member of the AC should be an early career researcher (ECR) to promote the participation and visibility of ECRs across the spectrum of ERIDOB activities. ECRs can be loosely defined as a doctoral student, post-doctoral researcher or someone in the first few years of being an independent researcher.

Each AC member should come from a different country; exceptions being the ECR member, and when the Chair of the LOC might be from the same country as another existing member of the AC.
Members of the AC are elected (or re-elected) at each ERIDOB conference Business Meeting.
AC members should serve for a maximum of six consecutive years (to be implemented from 2022), and their intention should be to serve for this maximum period.
To ensure the continuity of the work of ERIDOB, as many members as possible should stay on the new AC.
Previous members of the AC can reapply to join after at least two years have elapsed.

Successive chairs of the AC should come from different countries; the chair is elected from within the AC by the members of the AC soon after the Business Meeting.

With the possible exception of ECR members, the essential criteria for electing members of the AC should be that the candidate is: i) actively involved in biology education research, ii) has presented a paper at a recent ERIDOB conference, and iii) has carried out reviews of papers submitted for the ERIDOB conference. A further desirable criterion is that he/she can offer to host a subsequent ERIDOB conference at their own institution.

When a vacancy arises, the AC should inform all members.

The AC should remind members about vacancies during the winter prior to the summer conference, and ask for expressions of interest, which should include a short CV for review and discussion by the AC. All nominations must be supported by a proposer and seconder who are both recently active at ERIDOB conferences and are from different countries. If there are more than three nominees per vacancy, the AC should decide which three should go forward for election, based on the criteria above.

The deadline for nominations should be two months before the conference.

Elections should take place and results announced during the conference Business Meeting. Only those present at the ERIDOB Business Meeting are entitled to vote. Each attendee has one vote. Candidates’ names and short CVs should be circulated among the conference attendees prior to the Business Meeting, and votes should be counted at the Business Meeting by secret ballot. The candidate with the most votes is elected. In the event of a tie, the AC have an additional deciding vote.

If an AC member leaves unexpectedly, the AC remains one person down until their replacement is elected at the next ERIDOB Business Meeting.

4. Conferences

4.1 ERIDOB conferences have taken place every two years since 1996, in alternate years to the ESERA conferences (which many ERIDOB members also attend).

4.2 The Academic Committee is responsible for the organization of the conferences and for the reviewing and selection of the contributions.

4.3 ERIDOB uses a blind reviewing process. The Academic Committee appoints suitable ERIDOB members from a broad range of countries to join the review process.

4.4 Conferences are announced on the ERIDOB website homepage and emails are sent to former conference participants.

4.5 Only proposals that are unpublished at the time of submission are eligible. The Academic Committee must be notified if a paper submitted to the conference has also been submitted or accepted for publication elsewhere.

4.6 The work must be based on a clear research question, and the general outcomes of the work must be relevant with regard to the research question.

4.7 No participant may submit more than one first authored paper.

4.8 No participant may present more than once during the conference.

5. Conference fees

5.1 ERIDOB aims to break even at each conference (i.e. costs and income are equal), and conference fees are calculated to cover the costs incurred by the Local Organizing Committee, costs of publishing the proceedings, and the travel and accommodation costs of members of the Academic Committee while attending the planning meeting at the conference venue.

6. Conference Book

6.1 The peer-reviewed papers from the conference are published in the Conference Book.

6.2 The Local Organizing Committee of a conference is responsible for the publication of the conference proceedings.

6.3 All papers submitted for the Conference Book are blind reviewed by at least two experienced ERIDOB members. The Academic Committee draws up a list of experienced ERIDOB members and allocates the papers accordingly.

6.4 Papers already submitted for publication elsewhere should not be submitted for publication in Conference Book.

6.5 The costs for the Conference Book are covered by the conference fees.

6.6 The Local Organizing Committee is responsible for the distribution of the Conference Book to the conference participants.

6.7 The Springer Book Series Contributions from Biology Education Research https://www.springer.com/series/16350 is the international book series of ERIDOB. Series editors should be expected to serve for two years, with a possible extension of two additional years according to circumstances. Towards the end of the term of office, the ERIDOB Academic Committee will consult with Springer about recruiting the most appropriate replacements.