Codes of Conduct in Science

Codes of Conduct in the Scientific Community

Recently, there has been a needed push to develop a more welcoming and inclusive scientific community. One method of trying to ensure an inclusive and welcoming work environment are codes of conduct. Codes of conduct outline acceptable behaviors for a group of participants during work and community activities. The aim of these codes of conduct is to provide clear instructions for appropriate behavior during work, work-related, and community activities, define behaviors that won’t be tolerated, outline channels for reporting inappropriate behavior, and define consequences for inappropriate behavior. These codes of conduct make community members aware of their own behavior by articulating behavior expectations. By articulating clear behavior expectations, codes of conduct also remove the burden of articulating what behaviors are not acceptable, welcoming, or professional from those experiencing inappropriate behavior.

Codes of conduct have been written for several work contexts pertinent to scientists. These work contexts include field missions, meetings (online and in-person), classrooms, and general codes of conduct for all communications. Examples of codes of conduct are linked at the end of this article, and will be collected on the IGAC website. Many organizations frame the code of conduct around the vision statement of the organization. In this way, organizations seek to ensure that the behavior of those participating in their community is conducive to the goals and vision of the organization.

Each code of conduct is different; however, each has general common themes that will vary in details from organization and context. These themes include:

A definition of when the code of conduct applies
A definition to whom the code of conduct applies
A description of encouraged and appropriate behaviors (e.g., open and welcoming, active listening, inclusive language)
A description of behaviors that will not be tolerated (e.g., discriminatory and derogatory language, sexual harrassment, violence, unsafe behaviors)
How to report violations of a code of conduct
Consequences of code of conduct violations

Codes of conduct defined in this article are describing productive and inclusive behaviors in interpersonal relationships between members of a scientific community, team, workplace, or organization. Ethical codes of conduct for scientific research are a separate, but equally important, matter not covered here.

IGAC has not written its own code of conduct; however, we wish to provide examples of codes of conduct for various contexts as a resource for our community. If you know of any codes of conduct you find particularly helpful, please email info@igacproject.org for inclusion. We are particularly interested in more non-English codes of conduct! We will be collecting these codes of conduct for reference on the IGACProject website, igacproject.org.

Examples of Codes of Conduct

Guidelines for writing a code of conduct

https://projectinclude.org/writing_cocs

https://www.indeed.com/hire/c/info/write-a-code-of-conduct

AdvanceGEO

https://serc.carleton.edu/advancegeo/resources/codes_conduct.html

(a number of links to different codes of conduct)

Association of Polar Early Career Scientists

https://www.apecs.is/diversity-equity-inclusion/field-code-of-conduct.html#:~:text=A%20Code%20of%20Conduct%20for,by%20all%20field%20research%20participants.&text=Identification%20and%20definition%20of%20appropriate%20and%20inappropriate%20behaviour

Safety and Belonging in the field: a checklist for educators

https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/2607/

Royal Society of Chemistry