In the interest of fostering an open, collaborative, and welcoming environment, we as contributors and maintainers of nf-core, pledge to making participation in our projects and community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of:
- Age
- Body size
- Familial status
- Gender identity and expression
- Geographical location
- Level of experience
- Nationality and national origins
- Native language
- Physical and neurological ability
- Race or ethnicity
- Religion
- Sexual identity and orientation
- Socioeconomic status
Please note that the list above is alphabetised and is therefore not ranked in any order of preference or importance.
Note: This Code of Conduct (CoC) has been drafted by the nf-core Safety Officer and been edited after input from members of the nf-core team and others. "We", in this document, refers to the Safety Officer and members of the nf-core core team, both of whom are deemed to be members of the nf-core community and are therefore required to abide by this Code of Conduct. This document will amended periodically to keep it up-to-date, and in case of any dispute, the most current version will apply.
An up-to-date list of members of the nf-core core team can be found here. Our current safety officer is Renuka Kudva.
nf-core is a young and growing community that welcomes contributions from anyone with a shared vision for Open Science Policies. Open science policies encompass inclusive behaviours and we strive to build and maintain a safe and inclusive environment for all individuals.
We have therefore adopted this code of conduct (CoC), which we require all members of our community and attendees in nf-core events to adhere to in all our workspaces at all times. Workspaces include but are not limited to Slack, meetings on Zoom, Jitsi, YouTube live etc.
Our CoC will be strictly enforced and the nf-core team reserve the right to exclude participants who do not comply with our guidelines from our workspaces and future nf-core activities.
We ask all members of our community to help maintain a supportive and productive workspace and to avoid behaviours that can make individuals feel unsafe or unwelcome. Please help us maintain and uphold this CoC.
Questions, concerns or ideas on what we can include? Contact safety [at] nf-co [dot] re
The safety officer is responsible for clarifying the standards of acceptable behavior and are expected to take appropriate and fair corrective action in response to any instances of unacceptable behaviour.
The safety officer in consultation with the nf-core core team have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions that are not aligned to this Code of Conduct, or to ban temporarily or permanently any contributor for other behaviors that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful.
Members of the core team or the safety officer who violate the CoC will be required to recuse themselves pending investigation. They will not have access to any reports of the violations and be subject to the same actions as others in violation of the CoC.
Participation in the nf-core community is contingent on following these guidelines in all our workspaces and events. This includes but is not limited to the following listed alphabetically and therefore in no order of preference:
- Communicating with an official project email address.
- Communicating with community members within the nf-core Slack channel.
- Participating in hackathons organised by nf-core (both online and in-person events).
- Participating in collaborative work on GitHub, Google Suite, community calls, mentorship meetings, email correspondence.
- Participating in workshops, training, and seminar series organised by nf-core (both online and in-person events). This applies to events hosted on web-based platforms such as Zoom, Jitsi, YouTube live etc.
- Representing nf-core on social media. This includes both official and personal accounts.
nf-core's CoC and expectations of respectful behaviours for all participants (including organisers and the nf-core team) include but are not limited to the following (listed in alphabetical order):
- Ask for consent before sharing another community member’s personal information (including photographs) on social media.
- Be respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences. We are all here to learn from one another and a difference in opinion can present a good learning opportunity.
- Celebrate your accomplishments at events! (Get creative with your use of emojis 🎉 🥳 💯 🙌 !)
- Demonstrate empathy towards other community members. (We don’t all have the same amount of time to dedicate to nf-core. If tasks are pending, don’t hesitate to gently remind members of your team. If you are leading a task, ask for help if you feel overwhelmed.)
- Engage with and enquire after others. (This is especially important given the geographically remote nature of the nf-core community, so let’s do this the best we can)
- Focus on what is best for the team and the community. (When in doubt, ask)
- Graciously accept constructive criticism, yet be unafraid to question, deliberate, and learn.
- Introduce yourself to members of the community. (We’ve all been outsiders and we know that talking to strangers can be hard for some, but remember we’re interested in getting to know you and your visions for open science!)
- Show appreciation and provide clear feedback. (This is especially important because we don’t see each other in person and it can be harder to interpret subtleties. Also remember that not everyone understands a certain language to the same extent as you do, so be clear in your communications to be kind.)
- Take breaks when you feel like you need them.
- Using welcoming and inclusive language. (Participants are encouraged to display their chosen pronouns on Zoom or in communication on Slack.)
The following behaviours from any participants within the nf-core community (including the organisers) will be considered unacceptable under this code of conduct. Engaging or advocating for any of the following could result in expulsion from nf-core workspaces.
- Deliberate intimidation, stalking or following and sustained disruption of communication among participants of the community. This includes hijacking shared screens through actions such as using the annotate tool in conferencing software such as Zoom.
- “Doxing” i.e. posting (or threatening to post) another person’s personal identifying information online.
- Spamming or trolling of individuals on social media.
- Use of sexual or discriminatory imagery, comments, or jokes and unwelcome sexual attention.
- Verbal and text comments that reinforce social structures of domination related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, ability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religion or work experience.
The majority of nf-core interactions and events are held online. Unfortunately, holding events online comes with the added issue of online trolling. This is unacceptable, reports of such behaviour will be taken very seriously, and perpetrators will be excluded from activities immediately.
All community members are required to ask members of the group they are working within for explicit consent prior to taking screenshots of individuals during video calls.
If someone makes you feel uncomfortable through their behaviours or actions, report it as soon as possible.
You can reach out to members of the nf-core core team and they will forward your concerns to the safety officer(s).
Issues directly concerning members of the core team will be dealt with by other members of the core team and the safety manager, and possible conflicts of interest will be taken into account. nf-core is also in discussions about having an ombudsperson, and details will be shared in due course.
All reports will be handled with utmost discretion and confidentially.
- The Contributor Covenant, version 1.4
- The OpenCon 2017 Code of Conduct (CC BY 4.0 OpenCon organisers, SPARC and Right to Research Coalition)
- The eLife innovation sprint 2020 Code of Conduct
- The Mozilla Community Participation Guidelines v3.1 (version 3.1, CC BY-SA 3.0 Mozilla)
- Complete rewrite from original Contributor Covenant CoC.