Code of Conduct

Code of Conduct: AGN Populations Across Continents and Cosmic Time

AGN Populations Across Continents and Cosmic Time is a community conference intended for networking and collaboration in the professional astronomy and astrophysics community. We value the participation of each member of the community and want all attendees to have an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. Accordingly, all attendees are expected to show respect and courtesy to other attendees throughout the conference and at all conference events. The conference will take place at multiple locations, including Durham University, Newcastle University, and social events in the surrounding environment. The code of conduct applies to all conference-related activities, regardless of location, and includes communication over platforms such as Slack/Discord.

Guiding principles for code of conduct

1. Act respectfully. Harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary comments or jokes are not appropriate. Harassment includes sustained disruption of communication, inappropriate physical contact, sexual attention or innuendo, deliberate intimidation, stalking, and photography or recording of an individual without consent. It also includes offensive comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion. 

2. Behave professionally. This meeting is a professional event, which should be safe and comfortable for everyone. People should be courteous with the opinions of others and mindful not to exclude anyone from discussions or work-related activities.

3. Communicate appropriately.  All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate, nor is imagery denigrating any of the characteristics listed in guiding principle 1. This is especially important for written channels of communication (e.g., Slack) where tone of voice is often lost, which can lead to communication that could be perceived as inappropriate even if not intended. 

4. Work collaboratively. The diversity of our colleagues’ backgrounds is an asset. We are all here to learn, share, and contribute. Fresh perspectives should be valued along with the voices of experience.

What to do if there is a breach of the code of conduct

There will be specific individuals identified to help with any breaches of this code of conduct, and the Local Organising Committee (LOC) will enforce this code throughout the event.  

If you experience or notice the code of conduct being violated, or if you have any concerns, please contact a member of the LOC or the chairs of the conference.  A full list of LOC members can be found at the bottom of the homepage (https://www.agnacrosscontinents.org/). 

The impact on an individual and whether the behaviour is unacceptable by normal standards will be the focus.  If you experience behaviour that violates the code of conduct and feel comfortable calling attention to it at the time, please do so. Resolving issues early and informally is usually preferable for everyone concerned. Often, people can be unaware that their behaviour is perceived as harassment, discrimination or bullying, and in these cases prompt informal action can be particularly effective. 

Unprofessional behaviour can have a serious negative impact for the community, and any code of conduct violations should be reported as soon as possible so a quick resolution can be reached. Awareness and reporting of these incidents present a chance for the offenders, and the community at large, to grow, learn, and become better.

What will happen if an incident is reported

The LOC will be responsible for handling collecting information and providing an initial response. The first focus will be to ensure that everyone involved is physically safe. The person who experienced the incident may need a safe, private place to sit, and may need a friend or trusted person to sit with them. The LOC will organise this if needed, and find out how else they can help.  If everyone present is physically safe, involve the police or security only at the victim’s request.  The person making the report will have the right to remain anonymous beyond the person they report the incident to, if that is their preference. 

The next step will be to get as much information in written form as possible. This includes:

• identifying information of the perpetrator(s)

• the behaviour that was in violation of the code of conduct

• the circumstances involved in the incident

The report should then be shared with other LOC members, to discuss the incident and decide on a course of action. This should be followed up by communication with the alleged offender. Allow the alleged offender to give their side of the story. After this, if the report stands, let the alleged offender know what action will be taken.

Some possible actions are:

• warning the offender to cease their behaviour and that any further reports will result in sanctions

• requiring that the offender avoids any interaction with, and physical proximity to, their victim for the remainder of the event

• not publishing any material that violated the code of conduct

• not allowing a speaker who violated the code of conduct to give (further) talks

• immediately ending any event responsibilities and privileges the offender holds

• requiring that the offender immediately leave the event and not return

This code of conduct is based on the “London Code of Conduct“, as originally designed for the conference “Accurate Astrophysics. Correct Cosmology”, held in London in July 2015. The London Code of Conduct was adapted with permission by Andrew Pontzen and Hiranya Peiris from a document by Software Carpentry](http://software-carpentry.org/conduct.html), which itself derives from original Creative Commons documents by PyCon and Geek Feminism. It is released under a CC-Zero licence for reuse. To help track people’s improvements and best practice, please retain this acknowledgement, and log your re-use or modification of this policy at https://github.com/apontzen/london_cc.