Take down policy

Take down policy

Introduction

The Embassy of Good Science wishes to foster an open, scientific debate. We welcome a wide variety of contributions, including those that provide extreme points of view. That having said, contributions may violate the law or fall outside the scope of what we think is appropriate at the Embassy. This policy sets out the way in which we handle complaints regarding illegal or inappropriate contributions.

Scope of complaints

Any party may bring a complaint regarding a violation of applicable law. This includes, but is not limited to:

• copyright infringement;
• distribution of personal data;
• harassment (stalking) of persons;
• libel and slander.

Further, any party may bring a complaint regarding issues we have declared as inappropriate. These are:

• blame, shame or insult others;
• report on current research misconduct cases; accuse people of misconduct;
• use indecent or inappropriate language;
• publish information where it is unwanted (off-topic);
• publish information that is pornographic or erotic (even if legal under applicable law);
• plagiarism;
• publish information in violation of copyright or hyperlinks to such information;
• violate the privacy of third party, for example by distributing their personal data without permission or clear need or the repeated harassment of third parties with unwanted communications;
• publish material which consists of or contains software viruses, chain letters, mass mailings or any spam;
• exercise commercial activities.

Do anything that violates applicable netiquette or more generally, any violation of our Terms of Service that affects third parties.

• Accusations of misconduct.

Procedure for complaints

If you have a complaint, please fill in the contact form. An automatic reply will be sent immediately confirming receipt of your message. If you did not receive the reply within 24 hours, please contact our help desk for assistance.

Complaints are routed to our editor in chief, who will classify the complaint as follows:

1. an evident violation of the law
2. a probable violation of the law
3. an evidently inappropriate issue
4. a probably inappropriate issue
5. a clearly unfounded complaint

The editor in chief will report to you within one week how your complaint was classified, including arguments.

For class 1, immediate action will be taken as appropriate under the law in question. The author will be informed unless the law or the authorities indicate otherwise.

For class 2, the editor in chief will escalate the issue to the editorial board and seek legal counsel on how to proceed forward. The author will be informed as appropriate.

For class 3, the editor in chief will send the matter to the editorial team who will take immediate action as appropriate given the nature of the issue. Typically this means the removal of the offending content or a suspension of the author’s account. In both cases the author will be informed as appropriate.

For class 4, the editor in chief will escalate the issue to the editorial board and invite the author’s view on the matter. If the board decides to remove the content, the author will be instructed on how to contribute better in the future.

For class 5, you will receive a rejection with arguments. If you feel these are inaccurate, please re-submit your complaint with an addition addressing the rejection. However, the editor in chief has the final say in how to classify a complaint.