Code of Conduct
The SGSSS Portal is a shared space for postgraduate researchers across Scotland. It sits alongside the training, events and support that SGSSS provides, and the goal is straightforward: a place where researchers can connect, ask questions, share knowledge, and find people working on similar things.
These guidelines apply to all activity on the platform, including posts, comments, direct messages, and interactions around courses and events. Most of what is expected here is the same as what is expected in any academic or professional setting.
Who the Portal is for
The Portal is for SGSSS-funded and affiliated postgraduate researchers, alumni, and staff. Access is granted and maintained by SGSSS.
How to engage
Debate and disagreement are part of academic life and are welcome on this platform. The expectation is that criticism is directed at ideas and arguments, not at the people putting them forward.
Not everyone will have the same level of familiarity with a given method, field, or topic. Responses that are generous with knowledge and patient with questions tend to make the platform more useful for everyone.
Posts can be misread. If something strikes you as rude or dismissive, it is worth considering whether that was the intent before responding in kind.
The platform has specific spaces for a reason. Keeping discussions in the relevant space makes it easier for people to find them and follow threads that matter to them.
If you share or build on someone else’s work or ideas, link to them or acknowledge the source. This applies as much here as it does in your research.
What is not acceptable
The following will not be tolerated on the platform:
- Harassment, intimidation, or personal attacks, including behaviour that is targeted or repeated.
- Discrimination on the basis of race, gender, disability, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic.
- Misrepresenting another person’s views, whether deliberately or through careless editing or paraphrase.
- Sharing other people’s unpublished work, data, or ideas without their permission.
- Posting content that is designed to antagonise rather than contribute.
- Unsolicited promotional content or spam. Sharing your own work is fine when it is relevant to the conversation.
Research ethics and confidentiality
Discussions about your own research are expected and encouraged. Bear in mind that this is a semi-open platform and that other members can see what you post. Exercise the same judgement around sensitive data, participants, or unpublished findings that you would in any other professional context.
If a conversation involves details that are confidential, commercially sensitive, or covered by ethical agreements, those details should stay out of the forum.
Professional context
This platform is part of broader researcher culture and experience. Individual organisations and institutions may have their own policies on conduct and professional behaviour, which apply here in the same way as they do elsewhere. What you post may be visible to peers, supervisors, and potential collaborators.
A useful question to ask before posting is whether you would be comfortable saying the same thing in a seminar, a conference corridor, or an email to a colleague you do not know well.
Reporting concerns
If you encounter something on the platform that you think breaches these guidelines, you can report it to the SGSSS team via email to team@sgsss.ac.uk .
Reports will be looked at fairly and in confidence. The aim is to address problems, not to create them. In serious or repeated cases, access to the platform may be restricted or removed. These decisions will be made by SGSSS.
Updates to these guidelines
These guidelines may be updated as the community grows and as we learn more about how the platform is being used. Any significant changes will be communicated to members. Feedback and suggestions are welcome via the Ask SGSSS space or directly to the SGSSS team.
Using the SGSSS Portal means you are agreeing to these guidelines.