NGEE-Tropics Commitment
- This Code of Conduct applies to all NGEE-Tropics team members and affiliated collaborators, volunteers, and students involved in NGEE-Tropics research: lab, office, and field work, meetings, virtual spaces (such as email and GitHub) or other related activities across participating institutions, field sites, or wherever official business is conducted on behalf of NGEE-Tropics.
- All NGEE-Tropics members are committed to contributing to a safe, respectful, and welcoming environment that values personal integrity, mutual respect, collaboration, and diversity.
- Professional and respectful treatment of everyone is required. NGEE-Tropics does not tolerate disrespectful or discriminatory conduct including on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, age, experience, socioeconomic status, geographic location, political affiliation, veteran status, genetic information, or other aspects that make us different or unique.
- NGEE-Tropics does not tolerate harassment of any kind, including intimidation, bullying, sexual harassment, threats, acts of violence, retaliation, or other disruptive behavior.
- When reports of violations are submitted, we commit to take timely and responsive action to appropriately address the conduct.
NGEE-Tropics Expected Professional Conduct
- Anyone requested to stop unacceptable or unwelcomed behavior is expected to comply immediately.
- All participants will treat others with respect and consideration – behavior that violates this code of conduct will not be tolerated.
- Respectfully and thoughtfully critique ideas rather than individuals – and respectfully accept constructive criticism.
- Communicating with honesty and professional integrity.
- Resolve differences in a civil and productive manner, free of personal attacks.
- Acknowledge the contributions of others.
- Be mindful of your surroundings and those of your fellow participants and be prepared to intervene, as described in project code of conduct resources (coming soon), when unacceptable conduct occurs.
- Alert appropriate personnel/authorities if you notice a dangerous situation or someone in distress.
Unacceptable Conduct:
While it is impossible to spell out every possible scenario of misconduct that members might face, we rely on one another’s good judgment to uphold the highest standards of integrity for ourselves and our project. Additionally, all NGEE-Tropics participants are expected to follow federal, state and local laws and regulations — in any location throughout the world — and to abide by their home institution’s policies, procedures and codes of conduct. Unacceptable Conduct includes but is not limited to:
- Harassment, intimidation, or discrimination in any form, including professional misconduct
- Physical, emotional, or verbal abuse
- Unwelcome physical contact, sexual attention, or advances
- Hostile or bullying behavior, comments, or conduct (bullying behavior is documented in the Berkeley Lab Bullying prevention guidelines)
- Publishing others’ private information, such as a physical or electronic address, images or videos without explicit permission
- Inappropriate use of nudity and/or sexual images
- Threats, stalking, coercion or personal attacks
- Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting
Prohibition on Retaliation
Retaliation against a person who files a good-faith report or causes to be reported any suspected wrongdoing, or who assists in the authorized investigation of that wrongdoing, is prohibited under federal law. Retaliation may be inferred in the presence of unwanted personal contact, additional work assignments, disciplinary action, harassment, unsupported evaluations or other adverse changes in the conditions of the work environment or educational environment which would deter a reasonable person in the situation from making the complaint.
Link to Downloadable Code of Conduct document (PDF)
Attributions and Acknowledgments
NGEE-Tropics thanks Blair Schneider, Erika Marin-Spiotta, and the ADVANCEGeo project for their time editing this document and educating our team members. We also thank Billy Williams of the American Geophysical Union for his valuable insight and conversations. NGEE-Tropics leadership also extends their gratitude to our Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Title IX and Title VII Office Coordinator, Leti Ericson, our Earth and Environmental Sciences Area Human Resources partners Trace Bigelow, Sandy Roth, and Jenny Quan, and Senior IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accountability) Integration Partner Kevin Nichols. We utilized many impressive resources in the creation of this Code of Conduct which are linked below. We are grateful for the hours of work these institutions have contributed to create such strong foundations for our NGEE-Tropics Code of Conduct.
American Geophysical Union Meetings Code of Conduct
American Geophysical Union Policy on Scientific Integrity and Professional Ethics
Buffer Code of Conduct
Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee Collaborations Code of Conduct
4th International Marine Conservation Congress Meeting Code of Conduct
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Anti-Bullying Guidelines
Long Term Ecological Research Network Code of Conduct
National Science Foundation Term and Condition: Sexual Harassment, Other Forms of Harassment, or Sexual Assault
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Code of Conduct
Toolik Field Station Code of Conduct and Sexual Misconduct Policy
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Participant Code of Conduct
University of California Standards of Ethical Conduct
University of Kansas Center for STEM Learning Code of Conduct