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‘Netiquette’ and Code of Conduct for AuthorAID discussion forums

While most participants implicitly know how to interact on a discussion forum, we occasionally come across inappropriate posts. Here's a quick list of things you should and should not do:


You should:

  1. Make sure your posts are relevant to the topic under discussion.
  2. Check through what you have written before posting it, especially when expressing a disagreement. Are you being polite? Are you being respectful of people of other cultures and traditions?
  3. You can use emoticons now and then to let the reader know how you feel. The basic smiley :) is arguably the most popular emoticon, but emoticons can also be useful to convey irony ;) and other feelings. We can't see each other's facial expressions in online messages, so emoticons fill this gap to some extent.
  4. Be aware of the conversational style - Email discussion should be conducted differently from the one-word/one-line conversational style of SMS and instant messaging such as WhatsApp - please address other members where appropriate (for example “Hi Ahmed”; “Dear Dr. Smith”, “thank you for your contribution Sara”, providing the context of the discussion where possible and signing off with your name (consider adding an email signature so readers can find out more about you)


You should NOT:

  1. Display any kind of bias towards discussion group members based on their gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, or anything else. Any material which constitutes defamation, harassment, or abuse is strictly prohibited. Material that is sexually or otherwise obscene, racist, or otherwise overly discriminatory is not permitted on this forum.
  2. Write in a harsh or insulting manner to anyone in the group. If you are angry, please wait at least 10 minutes before posting.
  3. Discuss things unrelated to the purpose of the discussion group.
  4. Advertise anything without providing context. This includes posting calls for papers from journals and conferences unless they are directly relevant to the discussion or of obvious interest to AuthorAID members.
  5. Advertise commercial products or services without permission from the AuthorAID Team.
  6. Post requests to complete surveys (unless you have permission from the AuthorAID team).
  7. Post job adverts that are irrelevant to AuthorAID members.
  8. ‘Spam’ the forum with repetitive or identical posts.
  9. Provide links to websites that may have illegal content, such as pirated software, scanned books, and copyrighted journal articles that are not meant to be shared openly. Uploading any such content directly to the list is also forbidden.


If you're in doubt, check with the AuthorAID team (authoraid@inasp.info)

AuthorAID reserves the right to remove any posts that we consider to be in breach of the above.

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