The United States Research Software Engineer Association (US-RSE) has adopted this Code of Conduct and Membership Policy to protect its mission and community, as well as the reputation and integrity of the organization. Membership in the organization, access to its spaces, or attendance at its events requires following this Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct applies to all US-RSE spaces and activities, online and in person. US-RSE also reserves the right to revoke or deny membership to individuals based on their public behavior, current or past, when it violates the Code of Conduct and has serious impact for the safety of the US-RSE community.
Any individual who is at least 18 years of age, or the age of majority in their country of residence, whichever is greater, and willing to abide by the Code of Conduct is eligible to be a member of US-RSE.
Individuals must provide their full name and a valid email address to become and remain members of US-RSE.
US-RSE reserves the right to remove individuals as members when their identity cannot be validated, their email address becomes invalid, or they do not respond to email requests for membership verification.
To protect the integrity and reputation of US-RSE as a professional organization and the safety of all of its members, US-RSE members and participants in US-RSE spaces agree not to engage in harassment or abuse. Violations of this Code of Conduct may have consequences ranging from a verbal or written warning and up to revocation of membership in US-RSE or exclusion from US-RSE spaces.
Code of Conduct violations include but are not limited to the following examples:
- Harassment or abuse.
- Actions or comments that harm members of traditionally marginalized groups by reinforcing systemic oppression related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a) typicality, physical appearance, body size, age, race, ethnicity, caste, religion, or other marginalized category.
- Unwanted physical contact or simulated physical contact, including inappropriate engagement in virtual spaces (e.g. textual descriptions like “backrub”) without consent or after a request to stop.
- Non-consensual sexual comments or sharing of sexual material, in person or online.
- Disruptive or persistent misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names or gender pronouns.
- Patterns of inappropriate physical or social contact, such as violation of personal space or boundaries, presumption of or requests for inappropriate levels of intimacy with others, or continuing to communicate with someone against their request.
- Sustained and/or deliberate disruption of community and organizational activities.
- Threats of violence, deliberate intimidation, stalking, or impersonation with the intent to harass or violate privacy.
- Incitement of violence towards any individual or groups of people, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or engage in self-harm.
- Serious or repeated acts that harm or threaten others or the reputation and integrity of US-RSE.
- Deliberately disclosing information given in private confidence, unless it is to protect vulnerable people from intentional abuse or report a violation of this code of conduct.
- The publication of the confidential information of members or the organization without consent, except as necessary to protect vulnerable people from intentional abuse or report a violation of this code of conduct. This includes both information that is labeled as confidential or information that the publisher knows or should know is confidential.
- Deliberate attempts to circumvent or misuse the Code of Conduct or otherwise cause harm to the community or its members.
This Code of Conduct exists to protect the US-RSE membership and organization from the risk of harassment or injury. To protect and mitigate damage to its reputation and that of its individual membership, US-RSE may publicly announce any reports, conclusions, or actions taken in response to reports of violations of the Code of Conduct. By participating in US-RSE events, forums, membership, or other spaces, you agree to accept the terms of the Code of Conduct and acknowledge that your voluntary involvement with this public organization or violation of this Code may result in reputational harm, including loss of business, loss of income, or loss of contractual advantage. Members and participants also acknowledge that their violation of the Code of Conduct will cause real, significant, and compensable harm to US-RSE’s reputation within the fields of non-profit advocacy and Software Engineering, resulting in US-RSE’s loss of income and contractual advantage.
If you learn about a violation of this Code of Conduct, please inform the Code of Conduct Committee at [email protected] or reach out individually to any member of the Code of Conduct Committee. A list of current Committee members and the best way to contact them can be found here. Anonymous reports will be accepted. We will strive to keep identifying details of reporters and reports confidential unless we receive a valid court order or have another compelling reason to disclose them. To help us respond to your report, please include as much of the following information as possible in your reports:
- The date and location of the incident
- A description of the events.
- How the incident is a violation of the Code of Conduct.
- The name or identity of the individuals involved in the incident.
- The names or identities of any other witness to the incident.
- Any documentation such as emails, private messages, photographs, police reports, texts, or notes related to the incident.
- Information for your preferred method of contact from our Code of Conduct Committee if you wish to or are willing to be contacted for follow up questions.
The Code of Conduct Committee will review all good faith reports and provide a response to the party making the report within two weeks, barring any legal requirement that prevents it. US-RSE and the Code of Conduct Committee will endeavor to resolve all Code of Conduct Reports within 60 days of receipt of complaint whenever possible.
We will take all good faith reports of code of conduct violations by US-RSE members seriously. When responding to reports, we may take into account the behavior of members outside formal US-RSE spaces if in our judgment they are relevant to the US-RSE community. US-RSE reserves the right to deny or revoke membership to individuals based on past behavior, including conduct towards people who are not members of US-RSE. Incidents occurring outside US-RSE spaces should only be reported to, and will only be considered by, the Code of Conduct Committee if they have a serious impact on the safety of the US-RSE community.
In order to preserve the integrity and health of the Code of Conduct Committee, the Code of Conduct Committee and US-RSE reserve the right to reject any report believed to have been made in bad faith or that is otherwise judged not relevant. Intentional false reports or reports that serve as a form of harassment/abuse or to silence legitimate criticism are themselves Code of Conduct violations.
Members of the Code of Conduct Committee who have a genuine conflict of interest or otherwise cannot provide a fair assessment of your report will recuse themselves from handling your report.
All reports to and deliberations of the Code of Conduct Committee will be kept confidential, and we will not publicly name those who report or experience suspected Code of Conduct violations, with the following limited exceptions. The US-RSE Code of Conduct Committee and US-RSE leadership reserves the right to publicize or inform third parties about an incident, including openly naming the offending party, if we believe that doing so is necessary to preserve the reputation and integrity of US-RSE, will increase the safety of US-RSE members, is required by a valid court order or other statutory requirement, or will increase the safety of the general public.
Once a decision has been reached all copies of the complaint and any related notes or material from investigation and deliberation will be destroyed or deleted, with the following exceptions: a summary for internal use to enforce the code of conduct going forward; an anonymized, as much as is practical, summary in the public US-RSE code of conduct transparency log; a record of implemented consequences that impact an individual's membership status or participation in events, accessible to those who manage community membership and events; and any document that US-RSE is required to retain by a valid court orders or preservation request.
US-RSE and its Code of Conduct Committee reserve the right to take any action we believe is necessary to protect US-RSE membership or the organization from harm, including reputational and financial harms. Examples of possible responses to code of conduct violations include but are not limited to:
- Formal warnings
- Removal of US-RSE responsibilities, privileges, or access to community spaces
- Permanent or temporary bans from community spaces
- Permanent or temporary revocation of membership in US-RSE Anonymized summaries of US-RSE Code of Conduct reports and decisions will be included in the public US-RSE code of conduct transparency log whenever possible.
Should changes need to be made to this document, US-RSE members may draft a proposed set of changes. This can be done by opening a Pull Request to the US-RSE documents repository. Your Pull Request should include a well-thought-out justification for the proposed changes. The Steering Committee must vote on and approve any proposed changes in order for them to be incorporated.
This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.