Comment and anti-harassment policies
The organizers of the Women in Science Writing: Solutions Summit Conference encourage forward-looking, ongoing, respectful dialogue via any social media platform or in person at the conference. Contributions must be in accord with the conference mission of a solutions-based approach to issues of equality and harassment in the science writing community and not violate our comment and anti-harassment policies. Our emphasis is forward progress and seeking ways to solve — and prevent — problems that arise in our community of professionals.

Comment policy
We moderate all of our social media feeds. If you feel that we need to pay attention to a specific thread or comment, please contact us at ejwillingham+sciwrisumm@gmail.com.

We anticipate disagreement and don’t discourage it. We also expect commenters to be respectful of all who are involved in that disagreement. Those who are not will be asked to desist and/or banned/blocked.

Our ultimate goal is an open exchange of ideas focused on forward-focused problem-solving in a safe environment. We reserve the right to remove distasteful commentary and will also consider removing comments if approached by the author of the comment.

In general, comments containing the following will be deemed inappropriate and will be removed:

-Vulgar or abusive language
-Personal attacks of any kind
-Unsupported accusations
-Offensive terms that criticize individuals based upon race/ethnicity/nationality, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, sex, gender identification, socioeconomic status, and/or disability
-Spam or unsolicited advertisements
-Marketing copy or links promoting services or products

In addition:

-Comments should remain on-topic and follow the thread of conversation.
-Be thoughtful when contradicting or disputing previous comments.
-If you have personal triggers, please consider whether you should participate in specific conversation threads. Conversely, please be considerate of those triggered by certain topics because of trauma. In all cases, listening is often the best way to learn from discussions.

Deletions are based on these guidelines and are not intended as a reprimand. We require the threads and conversations to stay on topic because we want our discussion archives to be useful.

Anti-harassment policy
Our goal is a safe working environment for science writers, regardless of race/ethnicity/nationality, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, sex, gender identification, socioeconomic status, and/or disability. We will not tolerate conduct that is intimidating, threatening, or harassing in our conference-related social media feeds or at the conference. Violators will be blocked and banned (social media) or excluded from the conference and any participation in conference proceedings.

Harassment includes unwelcome and offensive comments related to race/ethnicity/nationality, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, sex, gender identification, socioeconomic status, and/or disability, and also intimidation, stalking, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome attention of any kind. Anyone who has been made aware that this behavior is unwelcome yet persists in any of the above will be banned/blocked (social media) or excluded from the conference and all related conference proceedings.

Anyone being harassed, witnessing harassment, or experiencing related concerns should immediately apprise one of the conference organizers. We will ensure that appropriate measures are taken.

Modified from policies of the Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism and ScienceOnline.