This document is still under discussion by the RSQKit governance body. This is draft proposal.
The RSQkit team are dedicated to providing a welcoming and supportive environment for all people, regardless of background or identity. As such, we do not tolerate behaviour that is disrespectful to our community members or that excludes, intimidates, or causes discomfort to others. We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on characteristics that include, but are not limited to: gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, citizenship, nationality, ethnic or social origin, pregnancy, familial status, veteran status, genetic information, religion or belief (or lack thereof), membership of a national minority, property, age, education, socio-economic status, technical choices, and experience level.
Everyone who participates in the RDMkit activities is required to conform to this Code of Conduct. This Code of Conduct applies to all spaces managed by the RDMkit including, but not limited to, in person focus groups and workshops, and communications online via GitHub. By participating, contributors indicate their acceptance of the procedures by which the RDMkit project core development team resolves any Code of Conduct incidents, which may include storage and processing of their personal information.
We are confident that our community members will together build a supportive and collaborative atmosphere at our events and during online communications. The following bullet points set out explicitly what we hope you will consider to be appropriate community guidelines:
- Be respectful of different viewpoints and experiences. Do not engage in homophobic, racist, transphobic, ageist, ableist, sexist, or otherwise exclusionary behaviour.
- Use welcoming and inclusive language. Exclusionary comments or jokes, threats or violent language are not acceptable. Do not address others in an angry, intimidating, or demeaning manner. Be considerate of the ways the words you choose may impact others. Be patient and respectful of the fact that English is a second (or third or fourth!) language for some participants.
- Do not harass people. Harassment includes unwanted physical contact, sexual attention, or repeated social contact. Know that consent is explicit, conscious and continuous—not implied. If you are unsure whether your behaviour towards another person is welcome, ask them. If someone tells you to stop, do so.
- Respect the privacy and safety of others. Do not take photographs of others without their permission. Do not share other participant’s personal experiences without their express permission. Note that posting (or threatening to post) personally identifying information of others without their consent ("doxing") is a form of harassment.
- Be considerate of others’ participation. Everyone should have an opportunity to be heard. In update sessions, please keep comments succinct so as to allow maximum engagement by all participants. Do not interrupt others on the basis of disagreement; hold such comments until they have finished speaking.
- Don’t be a bystander. If you see something inappropriate happening, speak up. If you don't feel comfortable intervening but feel someone should, please feel free to ask a member of the Code of Conduct response team for support.
- Do not gaslight. Gaslighting is a tactic in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality. Sometimes you don't even know you are doing it. Look out for the signs in yourself and in others 5 tactics for gaslighting
- As an overriding general rule, please be intentional in your actions and humble in your mistakes.
All interactions should be professional regardless of platform: either online or in-person. See this explanation of the four social rules - no feigning surprise, no well-actually's, no back-seat driving, no subtle -isms - for further recommendations for inclusive behaviours.
Examples of unacceptable behaviour by the RDMkit community members at any project event or platform include:
- written or verbal comments which have the effect of excluding people on the basis of membership of any specific group
- causing someone to fear for their safety, such as through stalking, following, or intimidation
- violent threats or language directed against another person
- the display of sexual or violent images
- unwelcome sexual attention
- nonconsensual or unwelcome physical contact
- sustained disruption of talks, events or communications
- insults or put downs
- sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or exclusionary jokes
- excessive swearing
- incitement to violence, suicide, or self-harm
- continuing to initiate interaction (including photography or recording) with someone after being asked to stop
- publication of private communication without consent
- tactics that make a victim question their reality such as passive-aggressive and gaslighting behaviours
Participants who are asked to stop any inappropriate behaviour are expected to comply immediately. This applies to all RDMkit community events and platforms, either online or in-person. If a participant engages in behaviour that violates this Code of Conduct, any member of the core development team may warn the offender, ask them to leave the event or platform (without refund), or impose any other appropriate sanctions (see the enforcement manual for details).
This code is adapted from the RDMKit Code of conduct, which is derived from the Turing Way Project Code of Conduct which in turn was adapted from Carpentries Code of Conduct, and the with sections from the Alan Turing Institute Data Study Group Code of Conduct. All are used under the creative commons attribution license.
The Carpentries Code of Conduct was adapted from guidelines written by the Django Project, which was itself based on the Ada Initiative template and the PyCon 2013 Procedure for Handling Harassment Incidents. Contributors to the Carpentries Code of Conduct were: Adam Obeng, Aleksandra Pawlik, Bill Mills, Carol Willing, Erin Becker, Hilmar Lapp, Kara Woo, Karin Lagesen, Pauline Barmby, Sheila Miguez, Simon Waldman, Tracy Teal.
The Turing Institute Data Study Group Code of Conduct was heavily adapted from the Citizen Lab Summer Institute 2017 Code of Conduct and used under a CC BY 2.5 CA license. Citizen Lab based their Code of Conduct on the xvzf Code of Conduct, the Contributor Covenant, the Django Code of Conduct and Reporting Guide and we are also grateful for this guidance from Ada Initiative.
We really appreciate the work that all of the communities linked to above have put into creating such a well-considered process.
This Code of Conduct is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0 CA) license which means you are free to share and adapt the work so long as the attribution to Kirstie Whitaker and the Turing Way community is retained, along with the attribution to the Carpentries, the Alan Turing Institute Data Study Group organising team, Citizen Lab and the other resources.