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The organizers of useR! 2021 are dedicated to providing a ~~harassment-free~~ ***safe and inclusive*** conference experience for everyone regardless of age, gender ***identity***, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, or religion (or lack thereof).

All participants (including ***organizers***, attendees, ~~speakers~~ ***presenters***, sponsors, and volunteers) at useR! 2021 are required to agree to the following code of conduct. ***Reports of violation to this Code of Conduct should be addressed to [useR2021-coc [at] r-project.org](mailto:useR2021-coc@r-project.org)***.

The code of conduct applies to all conference activities including talks, panels, workshops, and social events. It extends to conference-specific exchanges on social media, for instance, posts tagged with the identifier of the conference (e.g. #useR2021 on Twitter), replies to such posts, and replies to official social media account (e.g. [@_useRconf](https://twitter.com/_useRconf) on Twitter).

## ~~Expected Behaviour~~

~~All conference participants agree to:~~

- ~~Be considerate in language and actions, and respect the boundaries of fellow participants.~~
- ~~Refrain from demeaning, discriminatory, or harassing behaviour and 
language.  Please refer to [Unacceptable Behaviour](#unacceptable-behaviour) for more details.~~ 
- ~~Alert a member of the code of conduct response team [reference to further details] if you notice someone in distress, or observe violations of this code of conduct, even if they seem inconsequential. Please refer to the section titled [What To Do If You Witness or Are Subject To Unacceptable Behaviour](#what-to-do-if-you-witness-or-are-subject-to-unacceptable-behaviour) for more details.~~

## Unacceptable Behavior

Behavior that is unacceptable includes, but is not limited to:

 - Stalking, ***e.g. persistent unwanted DMs, sending unwanted pictures or malware links, logging online activity for harassment purposes***
 - Deliberate intimidation
 - ~~Unwanted photography or recording~~
 - ***Sharing private conversations and discussions (e.g., screenshots of discussion channels, direct messages, etc)***
 - ***Publishing others' private information, such as a physical or electronic address, without explicit permission***
 - Sustained or willful disruption of ~~talks or other events~~ ***discussion***
 - Use of sexual or discriminatory imagery, comments, or jokes
 - Offensive comments related to age, gender ***identity***, sexual orientation, disability, race, religion, ***nationality, or native language***
 - ***Dismissing or attacking inclusion-oriented requests***
 - Inappropriate ***simulated*** physical contact, ~~which can include grabbing, or massaging or hugging~~ ***e.g. textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub” or custom emoji representing such contact***, used without consent
 - Unwelcome sexual attention, which can include inappropriate questions of a sexual nature, asking for sexual favors, or repeatedly asking for dates or contact information

If you are asked to stop ~~harassing~~ **unacceptable** behavior you should stop immediately, even if your behavior was meant to be friendly or a joke, ~~it was clearly not taken that way and for the comfort of all conference attendees you should stop.~~

Attendees who behave in ~~a manner deemed inappropriate~~ **an inappropriate manner** are subject to actions listed under [__Responses to Code of Conduct Violations__](#responses-to-code-of-conduct-violations).

#### Additional Requirements for Conference Contributions

~~Presentation slides and posters~~**Presentations** should not contain offensive or sexualised material. If this material is impossible to avoid given the topic (for example text mining of material from hate sites), the existence of this material should be noted in the abstract and, in the case of oral contributions, at the start of the talk or session.

#### Additional Requirements for Sponsors *and Social Events Contractors*

Sponsors ***and social event contractors*** should not use sexualised images, activities, or other material. ~~Booth staff (including volunteers)~~ ***They*** should not ~~use sexualised clothing/uniforms/costumes, or otherwise~~ create a sexualised ***virtual*** environment. In case of violations, sanctions may be applied, without the return of sponsorship contribution.

## ~~Procedure for~~ ***Responses to*** Code of Conduct Violations

The ~~organizing committee~~ ***Code of Conduct response team*** reserves the right to determine the appropriate response for all code of conduct violations. Potential responses include:

 - ***preemptive ban or mute from the conference spaces in order to stop the inappropriate behavior***
 - a formal warning to stop the harassing behavior
 - expulsion from the conference
 - removal of sponsor displays or conference ~~posters~~ **presentations**
 - cancellation or early termination of talks or other contributions to the program

Refunds may not be given in case of expulsion.

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

Alert the **Code of Conduct Response Team** if you notice someone in distress, or observe violations of this code of conduct, even if they seem inconsequential.

Reports should be addressed to **[useR2021-coc [at] r-project.org](mailto:useR2021-coc@r-project.org)**. 
If the report concerns someone from the response team, that member and everyone that would enter a conflict of interest will recuse themselves. If you still have concerns about a conflict of interest, you are welcome to contact the R Foundation Conference Committee under **[R-conferences [at] r-project.org](mailto:r-conferences@r-project.org)**.

We will take all reports by useR! 2021 participants seriously. This includes incidents outside our spaces and at any point in time. The useR! 2021 organizing committee reserves the right to exclude people from useR! 2021 based on their past behavior, including behavior outside useR! 2021 spaces and behavior towards people who are not part of useR! 2021.


We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting targets of harassing behavior. We will not name victims without their affirmative consent. Correspondence is handled confidentially and deleted after the case is resolved. All data is stored securely, access will be limited to the members of the __Code Of Conduct Response Team__ who take the case.

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

+ Briefing key event staff to provide appropriate assistance
+ Other assistance to ensure victims feel safe for the duration of the conference

Assistance will only be provided with affirmative consent of the victim. 

## Code Of Conduct Response Team

Adithi Upadhya  
Anicet Ebou  
Batool Almazrouq  
Danielle Smalls  
Muriel Buri  
Natalia Morandeira  
Paola Corrales  
Sara Mortara  
Gordana Popovic  
Andrea Sánchez-Tapia  
Rocío Joo  

## Acknowledgements

Parts of the above text are licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Credit to SRCCON. This code of conduct was based on that developed for useR! 2018 which was a revision of the code of conduct used at previous useR!s and also drew from rOpenSci’s code of conduct.




