SSSC Code of Conduct

The LSST (Legacy Survey of Space and Time) Solar System Science Collaboration (SSSC) is made up of members from around the globe with a diverse set of skills, personalities, perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. We value the participation and contributions of every member of the SSSC, and we have a shared responsibility in maintaining the SSSC as a positive, inclusive, supportive, and successful community. Accordingly, all SSSC members are expected to abide by the following Code of Conduct.

As members of the SSSC,

We pledge to treat all people with equity and respect, providing a harassment- and bullying-free environment, regardless of sex, sexual orientation and/or gender identity, disability, physical appearance, body size, age, race, nationality, ethnicity, and religion. We will not tolerate racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and other kinds of bias— whether these behaviors are overt or subtle. In particular, sexual language and imagery, sexist, racist, or otherwise exclusionary jokes and statements are not appropriate.

We pledge to respect the work of others by recognizing acknowledgment/citation requests of original authors. As authors, we pledge to be explicit about how we want our own work to be cited or acknowledged.

We acknowledge that including people with a variety of opinions and backgrounds will only serve to enrich our collaboration. In particular, discussions and debates will be done with respect, taking proactive measure to ensure that all participants are heard and feel confident that they can freely express their opinions.

We pledge to welcome questions and answer them respectfully. We will criticize ideas, not people; striving to model behaviors that encourage productive debate and disagreement.

We pledge to treat our colleagues outside of the SSSC with the same respect as within the SSSC.

We pledge to follow the LSST Communications Code of Conduct when using any of the LSST project communication tools to interact with others.

We pledge to help the entire SSSC follow the Code of Conduct, and to not remain silent when we see violations of the code of conduct. We will take action when members of our collaboration violate this code, such as talking privately with the person and/or notifying the SSSC co-chairs, SSSC working group leads, and or the LSSTC Science Collaborations Coordinator.

This Code of Conduct applies to all SSSC situations and interactions online and offline, in person meetings, emails, mailing lists, forums, social media, social events associated with an SSSC or LSST workshop or conference, group interactions, and one-on-one interactions.

SSSC members asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. If someone points out that you have violated the Code of Conduct, it can be tempting to become defensive— but instead, we ask that you apologize, reflect a moment, and move on. If you do not understand why issue was taken with your behavior, the SSSC leadership will be happy to discuss it with you, so that everyone can learn from the experience.

SSSC members violating these rules may be asked to leave the collaboration at the sole discretion of the SSSC co-chairs after consultation with the SSSC working group leads and the LSSTC Science Collaborations Coordinator.

Any issues related to the Code of Conduct can be brought to the confidential attention of the SSSC co-chairs, SSSC working group leads and/or the LSSTC Science Collaborations Coordinator.

This code of conduct has been adapted from the following resources:

The SSSC Code of Conduct is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. We freely encourage other researchers to reuse and adapt this Code of Conduct.