Code of Conduct

Code of Conduct for ISSST 2025

Rationale for a Code of Conduct

By implementing a Code of Conduct, ISSST reinforces its commitment to providing an open, safe, and inclusive environment that allows all participants to contribute positively to the conference. This agreement covers not only general respectful behavior expected from participants, but also aims to prevent a conference culture of exclusion that contributes to the historically inequitable attrition of scientists, engineers, and other sustainability professionals (including students on these career paths) based on marginalized identities. [1, 2]

Harassment and Discrimination

Our conference is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, or national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, age, religion (or lack thereof), profession, professional rank, or technology choices. [3] Harassment can be verbal or nonverbal, sexual or nonsexual, and in person or online; it can occur across these categories as well. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form. This applies to all ISSST-related activities.

Abstract Reviewer Guidelines

Abstract reviewers should consider their potential implicit biases [4,5] and review on an objective basis, following the rubric and criteria provided. Reviewers are expected to refrain from judging abstracts from authors with which they have a conflict of interest. Criticism of a submitted abstract should be polite and constructive, focusing on the material in the abstract instead of the authors or institutions involved. The decisions on oral versus poster presentations (as well as any rejections) by section leads will be reviewed by the ISSST Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Committee for recommendations to the Executive Committee on any suggested changes to produce diverse sessions that reflect the quality of abstracts based on the reviewer ratings. The Executive Committee will make final decisions on the agenda of the conference.

Presenter Guidelines

Presenters must provide credit to co-authors contributing to the presented work. Plagiarism, including implicitly or explicitly representing the work of people beyond the co-authors as your own, is prohibited. Presenters are expected to maintain a standard of scientific integrity [6] in their presentation materials.

Presenters should communicate if they permit photos, video, and audio recordings to their audience at the start of their presentation. Audience members are expected to respect the presenter’s request.

General Conference Participant Guidelines

Presenters at the conference may be sharing materials that have not yet been published, or that have restrictions on further public dissemination through their affiliated organization.

Participants are expected to respect presentation materials as copyrighted property of the presenters and to refrain from public dissemination of presentation materials (e.g. posting a picture of a presentation slide on Twitter) unless they are provided explicit permission from the presenters. Participants are expected to maintain confidentiality of new ideas that are works-in-progress shared by presenters.

Participants must minimize disruptions to presentations that affect a presenter’s ability to use their allotted time to present. Participants are expected to be respectful of differences of opinion and are encouraged to maintain civil discussions during the conference. This includes questions directed to presenters, which can involve polite and constructive criticism of the presented work but should not consist of derogatory personal remarks towards the presenters.

Role-Specific Guidelines

Session chairs are expected to treat presenters equitably and to ensure requested accommodations are provided. They are expected to immediately address disruptions of presentations by participants in order to stop the unacceptable behavior, and to report sustained disruptions after the request to comply as violations of the Code of Conduct.

Student presentation judges are expected to be objective in their assessments and to refrain from judging presenters or projects with which they have a conflict of interest.

Reporting Procedures and Consequences of Violations of the Code of Conduct

A conference ombudsperson who will be trained in anti-racism and conflict resolution will be the point of contact handling reports of violations of the Code of Conduct and communicating with the ISSST Executive Committee about the reports to determine next steps. Conference participants who are interested in serving as the ombudsperson will provide a nomination statement explaining their qualifications for the position upon solicitation by the conference planning committee, and a general vote will determine the conference ombudsperson from the nominees each year ahead of the conference.

A Google Form link to report violations of the Code of Conduct will be provided through the conference app, conference online portal, and in email communication ahead of the conference. The form will request the time, date, location, the name (if known) of the person violating the Code of Conduct, and a description of the violation. The person submitting a report has the option to report anonymously (this is the default setting) or to share their name and contact information if they are comfortable being contacted by the conference ombudsperson for more details on the violation. Conference participants who witness or experience a violation of the Code of Conduct are urged to report it as soon as possible to ensure a timely corrective action.

The conference ombudsperson will review any reports as they are submitted and convene the ISSST Executive Committee to share the details of the report and to discuss appropriate action as soon as possible. The conference ombudsperson will not share the name of the person reporting the violation with the Executive Committee even if it was volunteered in the reporting form.

If the name of the violator is unknown, a general announcement or warning from the conference chairs (e.g., "It has been brought to our attention that X action has occurred, and we want to remind everyone of the Code of Conduct that we have all agreed to") may be shared with conference participants.

If the name of the violator is known, through majority vote of ISSST Executive Committee members present at the conference, one of the following sanctions may apply:

  1. A warning
  2. Removal from the conference (without a refund)
  3. Banning from future attendance

Threats, intimidation, or any other form of retaliation against a participant who has made a report or provided information in support of a violation report are prohibited. [7]

Required Consent Agreement to the ISSST Code of Conduct

By registering for the conference, you confirm that you have read and agree to abide by the Code of Conduct. You also confirm that you are not currently under investigation for Title IX-related misconduct or found guilty of such sexual harassment, sexual violence, or discriminatory practices on the basis of sex or gender in the past.

References and Further Reading

  1. Foxx, A. J.; Barak, R. S.; Lichtenberger, T. M.; Richardson, L. K.; Rodgers, A. J.; Webb Williams, E., Evaluating the prevalence and quality of conference codes of conduct. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2019, 116 (30), 14931-14936.
  2. Favaro, B.; Oester, S.; Cigliano, J. A.; Cornick, L. A.; Hind, E. J.; Parsons, E.; Woodbury, T. J., Your science conference should have a code of conduct. Frontiers in Marine Science 2016, 3, 103.
  3. The ADA Initiative; http://2012.jsconf.us/#/about Conference Code of Conduct. https://confcodeofconduct.com/.
  4. University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion. Implicit Bias. https://equity.ucla.edu/know/implicit-bias/
  5. Cornell University Graduate School Office of Inclusion and Student Engagement. Implicit Bias Resources. https://gradschool.cornell.edu/diversity-inclusion/faculty-resources/implicit-bias-resources/
  6. US Department of Agriculture, Office of the Chief Scientist. Scientific Integrity and Research Misconduct. https://www.usda.gov/our-agency/staff-offices/office-chief-scientist-ocs/scientific-integrity-and-research-misconduct
  7. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Code of conduct for UNFCCC conferences, meetings and events. https://unfccc.int/about-us/code-of-conduct-for-unfccc-conferences-meetings-and-events