Community Guidelines

The standard

Assume you are speaking to the author, because you probably are. Disagreement, criticism, and demands for evidence are the point of this network — contempt, mockery, and pile-ons are not.

What gets removed

• Harassment. Targeting a person rather than their claims, sustained hostility, or coordinating others to do so.
• Misrepresentation. Passing off another researcher’s work as your own, fabricating results or affiliations, or impersonating a person or institution.
• Misleading scientific claims. Stating findings with a confidence the evidence does not support, especially where health or safety is involved.
• Spam and undisclosed promotion. Repetitive posting, or promoting a product or service without saying that is what you are doing.
• Unlawful or non-consensual material, including content that breaches a publisher agreement or another person’s rights.

Reporting

Use the Report action in the menu on any post or comment. Reports go to the moderation team, and the author is never told who reported them. For anything urgent, or for conduct that spans more than one post, write to abuse@scienced.org.

You can also block someone. Blocking is symmetric and immediate: neither of you sees the other’s posts, comments, or notifications, and any follows between you are removed. The person you block is not told.

What happens next

A moderator reviews the report and either dismisses it or removes the content. Removal is permanent — the content is deleted, not hidden — and we keep an internal record of what was removed so the decision can be reviewed. Repeated or severe breaches can end an account.

If you believe a decision about your content was wrong, reply to abuse@scienced.org and ask for it to be looked at again. Say what was removed and why you think the decision was mistaken.