The RDA is a rapidly growing global community of diverse individuals, institutes, government bodies, and organisations including corporations and businesses with valuable expertise, perspectives, and experiences. The RDA benefits greatly from the mixing of cultures, but is also vulnerable to the dangers that can arise from cross-cultural misunderstandings.
To better support a safe and inclusive environment for all community members, the RDA has defined a Code of Conduct to clearly signal community norms. This code assumes that the majority of individuals who wish to contribute to the RDA respect the organisation and its members. The intent of this code is to be explicit about inappropriate behaviour and associated consequences.
This Code of Conduct should be seen as a stepping stone towards continuing to collaboratively build a more welcoming and inclusive RDA community. The code will be reviewed regularly by the Council based on feedback from RDA community members.
Professional Behaviour
Your contributions to the RDA, regardless of venue, make the organisation stronger and are valued by the community. We ask that, as part of the community, you help others feel equally valued and welcomed by treating others with the respect and professionalism with which you would like to be treated. As agreed upon joining the RDA, all members are expected to abide by the RDA’s Guiding Principles.
Production or Posting of Inappropriate Content
The RDA expects members to refrain from production or posting of any of the following2 in an RDA context:
- Material that infringes the copyright of another person or entity, including insufficient copyright attribution.
- Material which defames, abuses or threatens others.
- Material or statements that incite to violence.
- Statements that are bigoted, hateful or racially offensive.
- Material that advocates illegal activity or discusses illegal activities with the intent to commit them.
- Material that contains vulgar, obscene or indecent language or images.
- Unauthorised posting of personal information (names, address, phone number, email, etc.) of other individuals, sometimes referred to as doxxing.
- Commercial solicitations.
- Opinions of fictitious parties.
We expect participants to follow these rules at meeting, conference, and workshop venues, conference-related social events, on official RDA online platforms, or when using associated social media identifiers of RDA, e.g., #RDAPlenary, @resdatall.
Harassment
Harassment includes, but is not limited to, offensive verbal or written comments related to any of the following: gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, colour, race, ethnicity, religion. It can also include activities related to the display of sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.
RDA Guidance on AI Tool Usage
This Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tool Usage Guidance provides guidelines and best practices for the use of AI tools during RDA activities, including meetings and events.
Reporting a Breach of the Code of Conduct
Contacting the RDA
Harassment and other Code of Conduct violations reduce the value and enjoyment of the RDA for everyone. If you notice any violation of this Code of Conduct, please report it as soon as possible via one of the following options:
- Contact the RDA Secretary General, Hilary Hanahoe, the policy officer for the Research Data Alliance. You can speak to Hilary in person at any RDA Plenary, or email Hilary at hilary.hanahoe[at]rda-foundation.org.
- Email conduct@rd-alliance.org. Emails to this address are visible to two members of the RDA Secretariat: Hilary Hanahoe (RDA Secretary General) and Bridget Walker (RDA Operations & Accounts Manager). You can contact either of them individually via email (bridget.walker[at]rda-foundation.org and hilary.hanahoe[at]rda-foundation.org) or speak to either of them at any RDA Plenary.
At RDA Plenaries, these members will be visually identified, e.g. by badges or ribbons, and you can also approach any member of the Secretariat, Technical Advisory Board (TAB), Council or Organisational Advisory Board (OAB) to help you find any one of these members.
Information Required
Verbal and written reports require the collection of the following information3:
- Your contact information (so we can contact you if we need to follow up).
- Names of any individuals involved. If there were other witnesses, please try to include them.
- When and where the incident occurred. Please be as specific as possible.
- Your account of what occurred. If there is a record available (e.g. a mailing list archive) please include a link or screenshot.
- Any additional context you believe existed surrounding the incident.
- If you believe this incident is or may be ongoing.
- Any other information you believe we should have.
Initiating the Process
Once you have submitted your report, you will receive an email acknowledging receipt. Unless the Council is implicated in the incident, the Council co-chairs will discuss the incident and determine how to proceed. Actions and next steps will be determined on a case by case basis. In most cases, the Council co-chairs will nominate a Moderator who will manage the complaint. The Moderator will be impartial, with no direct connection to any of the parties involved and will act without bias or an appearance of bias.
If the incident is determined to be ongoing or a threat to physical safety, the RDA respondents’ immediate priority will be to protect everyone involved. This means an ‘official’ response may be delayed until they believe that the situation has been resolved and that everyone is physically safe.
Serious Incidents
Accusations of criminal activity will be reported to local law enforcement, and RDA Council Co-Chairs and local host notified immediately if you agree. You will be supported for the remainder of the event as appropriate.
After Reporting a Breach
Within one week, you will receive notice of a resolution and course of action, or an explanation of why the situation is not yet resolved. Your feedback on the decision may be taken into account, but it may or may not affect the final outcome4.
Incident details will be logged in confidential records, to document patterns that may emerge, even over longer timeframes. Please note that all reports are kept confidential and only shared with those who “need to know”. Retaliation in any form against anyone reporting an incident of harassment, independent of the outcome, will not be tolerated5.
Sources of information
1 Original source and credit: http://2012.jsconf.us/#/about & The Ada Initiative. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
2 Items 1-8 are drawn from https://www.americanbar.org/utility/codeofconduct.html, used with permission and modified slightly for RDA purposes.