Code of conduct

Compositionality fosters scientific integrity and ethical conduct. Consistent with the bylaws of Compositionality, its code of conduct upholds those values, detailing the ethical guidelines and expectations for participation in Compositionality. Authors, referees, editors, all board members and all other users of Compositionality are expected to act at all times in accordance with the principles and standards described in this code.

1. Unacceptable behaviour. In particular, the code of conduct specifies behaviour that Compositionality deems unacceptable, both in interactions with Compositionality and in professional life in general. This includes but is not limited to:

  1. Plagiarism and fabrication of data and results, including misrepresentation of contributions and authorship, selective reporting, failure to promptly correct errors, or theft of data and/or other research materials, as well as misrepresentation and overstatement of results and the omission of crucial conditions and assumptions.
  2. Publication (or submission for publication) of works submitted to or published in Compositionality to other publishing venues, unless the work is terminally rejected by Compositionality. “Other publishing venues” include other journals and conference proceedings, but exclude public pre-print servers such as the arXiv and personal or institutional websites of the authors.
  3. Subversion of peer review, including failure to declare conflict of interest, failure to recuse under conflict of interest, misuse of information during review, unnecessarily delaying the peer-review process, violation of the anonymity of referees, premature solicitation of press coverage, corruption and/or bribery.
  4. Impersonation of other persons or entities, as well as falsely claiming the ownership of scientific titles, professional positions, or affiliations.
  5. Using Compositionality or any other system for the dissemination of scientific works to promote hate or discriminatory speech, or to infringe on the rights of others.
  6. Sharing of confidential information, such as the identity of reviewers, referee reports, and other internal correspondence to persons not involved in the peer-review process.
  7. Discrimination of any kind, such as on the basis of religion, disability, age, national origin, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. Discrimination includes the use of derogatory comments or slurs.
  8. Harassment, including bullying and intimidation, false accusations, threats and assault, as well as sexual harassment in public or in private.
  9. The violation of public trust, including making false or misleading statements to media and misrepresentation to grant and/or funding agencies.

2. Reporting and investigation. Compositionality may learn of violations through reports from witnesses or aggrieved individuals and parties. To report a violation of this code of conduct, including an anonymous report, please fill out the dedicated online form. For the safety of all reporters, once a report has been made, Compositionality editors and board members are bound to maintain the confidentiality of the report and the reporter’s identity except as explicitly requested by the reporting parties. Upon receiving a report, Compositionality will progress as follows:

  1. The Executive Board of Compositionality will name an investigator or form a small investigation body of no more than three people, each of whom must be free of conflict of interest.
  2. The investigator or investigating body may solicit additional information from the reporter, with the goal of reaching a tentative conclusion over the course of two weeks.
  3. The tentative conclusion of the investigating body will be delivered to the Steering Board, along with a suggested resolution action as described in the section below.
  4. If the tentative conclusion and suggested resolution action are agreed upon by the Steering Board, Compositionality will inform the reporter of their decision and seek agreement before proceeding.
  5. The party suspected of a violation of the code of conduct will be informed of the allegations and planned resolution action and given 20 working days to respond.
  6. Depending on the findings, on communication from the involved parties, and consensus of the Steering Board, the resolution action may be implemented or further investigations carried out with the aim of resolving the situation.

During the reporting and investigating process, all individuals must exercise all due diligence to prevent divulging any report details beyond those strictly necessary to enact and uphold the code of conduct.

3. Enforcement and penalties. If a Compositionality user is found through the preceding process to have committed any violation of the code of conduct, Compositionality may enforce the code of conduct in a number of different ways. An appropriate resolution is decided by the Steering Board, taking into account all factors, and having as a goal to improve the situation. Possible actions to enforce the code of conduct include but are not limited to:

  1. A formal (written) warning is made to the infringing party.
  2. Requiring the infringing party to make a formal (written) apology.
  3. Reporting the infringing party to their home institutions, employers, and/or professional societies.
  4. Reporting the infringing party to the relevant authorities, in case of suspicion of criminal offences.
  5. Retraction of compromised manuscripts.
  6. Refusal to consider future manuscripts from the infringing party.
  7. Expulsion from the Steering, Executive or Editorial Board.