TheBehaviourForum.org - Rules and acceptable content and behaviour

Purpose of the forum

TheBehaviourForum.org is a forum for the discussion of scientific matters relating to the use of home-cages to behavioural research in laboratory animals, including experimental procedures, the use of equipment, problem solving, ethical considerations, job offers and advertisement of community events.

Platform

TheBehaviourForum.org was established by Working Group members within the COST Action CA20135 (TEATIME) which is supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. COST Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers.
TheBehaviourForum.org runs on the Discourse platform. The parent company is CDCK Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc.. TheBehaviourForum.org is managed by the Mary Lyon Centre (MLC) at MRC Harwell who are the Grant Holder for the TEATIME Action. The administrators and moderators for TheBehaviourForum.org are volunteers from the TEATIME Action.

How our forum is moderated

Posts on the message boards are moderated by a team of moderators. Personal messages will not be moderated but can be checked by administrators if a complaint is made. Personal messages should follow the same rules for posts. People receiving personal messages that break these rules should report these to the moderators who will take appropriate action.

The moderators are members of the TEATIME Action who are volunteers. Their main role is to make sure that the forum rules are followed by every forum member. If they have concerns, or to answer concerns raised by members, they will contact people confidentially via personal messaging on the forum. At least two moderators will take part in any decision to remove a post or silence or suspend a person from the forum.

If you have a complaint about an action or communication from a moderator, please contact the COST–TEATIME office at COST-TEATIME@har.mrc.ac.uk who will pass your complaint confidentially to the TEATIME Action Chair whose decision will be final.

The moderators also manage the structure of the forum, the subjects of the categories and the approved list of tags. Moderators may move posts between categories. The author of the post might not be notified of the move. It is recommended to search for a post before contacting moderators and asking about its deletion. Please contact the moderators by direct message if you have any questions or suggestions on these.

Summary of rules

Rules in full

    1. Forum users should follow the rules listed here. It is your responsibility to remain updated on the rules.

      1.1. A message will be posted under the [administrator] category when any changes or updates are made to the rules.

    2. Your posting should be relevant to the forum and relevant to the discussion.

      2.1. Please select the correct category when posting.
      2.2. Do not start a new thread in an existing discussion. Start a new thread using the correct category.
      2.3. Use the pre-defined tags to further identify your topic.
      2.4. If in doubt search for similar topics to see what categories and tags have been used.
      2.5. This forum is to discuss open science. Non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements should not be needed. You can continue discussions by personal message if you prefer not to disclose to everyone.

    3. Breaching of the rules could lead to your message(s) being deleted and your account being silenced (so you can view but not post) or blocked.

      3.1. Our moderators’ interpretation of the rules is final. If they consider rules have been breached, they will contact you via personal message on the forum to explain why they have taken action.
      3.2. Appeals against decisions should be sent to the TEATIME office at COST-TEATIME@har.mrc.ac.uk who will forward them to the Action Chair for a decision.

    4. Be polite and respectful towards all forum members and when writing posts or sending personal messages.

      4.1. Do not criticise other users in a personal manner. Refrain from insulting or attacking users in a discussion.
      4.2. Do not use swear words or use asterisks or symbols to hide the spelling of a swear word.
      4.3. Do not write entire posts in uppercase to express annoyance.
      4.4. Stay on topic, do not use threads to instigate hostility.
      4.5. Do not reject open discussion or ostracize (cancel) someone.

    5. Do not post anything unlawful. Unlawful content, harassment, discrimination, and impersonation will be subject to an immediate ban.

      5.1. Do not harass other users.
      5.2. Do not use discriminatory language.
      5.3. Illegal material is not allowed.
      5.4. Pornography or sexually explicit material is not allowed.
      5.5. Do not impersonate people, companies, or other users. This also includes intentionally not disclosing a financial interest, especially for the purposes of commercial or other gain (e.g. by pretending to be an academic user of a rival company’s equipment to systematically disparage it, or hiding one’s own commercial affiliation to boast their affiliate’s products).
      5.6. Personal messages are subject to this rule as well.

    6. Do not post malicious content.

      6.1. All spam posts or those containing links to malware will be removed from our forum and will lead to sanctions for the offending users.
      6.2. Videos and attached documents must be accompanied by a summary at a minimum so users can judge their content before opening.
      6.3. Personal messages are subject to this rule as well.

    7. Check that your answers and facts are correct, to the best of your knowledge, before posting them.

      7.1. Take care that your replies are thorough and well-argued, as it is expected of a scientific discussion. It is recommended to cite sources and scientific articles related to and supporting your arguments.
      7.2. Take care not to misquote a person or publication or make misleading statements.
      7.3. Post a correction if you find that you have made an unintentional error or need to clarify a previous post.

    8. Follow rules about submitting complaints.

      8.1. Do not write posts in the forum which complain about other users. Report rule breaking or suspected abuse of the platform to the moderators, who will evaluate the report and act appropriately.
      8.2. Members from commercial companies can report rule breaking to the moderators, including reporting posts that appear to baselessly attack their products. These will be reviewed by the moderators and the Action Chair who will decide if any sanction is needed.
        8.2.1. HOWEVER: Before submitting your complaint, please consider carefully if the post in question breaks any rules (especially if it concerns products that you have some connection to). For example, discussions about equipment and software will sometimes centre on shortfalls, modifications, or additions a user might consider necessary. This is allowed (for users that are not affiliated with a commercial entity) if well-argued and exemplified, in the spirit of scientific discussion.

