Code of Conduct

The organisers are committed to making this meeting productive and enjoyable for everyone, creating a work environment that is safe, professional and of mutual trust, where diversity and inclusion are valued, and where everyone is entitled to be treated with courtesy and respect, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, nationality, political affiliation, religion, ability status, physical appearance or educational background, and we expect conference attendees to respect these values.  

We will not tolerate harassment of attendees in any form. Attendance at the conference implies consent to abide by this Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct applies to all attendees and their guests for all conference activities for the duration of the conference, including the science program and all social and professional interactions among attendees, organisers, and staff.

Please follow these guidelines:

  1. Behave professionally. Harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary comments or jokes are not appropriate. Harassment includes sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, unwelcome sexual attention or innuendo, deliberate intimidation, stalking, and photography or recording of an individual without consent. It also includes offensive comments related to individual characteristics, for example: age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, nationality or religion.
  2. All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual or sexist language and imagery is not appropriate.
  3. Be kind and respectful and do not insult or put down other attendees or facilitators of the event. Critique ideas not people.
  4. Should a participant witness events of bullying, harassment or aggression, we recommend that they approach the affected person to show support and check how they are. The witness may also wish to suggest that the person report the inappropriate behaviour. However, it is up to the affected person alone whether or not they wish to report it.
  5. If participants wish to share photos of a speaker on social media, we strongly recommend that they first get the speaker’s permission. Participants may also share the contents of talks/slides via social media unless speakers have asked that specific details/slides not be shared.

Any attendee who wishes to report a violation of this policy is welcome to speak, in confidence, to a member of the SOC or LOC or send an email to ml4astro2@inaf.it.  Consequences for violations may range from verbal warning, to ejection from the meeting without refund, to notifying appropriate authorities. Retaliation for complaints of inappropriate conduct will not be tolerated. If an attendee observes inappropriate comments or actions and personal intervention seems appropriate and safe, they should be considerate of all parties before intervening.

Thank you for helping to make this conference welcoming for all.

This Code of Conduct is based on the “London Code of Conduct,” as originally designed for the conference “Accurate Astrophysics. Correct Cosmology,” held in London in July 2015. The London Code of Conduct was adapted with permission by Andrew Pontzen and Hiranya Peiris from a document by Software Carpentry (http://software-carpentry.org/conduct.html), which itself derives from original Creative Commons documents by PyCon and Geek Feminism. It is released under a CC-Zero licence for reuse.