The organizers are committed to making this meeting productive and enjoyable for everyone, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, nationality, political affiliation, religion, ability status, physical appearance, or educational background. All WIPC 2023 participants – including, but not limited to attendees, speakers, volunteers, exhibitors, organizers, members of the media, and service providers – are expected to abide by this code of conduct. Attendance at this WIPC meeting implies consent to abide by this code of conduct. We will not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. 

Explicitly, please follow these guidelines: 

Expected Behaviour: 

• Behave professionally. Harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary comments or jokes are not appropriate. 
• Treat all participants with kindness, respect, and consideration, valuing a diversity of views and opinions (including those you may not share). Communicate openly, with respect for other participants, critiquing ideas rather than individuals. 
• All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate. 
• Pay attention to the power dynamics in the meeting rooms, especially during discussions and workshops, to make sure more junior members are able to have their contributions heard. 
• Respect the rules and policies of the meeting venue. 

Unacceptable Behaviour: 

• Harassment, bullying, intimidation, or discrimination of any sort will not be tolerated. This includes the use of any offensive language or imagery in any meeting venue. Behaviour that is acceptable to one person may not be acceptable to another, so use discretion to ensure respect is communicated. Harassment intended in a joking manner still constitutes unacceptable behaviour. 
• Harassment includes sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, sexual attention or innuendo, deliberate intimidation, stalking, and any inappropriate behaviour. It also includes offensive comments related to gender, sexual orientation, physical or cognitive ability, political affiliation, physical appearance, age, body size, race, or religion.
• Retaliation for reporting unacceptable behaviour will not be tolerated. 

Participants asked to stop any inappropriate behaviour are expected to comply immediately. Attendees violating these rules may be asked to leave the event or conference at the sole discretion of the organizers and without a refund of the conference fee. Any participant who wishes to report a violation of this policy is asked to speak, in confidence, to any of the members of WIPC’s Organizing Committee. Please feel free to contact them directly in case any conduct concerns arise during the conference. 

Consequences 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 a participant observes inappropriate comments or actions and personal intervention seems appropriate and safe, they should be considerate of all parties while intervening. Based on the nature of the violation and the response, the organizing committee will decide upon appropriate actions. Where a violation of the policy is deemed to have occurred, a record will be kept to that effect within WIPC. 

Accessibility 

Presenters are encouraged to make their figures colour-blind friendly to the extent possible, as well as using large, easy-to-read fonts, etc., to enable easier viewing for all participants. For any accessibility accommodations, please contact the meeting organizers with any requests. 

 

This code of conduct has been adapted from WIPC 2019 who based it on the “London Code of Conduct”, as originally designed for the conference “Accurate Astrophysics. Correct Cosmology”, held in London in July 2015; it also incorporates elements from Ecological Society of America’s Code and The 2018 Michigan Exoplanets Workshop. The London Code was adapted with permission by Andrew Pontzen and Hiranya Peiris from a document by Software Carpentry, which itself derives from original Creative Commons documents by PyCon and Geek Feminism. It is released under a CC-Zero license for reuse.