• We commit to providing equal opportunities for journalists without regard to age, gender, race, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, and disability status.
• Our employees commit to exhibiting high standards of personal ethics and behavior in the conduct of their responsibilities, and we expect persons representing our publication on assignment to do likewise.
• We commit to extending our company’s protection policies regarding personal conduct, discrimination, and harassment to all writers working on assignment for the publication.
• We will designate a person or persons for the writer to contact if concerns arise with regard to inappropriate or problematic situations with the assigning editor or with other editors or personnel involved in editing the piece.
• Any person who in good faith reports a violation of those policies shall not suffer harassment, retaliation, or adverse employment consequence.
• Editors encourage writers to bring problematic situations encountered while reporting a story, including harassment, to their attention, and editors will intervene as appropriate.
• We commit to providing fair compensation and paying for assignments in a timely manner.
• We commit to providing a clear explanation when a story is killed or reassigned.

All freelancers are welcome to link to this in their email signatures and on their websites and to disseminate it widely. We also hope that the science writing community, particularly editors, will show their support for this bill of rights by co-signing and providing feedback in the comments.