Code of Conduct
Every participating conference should adopt a code of conduct for the conference. There should be a clearly marked link to the code of conduct on the call for papers and conference web page. In addition, a pop-up window at the time of registration should require participants to indicate that they understand the code and agree to abide by it. Conference organizers should also remind attendees about the code of conduct before the first talk of the conference and at the conference business meeting.
The list of participating conferences has a link to the code of conduct for each conference.
Conflicts of Interest
The paper review process for journals and conferences is the most likely avenue for retaliation against an individual who has accused someone of harassment or who has simply turned down an unwanted invitation. Therefore an important component in protecting people from retaliation is to provide a mechanism to declare a conflict of interest in a paper review without requiring that the individual publicly state the reason for the conflict. Unfortunately, a completely open-ended system leaves the review process open to abuse by authors who wish to disqualify a referee when there is no legitimate reason to do so. Therefore we recommend the following two practices:
- Have language clearly outlining what conditions constitute a conflict. The list should include the situation in which the potential reviewer has harassed an author of the paper but should also include other scenarios as well. The author should not be required to specify which item on the list is the reason for the conflict.
- Provide a way for an author to declare a conflict with someone who is likely to serve as a subreviewer.
- In the event that the program committee chair or editor-in-chief suspects that a claim of a conflict is not legitimate, she or he can ask one of the ToC Advocates closely affiliated with the field to confidentially verify the conflict.
- Authors tend to err on the side of declaring a conflict if the reviewer might have positive bias towards their paper. Having too many conflicts can make it difficult to get reviewers with enough expertise. You may want to discourage this kind of borderline CoI as the reviewers themselves will have an opportunity to indicate if they can not give a paper a fair review.
Sample language for the conflict of interest policy can be found here.
Coordination of SafeToC Advocates
Every participating conference is committed to ensuring that at least one trained ToC Advocate is present for the duration of the conference. Ideally, there will be a few people who have committed to cover the conference for a few years. Conference organizers can also consult the list of ToC Advocates to find other volunteers to help cover an upcoming conference.
The names of the ToC Advocates should be clearly advertised to all participants at the conference. Here are some ways to publicize the ToC
Advocates:
- List the names of the ToC Advocates on the conference web page.
- List the names of the ToC Advocates on the pop-up window that appears at registration where registrants agree to abide by the code of conduct.
- Introduce the ToC Advocates at the first talk of the conference and/or the business meeting.
- Have a special identifiable name tag for the ToC Advocates.