Code of Conduct
SAIMI is endorsed by the MICCAI Society and SAIMI’s code of conduct is based on the MICCAI Society Code of Conduct lightly adapted to better reflect a regional one day event with non-archival submissions.
Who and what this covers
This code applies to everyone taking part in a SAIMI edition: attendees, speakers, poster presenters, organisers, volunteers, reviewers, sponsors, exhibitors, vendors, guests and venue staff.
It covers the symposium day itself, including poster sessions and sponsor booths, associated social events such as the apéro and the speakers’ dinner, any online or hybrid sessions, and SAIMI’s communication channels, including social media.
Expected behaviour
- Exercise consideration and respect in your speech and actions.
- Critique ideas, methods and results rather than people.
- Refrain from demeaning, discriminatory or harassing behaviour.
- Be mindful that participants differ widely in seniority, institution, background, first language and familiarity with the field. Questions that seem basic are welcome, and asking one should carry no cost.
- Respect the names and pronouns people use for themselves.
- Be aware of your surroundings and of fellow participants. Alert an organiser to anything dangerous or to any breach of this code.
- Alcohol is served at SAIMI social events. Drink moderately, and take care that your behaviour toward others is unaffected.
Unacceptable behaviour
Violence and bullying. Use of physical force, threats that endanger someone’s safety, disruptive behaviour such as shouting, and verbal abuse that creates a hostile environment.
Personal harassment. Conduct with sexual, bigoted, ethnic or racial undertones, including unwelcome advances, suggestive remarks, unwanted physical contact, photography without consent, following and stalking.
Discriminatory or exclusionary comments, including those relating to gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, age, and academic seniority or institution.
Sustained disruption of talks, poster sessions or discussions.
Threats of professional or financial harm, whether explicit or implied. In a community this small, where reviewers, supervisors and future employers are in the same room, this matters more than it might at a large conference.
Retaliation against anyone who reports a concern under this code, or who takes part in handling one.
Unpublished work
SAIMI is non archival and explicitly invites work in progress. Everything presented is shared in confidence.
Do not circulate content of posters and slides online without the presenting author’s permission. Do not use results you saw at SAIMI in your own work without asking. If you want a copy of something, ask the author.
Photography at the event
Editions may engage a photographer, and organisers may take photographs for the event website and for social media.
If you would rather not appear in these, tell the registration desk or any organiser at any point during the day, and we will keep you out of published photographs. Attendees photographing each other should ask first, and accept a refusal without discussion.
Reporting a concern
Two reporting routes are available:
- A code of conduct officer. Each edition names two, at least one of whom is not part of the local organising team. They are listed on the edition website and in the programme booklet, and are reachable on the day.
- The steering committee, at steering-commitee@saimi.ch. Use this route if the concern involves an organiser, or if you would rather raise it outside the host institution.
If you are in immediate danger, contact venue security (if present) or the emergency services first, then tell an organiser.
You can report during the event or afterwards. You can report an incident that happened to you, or one you witnessed. Anonymous reports are accepted; they may limit what can be done in response, but they still inform how future editions are run.
You may also choose to address the behaviour informally yourself, or to talk it through with an officer confidentially before deciding whether to make a formal report. A written report is more useful if it says what happened, when, who was involved and who else saw it.
How reports are handled
A code of conduct officer takes the report and decides with the complainant what happens next.
Where a formal complaint proceeds, the officer will inform the person complained about, give them the substance of the complaint and a chance to reply in writing, and speak to anyone else involved or present. Identities are protected as far as the handling of the complaint allows. The officers may seek outside advice, including from the host institution.
Officers do not decide outcomes. They put a recommendation to the steering committee, which decides. Any steering committee member involved in the incident, or with a close working relationship to someone who is, steps out of that decision.
Urgent safety concerns on the day can be acted on immediately by the organisers, before any of the above.
Possible outcomes
The steering committee decides what is proportionate. Available responses include a private warning, a request to change specific behaviour, a requirement to leave a session or the event, withdrawal of an accepted abstract or of an award, and exclusion from future SAIMI editions.
SAIMI does not reimburse travel or accommodation for anyone asked to leave.
Where conduct may be criminal, SAIMI will cooperate with law enforcement.
Confidentiality
Reports are shared only with those who need to be involved in responding to them. Records are kept confidential except where disclosure is required by law or is necessary to act on the complaint.
False or malicious complaints
This code exists to protect participants. Knowingly making a false or malicious complaint is itself a breach of it and is handled the same way as any other. Reporting something in good faith that turns out to be unfounded is not.
Appeals
Anyone subject to a decision may appeal in writing to the steering committee within 30 days. The appeal is considered by members who were not involved in the original decision.
Review
The code of conduct officers report to the steering committee after each edition, noting any incidents in general terms and anything the process got wrong. The steering committee reviews this document annually.
Acknowledgement
Adapted from the MICCAI Society Code of Conduct, with sections added on unpublished work and event photography, and with reporting and decision making assigned to SAIMI’s own officers and steering committee.