Membership or participation in the Society constitutes an agreement to adhere to this code of conduct. For additional information, see the SVP Handbook.
General Expectations
- Treat others with dignity and respect: This applies regardless of background or professional status. Respect all roles and acknowledge the contributions of professional scientists, students, technicians, volunteers, artists, and collaborators.
- Communicate with Civility: Engage in professional discourse.
- Mentor Responsibly: Encourage students in a manner that is inclusive and recognizes education as fundamental to professional development.
- Prioritize Safety: Adhere to rules and policies of affiliate societies, meeting venues, collections, research facilities, and field sites.
- Honesty and Scientific Integrity: Members will not attempt to injure the reputation or professional opportunities of others through false and/or biased claims. Members must represent research accurately when engaging with the press. Members will not intentionally reveal the results of embargoed research to colleagues or the public while an embargo is active, nor will they reveal the unpublished work of others without the explicit permission of the handbook author(s) and/or principal investigator(s).
Prohibited Behaviors
The following behaviors are strictly prohibited:
- Harassment: Any form of harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying, denigrating language, stereotyping, or a recurring pattern of microaggressions.
- Abuse and Intimidation: Physical, verbal, or written abuse or intimidation. This includes threats of physical, emotional, professional, or financial harm, as well as any disregard for another’s physical safety.
- Discriminatory Conduct: Harmful comments or conduct related to race, color, national/ethnic origin, immigration status, religion, age, marital/parental status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, socioeconomic background, education, disability, or veteran status.
- Violation of Boundaries: Persisting in behaviors after boundaries have been communicated (verbally or nonverbally), or violating boundaries based on personal preferences of another individual.
- Unwanted Contact and Stalking: Intentional, unwelcomed behaviors including stalking, unwanted physical contact, and aggressive body language.
- Unauthorized Recording: Photographing, recording, or filming others, or distributing such material, without express consent.
- Inappropriate Content: Displaying or distributing images or media depicting bigotry, nudity, sexual activity, or physical violence.
- Hostile Environment: Any other behavior reasonably assumed to create, contribute to, or maintain an environment that is hostile, offensive, or damaging to a person or group.
Research Standards: Fieldwork and Collections
Legal Compliance and Permitting
- Permits: Individuals collecting or studying fossil materials must obtain all legally required permits or permissions. This includes necessary permits and/or permissions to: conduct fieldwork on public or private lands, whether domestic or foreign; loan, transport, and/or export of fossil materials from their place of origin or housing institution; and/or engage in examination, publication, documentation, imaging, and/or analysis (including consumptive methods) of fossil materials from the housing repository and/or owner.
- Responsibility: Fieldwork leaders (e.g., principal investigators and/or field managers) are responsible for determining land ownership and securing permissions. As regulations and ownership change over time, these must be reconfirmed before every collection effort. Principal investigators are responsible for research permissions. However, any participating individual who knowingly and willfully ignores permitting regulations may be considered in violation.
- Export Compliance: Individuals must not knowingly carry out research work on specimens that have been illegally exported from their country of origin.
Data Integrity
- Context: Collection must include documenting provenance, including stratigraphic, geographic, taphonomic, and paleoenvironmental information.
- Field Data: Original field data (e.g., notebooks, electronic files) must be preserved. A legible copy of these data must accompany the fossils and become part of the deposited collection.
- Curation and Repository Requirements: Fossils collected from public lands (and private lands, if stipulated) must be deposited and accessioned in a timely manner in a qualified, publicly accessible repository. Repositories are defined as institutions dedicated to scientific research and education in perpetuity. Furthermore, research and publication may only be carried out on vertebrate fossils that are already deposited in, or immediately destined for, collections committed to storing specimens and associated data in perpetuity.
- Access to Collections: Curation requires proper housing, labeling, and the maintenance of the association between specimens and metadata, including field and preparation data. These materials must be made available to the scientific community and the interested public within a reasonable period; access for researchers is an essential quality of a registered public collection.
- Deaccessioning: If vertebrate fossils are to be deaccessioned from registered collections, procedures should follow the recommended guidelines outlined by the American Association of Museums (AAM) and/or accord with the International Council of Museums (ICOM) code of ethics.
Commercial Sale of Fossils
The Society maintains strict policies regarding the commercial sale of fossils to ensure specimens remain available for scientific study. Refer to Bylaws Article 12, Section 6 for specific requirements related to commercial fossil collection.
Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools
The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology follows the Taylor & Francis Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy, which provides guidance to authors, editors, and reviewers. Refer to the Taylor & Francis website for specific guidelines.