Code of Conduct

The R Conference is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for participants at our event(s). The R Conference is a conference intended for professional networking and collaboration in the R community. We encourage the open exchange of ideas and expression and thus require an environment that recognizes the inherent worth of every person and group.

A Code of Conduct is useful to define accepted and acceptable behaviors and to promote high standards of professional practice. It also provides a benchmark for self-evaluation and acts as a vehicle for better identity of the community and organization.

This code (CoC) applies to any participant at the R Conference – developers, participants in meetings, teleconferences, mailing lists, conferences or functions, etc. Note that this code augments rather than replaces legal rights and obligations pertaining to any particular situation.

Expected Behavior

All event participants are expected to behave in accordance with professional standards, with both this CoC as well as their respective employer’s policies governing appropriate workplace behavior, and all applicable laws.

Unacceptable Behavior

Harassment will not be tolerated in any form, including but not limited to:

  • Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religion, national origin or any other status protected by laws of the locale in which the conference or program is being held.
  • Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs and employment.
  • Deliberate misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names.
  • Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behaviour in spaces where they are not appropriate.
  • Physical contact and simulated physical contact (eg, textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub") without consent or after a request to stop.
  • Threats of violence.
  • Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm.
  • Deliberate intimidation.
  • Stalking or following.
  • Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes.
  • Inappropriate staring.
  • Sustained disruption of discussion.
  • Unwelcome sexual attention.
  • Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others.
  • Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease.
  • Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent except as necessary to protect vulnerable people from intentional abuse.
  • Publication of private communication without consent.

Harassment in online channels

Participants at the R Conference may also participate in online chats, discussion forums, and mailing lists (including platforms such as Slack and Twitter). Please use these guidelines when engaging with participants:

  • Avoid using overtly sexual or offensive usernames or profile photos which might detract from a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all.
  • Do not publish text/screenshots of anything shared in a private communication channels without explicit consent from the author. This includes screenshots of private messages to public channels, as well as conversations on public channels to anywhere outside of the R Conference Slack.

What To Do If You Witness or Are Subject To Unacceptable Behavior

If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns relating to harassment, please contact a member of event staff immediately. Event staff can be identified by t-shirts/staff badges onsite; and an organizer or volunteer can be found at the event registration counter at any time. You can contact the Organizers here.

While this code of conduct applies to spaces associated with the R Conference, if you are being harassed by a guest/participant of/at the R Conference outside of our spaces, we still want to know about it. We will take all good-faith reports of harassment by R Conference participants seriously. This includes harassment outside our spaces and harassment that took place at any point in time. The R Conference organizing committee reserves the right to exclude people from the R Conference based on their past behavior, including behavior outside the R Conference spaces and behavior toward people who are not part of the R Conference.

In order to protect volunteers, we reserve the right to reject any report we believe to have been made in bad faith. Reports intended to silence legitimate criticism may be deleted without response.

We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting victims of abuse. At our discretion, we may publicly name a person about whom we have received harassment complaints, or privately warn third parties about them if we believe that doing so will increase the safety of R Conference participants or the general public. We will not name harassment victims without their affirmative consent.

Conference staff will also provide support to victims, including, but not limited to:

  • Providing an escort
  • Contacting hotel/venue security or local law enforcement
  • Briefing key event staff for response/victim assistance
  • And otherwise assisting those experiencing harassment to ensure that they feel safe for the duration of the conference

Consequences

If a participant engages in behavior in violation of the CoC, the conference organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, ranging from issuing a warning to expulsion from the conference with no refund, depending on the circumstances. The R Conference reserves the right to exclude any participant found to be engaging in harassing behavior from participating in any further R Conference events, trainings or other activities.

Pre-Event Concerns

If you are planning to attend an upcoming event, and have concerns regarding another individual who may be present, please contact the organizers here. Precautions will be taken to ensure a victim’s comfort and safety, including, but not limited to: providing an escort, prepping onsite event staff, keeping victim and harasser from attending the same talks/social events, and providing onsite contact cell phone numbers for immediate contact. In extreme cases, we may take action to prevent the harasser from attending the conference.

This policy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.