Comparative Veterinary Informatics Workshop Code of Conduct

This code of conduct outlines our expectations for the Comparative Veterinary Informatics community, which includes faculty, staff, users, data providers, students, etc., as well as describes how to report unacceptable behavior. We are committed to providing a welcoming and inspiring environment for all and expect this code of conduct to be honored. All members of Comparative Veterinary Informatics community are expected to abide by this code of conduct in agreement with the standards for professional behavior outlined and enforced by the NIH Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, at https://www.edi.nih.gov/.

Everyone in the Comparative Veterinary Informatics community should strive to: 

• Be friendly and patient.

• Be welcoming: We expect cooperation from all members to help ensure a safe environment for everybody. We strive to be a community that provides a harassment-free experience for everyone, welcoming and supporting people of all backgrounds and identities. This includes, but is not limited to members of any race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, colour, immigration status, social and economic class, educational level, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, size, family status, political belief, religion, and mental and physical ability.

• Be considerate: Your work will be used by other people, and you in turn will depend on the work of others. Any decision you take will affect users and colleagues, and you should take those consequences into account when making decisions. Remember that we’re a large community, so you might not be communicating in someone else’s primary language.

• Be respectful: Not all of us will agree all the time, but disagreement is no excuse for poor behavior and poor manners. We might all experience some frustration now and then, but we cannot allow that frustration to turn into a personal attack. It’s important to remember that a community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one.

• Be careful in the words that we choose: We are a community of professionals, and we conduct ourselves professionally. Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down other participants. Harassment and other exclusionary behavior aren’t acceptable. This includes, but is not limited to: Violent threats or language directed against another person, Discriminatory jokes and language, Posting sexually explicit or violent material, Posting (or threatening to post) other people’s personally identifying information (“doxing”), photography or recordings, Personal insults, especially those using racist or sexist terms, Inappropriate physical contact, Unwelcome sexual attention, Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior, Repeated harassment of others. Harassment also includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, sustained disruption of talks or other events. In general, if someone asks you to stop, then stop.

• Try to understand why we disagree: Disagreements, both social and technical, happen all the time. It is important that we resolve disagreements and differing views constructively. Remember that we’re different. Diversity contributes to the strength of our community, which is composed of people from a wide range of backgrounds. Different people have different perspectives on issues. Being unable to understand why someone holds a viewpoint doesn’t mean that they’re wrong. Don’t forget that it is human to err and blaming each other doesn’t get us anywhere. Instead, focus on helping to resolve issues and learning from mistakes.

• All members of Comparative Veterinary Informatics community will be expected to abide by the highest research ethical standards in accordance with the Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science (https://onlineethics.org), Moore (2011), and the AI code of ethics (https://futureoflife.org/ai-principles/). Plagiarism and data fabrication will not be allowed. These and other ethics violations will be reported.

Conflict resolution

The organizers have an established track record of successful collaboration, and expect to reach common agreement on management issues by thoroughly discussing and carefully considering the pros and cons of specific actions. They do not foresee any disagreements that would negatively affect the proposed research. It is thus expected that any scientific challenges or differences of opinion will be resolved through constructive discussion among all involved individuals. If they fail to resolve the dispute within 7 days, the conflict shall be referred to an arbitration committee consisting of one impartial senior executive from each organizer’s institution and a fifth impartial senior executive mutually agreed upon by the organizers. No members of the arbitration committee will be directly involved in the research grant or disagreement. Input will be sought from the NIH Program Officer in resolving the conflict.

Reporting Issues

If you experience or witness unacceptable behavior, or have any other concerns, please report it by contacting Dr. Monica Munoz-Torres (moni [at] tislab.org) or Dr. Nicole Vasilevsky (nicole [at] tislab.org). All reports will be handled with discretion. In your report please include:

• Your contact information.

• Names (real, nicknames, or pseudonyms) of any individuals involved. If there are additional witnesses, please include them as well. Your account of what occurred, and if you believe the incident is ongoing. If there is a publicly available record (e.g. a mailing list archive or a public IRC logger), please include a link.

• Any additional information that may be helpful.

If you file a report, Dr. Monica Munoz-Torres or Dr. Nicole Vasilevsky will contact you personally, review the incident, follow up with any additional questions, and make a decision as to how to respond. If the person who is harassing you is one of the persons designated to receive these reports, please contact the main PI, Dr. Melissa Haendel (melissa [at] tislab.org) instead. We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting victims of abuse.

This code of conduct is based on the Open Code of Conduct from the TODO Group, Code of Conduct from the Galaxy Community Conference 2019 and Code of Conduct from GenoPhenoEnvo Governance and Operations Manual.