Legal

Code of Conduct

At DOAJ, we foster a welcoming and inclusive community for everyone. Our code of conduct and zero tolerance policy help us create an environment where you feel comfortable and valued.

What this policy covers

Our policy applies to all communication within our community or the spaces we create. It covers interactions among our team, volunteers, ambassadors, and individuals involved in events, activities and projects initiated or organised by us. This includes:

  • Communication via email or social media
  • Participation in webinars and events organised by us
  • Communication with our team members, volunteers and ambassadors at other events

Who this policy includes

We welcome everyone, no matter your gender identity, sexual orientation, abilities, neurodiversity, appearance, body size, ethnicity, nationality, race, age, religion (or lack of it), social identity, or any other protected characteristic. Our community is wonderfully diverse and filled with passionate individuals who care deeply about their work. While our collaboration can sometimes spark lively discussions, we ask everyone to treat one another with consideration, kindness and respect.

Code of conduct

We encourage members of our community who engage with or for DOAJ to:

  1. Be kind and patient. We want all members of our community to engage and be heard. We are a diverse community with many languages and many needs. Remember that people may use translation services or screen readers. They may be communicating in a second language.
  2. Be respectful and open. Our community is open scholarship, open research, open access, and open science. We encourage you to have open discussions. No matter the content, we ask you to communicate in a professional manner, be open to hearing others' points of view, and exchange information, experiences and knowledge openly.
  3. Create a positive environment. We want you to feel comfortable when engaging with us and our community. Learning and exploring different aspects of open scholarship should be fun! We encourage you to interact positively and share laughs, but avoid making demeaning or exclusionary jokes.
  4. Speak up! We encourage and support you in addressing unwelcome behaviour as long as you feel comfortable doing so. Otherwise, follow our process below to report issues.

Zero tolerance

We have zero tolerance for:

  • Rude, disrespectful and offensive behaviour, including derogatory remarks or anything that amounts to verbal or emotional abuse
  • Sexually inappropriate comments or behaviour
  • Racist and discriminatory abuse
  • Threats of physical violence
  • Aggressive and violent behaviour
  • Doxxing (publishing private information about any of members of the DOAJ team, ambassadors or volunteers)
  • Stalking

Or any other inappropriate behaviours that breach our code of conduct.

Reporting and resolving issues

Reporting issues

If you have concerns about someone’s behaviour, please contact the Operations Manager, Lene ([email protected]). Lene will:

  • refer the incident to our Executive Team (who will decide on further action)
  • follow up with all those involved and provide you with an update

Resolving issues

In cases where our zero tolerance policy has not been breached, we will try to resolve the conflict, for example, through a mediated conversation involving a third party or separate conversations with everyone involved. Our aim is to solve issues respectfully and to improve relationships and collaborations.

We also encourage you to let us know about incidents that were successfully resolved without our involvement. This helps us ensure we have the correct policies in place.

Breaches to our zero tolerance policy

We expect you to treat members of our team, volunteers and ambassadors with kindness and respect for the work they are doing. If someone breaches our zero tolerance policy, we may take action such as:

  • Stopping all communication with you, including emails or any appeals and complaints
  • Excluding a publisher or journal from the DOAJ
  • Banning an individual from future DOAJ events
  • Blocking or reporting an individual or a profile on social media
  • Removing an individual from an event or preventing them from attending future events
  • Reporting incidents involving our team, volunteers or ambassadors at external events or withdrawing from an event
  • Making a statement on our blog