Planetary Surfaces Group

Code of Conduct

We value the participation of every member of our community and want to ensure that every contributor has an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. Accordingly, everyone who participates in any Planetary Surfaces Group project is expected to show respect and courtesy to other community members at all time. We create our culture and our culture is inclusive.

All research carried out at the Natural History Museum should conform to the Museum's Code of Ethics, including obtaining ethical permission before research commences.

Inclusivity and Diversity

Enjoyable, high-quality research can only be conducted when you feel safe, secure, and supported. All group members are dedicated to a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of sex, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, age or religion. We do not tolerate harassment by and/or of members of our community in any form.

To make clear what is expected, we ask all members of the community to conform to the following Code of Conduct:

  • All communication - online and in person - should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate at any time.

  • Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down other group members.

  • Behave professionally. Remember that harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary jokes are not appropriate.

  • Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, religion, sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of discussions, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.

  • Participants asked to stop any harassing behaviour are expected to comply immediately.

In addition to making group members feel safe and secure, diversity and inclusivity has numerous benefits to us all. Put simply, the greater the mix of people in our group, the greater the mix of skills, experiences, perspectives, and ideas we can collectively draw on. But the benefits of diversity and equality cannot be fully achieved without creating an inclusive environment.

Peter will discuss the conduct of lab members who violate these rules - no matter how much they have contributed, or how specialised their skill set. If inappropriate behaviour persists after discussion, formal processes in line with the Museum's procedures will commence.

To report an issue please contact Peter Grindrod. All communication will be treated as confidential. If you do not feel comfortable contacting Peter directly, feel free to contact HR to help deal with the issue.

Flexible Working

The exact hours that members of the group choose to work is up to them, but each member should normally be available between the Museum core hours of 10am and 4pm most days to facilitate collaborative working. Meetings and events will not be arranged outside these hours. Exceptions for these core hours can be arranged in line with Museum policy. Working on site or at home is still considered working, and all members have the choice of where they best carry out their work. There will inevitably be occasions where it is necessary to attend the Museum (e.g. access to labs, computers).

Avoid sending work-related email outside of 08:00 and 18:00. The Museum’s Outlook mail comes with "scheduled emails" to facilitate this and most email clients have the same capability (in-built or via add-ons) or simply write the email and save as a draft, then send later. Please give consideration to the timing of the email with respect to what the recipient needs to do, i.e. don't send an email at 17:59 which is needed for a 10:00 meeting the next day. Automated emails, etc. are fine at any time, but no lab members are required nor should feel obliged to reply to them outside of their typical work hours. See the Email Charter for some helpful techniques to manage your email.

If you experience any challenges related to flexible working within the lab please contact Peter Grindrod. All communication will be treated as confidential.

 

Outputs and Open Science

Where possible, all outputs will be published ‘Open Access’ (OA) (preferably Gold or Diamond OA; for definitions, please see the Open Research Glossary), with manuscripts also uploaded where possible to a relevant pre-print server (e.g. EarthArXiv, ESSOAr) prior to journal submission, review, and (hopefully) publication. Where Gold or Diamond OA is not possible, the manuscript should be made publically available via Green OA, and must be placed in the Museum’s Repository within three months of acceptance. Every effort should be made to share data and software in an open, and usuable, state - through the NHM Data Portal, or external sites (e.g. FigShare, Zenodo). See this AGU guide for further guidance.

Authorship on any work will be openly discussed in group meetings and should include everyone who contributed significantly to the work being presented. A “significant contribution” can include but is not limited to, interpretations of primary data and development of ideas presented in the work; it need not include data curation or financial contribution to the work undertaken. The order of authors on a manuscript or presentation should be dictated by the relative contribution made by each author (see here for further information); in the case these contributions are equal, authors should be listed alphabetically by surname. Where conflict arises, Peter Grindrod will facilitate discussion to resolve the conflict.

 

Thanks and Licence

This CoC is derived from open source CoCs: BahlaiLab, WhitakerLab, Basins Research Group, and York Environmental Modelling Group. Many thanks to all of them.

 This CoC is released as CC-BY 4.0