Codes of Conduct

Last reviewed and approved: March 2025

We are a community-run membership organisation whose mission is to bring the knowledge community together to agree and adopt the global standard for measuring and reporting content usage through normalised metrics. Our community consists of librarians, consortia, publishers, technology providers, and others in a wide variety of roles, disciplines, and geographic locations.

We voice our strong, unequivocal support of appropriate behaviour by all participants at COUNTER events. This means being polite, sharing the space with others, listening, and remaining civil even when we disagree with each other. Everyone participating in COUNTER events and discussions, whether in person or online, is expected to follow this Code of Conduct.

Key points

• All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. While COUNTER does have specific terminology in the Code of Practice, we ask everyone to be aware of their use of jargon and slang, which can exclude others from engaging in the discussion.
• Please behave professionally and be kind. Remember that sexist, racist, ageist, or other exclusionary, intimidatory, or disruptive behaviour is not appropriate.

For committee members

As a very small organisation, COUNTER relies heavily on volunteers. We appreciate the time and effort our committee members devote to advancing COUNTER’s mission and aim to support you to the fullest extent. When you have opportunities to write about COUNTER or usage metrics for a blog or magazine, or speak about COUNTER or usage metrics at an event, please get in touch with the team so that we can provide you with any information you require. If you are writing from your perspective as a committee member, please share your draft text with our Executive Director (tasha@countermetrics.org) so that we can be sure COUNTER’s position is fairly and accurately represented.

For speakers at events

We are committed to creating an inclusive, respectful, and professional environment for all participants, and as a speaker you play a vital role in upholding these values. Focus on delivering content relevant to the event and its objectives. Please adhere to the following principles:

• Respect Diversity: Ensure that your language, examples, and content are inclusive, respectful, and free from discriminatory or offensive material. Refrain from making remarks that could be interpreted as prejudiced based on gender, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, sexual orientation, or other personal characteristics.
• Foster a Positive Atmosphere: Engage with the audience constructively, respecting differing perspectives and maintaining professionalism, especially during Q&A or interactive discussions.
• Comply with Copyright and Privacy Standards: Only use materials (e.g., images, videos, text) that you have the right to share. Do not disclose personal or sensitive information about individuals without their explicit consent.

Incident reporting and resolution

As a community organisation, we take a community approach to following this Code of Conduct, and assisting in any circumstances where someone appears not to be doing so.

If you observe someone making you or anyone else feel unsafe or unwelcome, please tell them so, and remind them of the Code of Conduct.

If you are hesitant about addressing the person yourself, report it as soon as possible to our Executive Director or to a member of one of our committees. We are committed to addressing and resolving the matter to the best of their abilities.

When someone is asked to stop any behaviour that makes others uncomfortable, they are expected to comply immediately. Specific actions may include but are not limited to:

• asking the person to cease the inappropriate behaviour
• requiring that the person immediately leave the event and not return
• early termination of a talk that violates the policy
• not publishing the video or slides of a talk that violated the policy
• not allowing a speaker who violated the policy to give further talks at COUNTER events
• immediately ending any Committee membership

To report an incident please use the following contact information, and explain what happened and who was involved so that we can investigate. If your concern is with a member of the team, please contact the Chair of our Board of Directors. 

Tasha Mellins-Cohen, Executive Director (tasha@countermetrics.org) or Jo Lambert, Chair of the Board of Directors (chair@countermetrics.org).

Thank you for your participation in the COUNTER community, and your efforts to keep COUNTER welcoming, respectful, and friendly for all participants!

Last reviewed and approved: January 2026

The COUNTER listserv draws on our existing Code of conduct, with some extensions. Our goal is to stimulate productive, polite and useful conversations, not arguments. Please allow your colleagues to have their say, just as you may have yours.

All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited and will be removed.

Core principles

• Be respectful: Dispute facts and errors, not individuals. Ask for clarification before assuming ignorance, error or fault. Treat others with dignity.
• Be helpful:If someone asks for help it is because they need it. Please answer the question or link to relevant documentation. If the question is off-topic, please point them to more appropriate venues.
• Be informative: Please try to avoid sharing misinformation. Do basic fact checks and remember that AI summaries may not always be accurate.
• Keep it simple: Technical questions and answers should be explained in plain language wherever possible. COUNTER may move discussions which require deep technical knowledge to a separate location. 
• Stay on topic: Keep discussions relevant to the list’s purpose. Use clear, descriptive subject lines. If you need to change the topic, please start a new email string.
• Event announcements: organisers may circulate one call for speakers and one registration announcement per event, where the event is of direct relevance to the COUNTER community. COUNTER reserves the right to share news about its own activities through the list.
• No adverts: This list is not a forum for advertisements. This means no job listings, no commercial offers, and no promotions.
• Disclose conflicts of interest: Be transparent about potential biases and conflicts of interest. 

Confidentiality and privacy

This list is covered by COUNTER’s privacy and data protection policy, as described on our website at https://www.countermetrics.org/privacy-data-protection/.

Other than your name, please do not include in postings any personally identifiable information or any information that you do not wish to make public.

Proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should not be included in your postings. After the list moderator has reviewed your contribution, it may be posted to the listserv without redaction.

Moderation

The list is moderated by the COUNTER team. Messages sent to the list are held for moderator approval before distribution. We will always reject messages that are defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, illegal, excessively promotional, or contain personal/confidential info.

We reserve the right to unsubscribe individuals who repeatedly breach our Code of Conduct, or who attempt to circulate spam or non-permitted messages through the list. Examples of non-permitted messages include: 

• Illegal content
• Personal information
• Defamatory or abusive materials
• Hate speech
• Advertising