Our goal is to conduct research, mentorship and teaching in an open, honest and respectful setting and facilitate everyone’s contribution according to their diverse talents. To do this, we have adopted and modified the following code of conduct from our good colleagues at the Evenden lab.
Our guiding principles are:
Professionalism (lab setting, field setting, and general setting):
- Effective communication is key (email, face to face, lab calendars)
- Directly address issues asap
- Open to constructive feedback from lab members
- Express gratitude
- Allowing everyone an equal opportunity to participate in lab and social settings
- Punctual for meetings, considerate of others time
- Being prepared for meetings and other lab duties
- Maintaining lab cohesion and interaction among your lab members
- Collaboration means helping others and receiving help
- Nurture lab environment
- Accepting responsibility of your mistakes
- Proactive to prevent similar issues in the future
- Transparency of research, follow “Research and Scholarship Integrity Policy”
- Academic honesty
- Maintain research integrity
- No data is better than bad data
- Maintain records at all times
- Label everything
- Keep backup copies
- No gossiping
- Within or out of lab
- Targeting specific lab members
- Mindful of others schedules, provide sufficient notice when asking for help
- Assume everyone is as busy or busier than you
- Mindful of personal boundaries of others
- This includes personal space
- Do not distract others while working
- Strive for positive attitude
- Everyone’s research is equally important
- All questions are good questions
Respecting shared work spaces (field/lab):
- Safety comes first, if in doubt ask
- Following all standard operational procedures
- Treating equipment with respect
- If equipment (lab/field) is broken or malfunctioning, ensure fixed asap
- If you don’t know how to use it, ask
- Clean after use (do your dishes)
- Ensure equipment is maintained at a functional level, including trucks
- Cleaning up your work space and communal space
- Communicate use of “station”, make available when not in use centralize equipment
- Guidelines for mentorship, do not dump work on summer students. Take responsibility for your own project and don’t leave it all to your summer student.
Discrimination and Harassment:
- Not tolerated
- If unsure, read institutional guidance
If you see something inappropriate happening, a gentle reminder about the Code of Conduct is a productive response:
- Everybody makes mistakes, acknowledge them
- Try to respond in a constructive way
- First try to resolve the issue with the person you have an issue with
- If not working or not comfortable, find a mediator to assist (conflict resolution)