    9. Advertising of jobs is allowed, providing they are jobs in the academic sector and are relevant to the purpose of the forum.

      9.1. Announcements from the academic sector are allowed in the appropriate categories, providing they are relevant to the purpose of the forum, for example, information on a publication, meeting, conference, webinar and training courses.
      9.2. Members may advertise job vacancies in the Job Opportunities category, but only if they relate to the purpose of the forum and are in the academic/non-commercial sector.
      9.3. Members may not advertise job vacancies on behalf of people who are not registered members of the forum.

    10. Follow rules about conflict of interest, advertisements and posting rules for company-affiliated users

      10.1. Members who are employed by companies are welcome to post questions and replies, but should not post direct advertisements of their products, nor anything that could be seen as a criticism of another company’s product.
      10.2. Members employed by companies need to accurately fill out their Conflict of Interest (CoI) statement during sign-up, and keep it updated in their profile preferences. Failure to do so will be considered impersonation - a violation of rule 5.5 (“Do not impersonate people, companies, or other users”), and, as such, a serious infraction. Members employed by companies can request flair (green dot next to the avatar with a title containing the company name) to distinguish themselves, but they are not required to. Members not employed by companies but having competing financial or non-financial interests are also invited to disclose them in the CoI statement.
      10.3. Members employed by companies can respond to questions posed about their products or services but should not initiate a conversation on a particular product or service. They may recommend their product as a solution, provided they thoroughly, concretely explain how the product addresses the user’s stated problem/need. If a response involves a commercial solution from the member’s company, the post should start by mentioning "Commercial response" at the beginning of the post.
      10.4. Continuing a conversation with a commercial affiliate about the company’s products, when it is not adding to the original question/post (e.g. asking about the company’s catalogue, asking a commercial affiliate for comparisons with other products, etc.) should be done by personal (direct) messaging.
      10.5. There is no restriction to sharing information on products or services via the personal messaging service, provided it is just to one individual in direct answer to a question or comment posted by that individual.
      10.6. The personal messaging service should not be used for any form of unsolicited advertising or promotion of products or services and should not be used for sending the same message to more than one person. Mass marketing to groups of individuals will be considered a breach of the rules and the user will be sanctioned.
      10.7. Recipients of personal messages can raise a complaint with the moderators if they feel the personal messaging service is being used incorrectly. Sanctions will be dealt with in the same way as any inappropriate posting.

Disclaimer

Postings made by forum members are personal opinions and are not the opinion of MLC at MRC Harwell who host the forum, the TEATIME Action who provide the structure for and moderate the content of the forum, nor the COST Association who provide funding the forum. MLC at MRC Harwell and the TEATIME moderators cannot verify the validity of all statements and content and are not responsible for the accuracy or correctness of information contained in any posts or personal messages. Likewise, the MLC at MRC Harwell and its staff and moderators acting on behalf of TEATIME will not be held liable for any damages, be they indirect, incidental, consequential or special that may be incurred by people using this site or the information contained within.

Unless otherwise specified, all content is copyrighted by its respective author, including all personal messages, posts, and comments. By posting content on TheBehaviourForum.org, you agree to grant TheBehaviourForum.org usage rights to that content within the confines of the site, and other members the right to quote and respond to that content. Reposting or disseminating content from TheBehaviourForum.org to other websites or through other media is not permissible without permission of the author. Forum moderators may be required to edit, move, or delete certain content to comply with forum rules or applicable law, but will not delete posts or accounts on request except to comply with rules or law.

Your email address is not visible to other forum users. You should use the forum personal message service if you want to directly contact someone. In this case, users are then under no obligation to disclose their personal email address but may do so if they wish.

Liability

You are solely liable for any information that you publish on the forum. You agree to indemnify (cover the costs of) MLC at MRC Harwell and its staff against any claims, liability, cost, damage or expense they may incur (without limitation legal fees) as a result of material you publish on the forum or any violation by you of your obligations under the forum rules. MLC at MRC Harwell expressly excludes liability for any loss or damage resulting from the use of the forum by any person in contravention of these forum rules.

Privacy policy

TheBehaviourForum.org Privacy Policy can be read here.

Members of the forum are advised not to put personal sensitive information in their biographies, which are optional to complete. The Discourse platform is cloud-based. We have requested that the TheBehaviourForum.org data is hosted by Amazon Web Services S3 in the EU.

People who manage TheBehaviourForum.org on behalf of the TEATIME Action (namely members of the TEATIME Action, who act as moderators, and members of the MLC at MRC Harwell who have access to the forum) will have access to all posts and can access personal messages. They will abide by the TEATIME Privacy Policy, which follows the rules of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Read the TEATIME privacy Policy here: Privacy Policy | COST Teatime

Read the MLC at MRC Harwell privacy policy here: Privacy Policy | Mary Lyon Centre

Discourse is based in the USA under parent company CDCK Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc.. They will also have access to the above information on TheBehaviourForum.org.

Read the Discourse privacy policy here: Privacy policy | Discourse - Civilized Discussion

Applicable law

The applicable law for TheBehaviourForum.org is United Kingdom law, and all posts must conform to the laws established there. Posts that violate United Kingdom law will be referred to the proper authority, regardless of the legal status of the post in the user’s country if different from the United Kingdom.