Code of Conduct
Project Psyche is a trans-national initiative to generate and study chromosome-level reference genomes of all ca. 11,000 described species of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) found in Europe. The Project Psyche community encompasses a diverse range of people, including students, researchers, amateur lepidopterists, practitioners, and industry experts united by a common vision of the importance of genomics for Lepidoptera. Inclusivity is a cornerstone of our consortium, shaping how we generate and share knowledge in lepidopteran genomics.
The consortium is intended to produce world-leading research and to foster the exchange of scientific ideas and knowledge, providing members with an opportunity to network with an international community of biologists. Project Psyche is committed to creating an environment where everyone can participate without harassment, discrimination, or violence of any kind. All participants must be treated with respect and consideration. Registration for the Project Psyche Community is considered an agreement to abide by this Code of Conduct.
Project Psyche expects members to follow principles of respect, inclusion and safety:
- Respect means showing due consideration of the feelings, wishes, opinions, or rights of others. Members are encouraged to use welcoming language, be open to different viewpoints, backgrounds and experiences, exhibit courtesy towards fellow members and guests, and contribute to scientific and technical discussions with constructive feedback.
- To be inclusive is to strive to always learn from diverse individuals, recognise challenges and consider how actions and systems can be improved to ensure fairness and opportunities for participation by all. New members are welcomed and supported in joining the community.
- Safety is created by trust, and trust is built by open dialogue, which requires active consideration from all participants, to promote a supportive environment where everyone is comfortable expressing their views. This is true for both in person meetings and all online and written communication. The input of members of the community to all aspects of the project should be appropriately credited and failure to recognise this and taking credit for the input of other members will not be tolerated. Harassment of any participant will not be tolerated. Unacceptable behaviour includes (but is not limited to) unwanted verbal interactions, unwanted touching, intimidation, stalking, shaming, or bullying. Blatant discrimination on the basis of gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, physical appearance, race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or educational background will not be tolerated. Harassment presented in a joking manner constitutes unacceptable behaviour. It is important to recognise that sensitivity to aspects of communication varies, and what might be acceptable or humorous to some people might not be to others. Retaliation for reporting harassment is also unacceptable, as is reporting an incident in bad faith.
Procedure for addressing concerns
If you experience any form of inappropriate behaviour, you may wish to contact and speak with a representative of the Project Psyche Conduct Committee. All communication will be held in strict confidence. If you contact a member of the Committee, you will be asked the following information:
- Your name
- A description of the events or behaviour that took place, and any other relevant circumstances surrounding the incident
- If relevant or appropriate, to identify the perpetrator
- If relevant or appropriate, to identify any witnesses
The representative of the Project Psyche Conduct Committee will then take the concern to the Project Psyche Conduct Committee. Any members of the committee who has a conflict of interest in a given concern will not be present or involved in the committee for the given concern. The committee will provide a recommendation to the Project Psyche Consortium Leadership and appropriate action will be taken.
The Consortium Leaders reserve the right to enforce this Code of Conduct in any manner deemed appropriate. Anyone violating the Project Psyche Code of Conduct may be: (a) asked to stop, (b) prohibited from attending future meetings, and/or (c) expelled from the Community. Establishing this Code of Conduct is intended to maintain the high quality of scientific discourse and research output that is expected from our consortium.
Important: If someone raises an issue, no action will be undertaken without their consent. Their name will not be communicated to anyone without their consent. However, please note that disclosing names may be required for action to be taken.
Project Psyche Conduct Committee
The Committee consists of a range of Project Psyche members that strives to capture the diversity of the Project Psyche Community and is responsible for approving and enforcing the Code of Conduct. Currently, the committee consists of twelve members:
- Thomas Decroly - thomas.decroly@gmail.com
- Vlad Dinca - vlad.e.dinca@gmail.com
- Ines Drinnenberg - ines.drinnenberg@curie.fr
- Marianne Espeland - m.espeland@leibniz-lib.de
- Marcus Hicks - mah222@cantab.ac.uk
- Emily Hornett - emily.hornett@liverpool.ac.uk
- Julien Martinez - jm77@sanger.ac.uk
- Joana Meier - joana.meier@sanger.ac.uk
- Gerhard Thallinger - gerhard.thallinger@tugraz.at
- Chris Wheat - chris.wheat@zoologi.su.se
- Charlotte Wright - charlotte.wright@sanger.ac.uk
- Pavel Matos - pavel.matos@entu.cas.cz
Project Psyche Leadership Team
The Project Psyche Leadership team can be contacted at projectpsyche@sanger.ac.uk.
Specific Cases
Permits
As part of Project Psyche, sampling will be required in countries or locations where permits may not already be held by members of the Project Psyche Community. All sampling must follow national guidelines and fulfil all legal national and international requirements. If a permit is being requested for Project Psyche or explicitly with the intention of collecting for Project Psyche, then please let the Project Psyche leadership team know ahead of submitting the application.
Presentations and outreach
All Project Psyche members are welcome to present Project Psyche. If members of Project Psyche Analysis Working Groups would like to present results from a group, they should first check with the working group leaders to coordinate this and confirm that it would be appropriate. All presentations or outreach material should use the official logo and credit people appropriately (e.g. who made the figure shown, cite relevant publications, or credit leaders of the project, collection or analysis presented). If photos or videos are used from the Project Psyche Social media folder, please credit who provided the photo. These details are in the photo/folder names.
Grant applications
Project Psyche members are welcome to mention their membership and contribution to the project in grant applications. They should reach out to the leaders of Project Psyche for approval and if they require a letter of support. Members are encouraged to include a budget for generating genomes if possible.
Publications
All genomes generated by Project Psyche are made publicly accessible for anyone to use. The first 1200 lepidopteran genomes are analysed collaboratively by the Project Psyche community and all members are welcome to join the analysis groups. For projects not part of the analysis groups, please adhere to the publishing rules below.
Publishing rules:
- < 10 genomes: Cite the relevant Genome Notes and relevant Darwin Tree of Life whitepaper (Darwin Tree of Life Project Consortium, The Darwin Tree et al. 2022), and the Project Psyche whitepaper (Wright et al. 2025). Please also mention the Project Psyche Community in the Acknowledgements.
- < 100 genomes: Tell the Psyche community early on and before manuscript submission (10 minutes in a monthly meeting), cite the relevant whitepapers, cite the Genome Notes in a Supplementary Table. You may consider including ‘Project Psyche community’ collective author as co-author depending on if close to a 100 genomes are used.
- >100 genomes: Tell the Psyche community early on and before manuscript submission (10 minutes in a monthly meeting), add the ‘Project Psyche community’ collective author as co-author and cite the relevant whitepapers.
Improvements
This Code of Conduct is regularly revised and updated. Any suggestions to improve it should be sent to Marcus Hicks (mah222@cantab.ac.uk).