Upstream Community

The Upstream Community operates a trust system with different roles (contributors, authors, and editors). New Upstream writers will start as “contributors”. This role allows you to write, but not publish (for “contributors,” publishing will be coordinated through Team Upstream). After time and experience with Upstream, contributors will migrate to an “author” role unless any concerns are raised by the community about their initial posts. “Authors” can write and publish a post at the time scheduled by Team Upstream. “Editors” can add to the content of others (a function only to be used by Team Upstream after posting, if a concern is raised by a reader about a post or comment - see below).

Community ownership of Upstream

Team Upstream is here to help. However, our workflows are intended to be self-managed and our processes are intended to be collectively owned by our community. No vetting of content will take place before posting. It is the responsibility of our writers to ensure their content follows Upstream’s five basic rules. Team Upstream is available to discuss whether your post meets those criteria.  However, if a writer is unsure whether the content is right for Upstream, they should rely on their communities - asking colleagues in the open research community for vetting and/or editing.  No screening of comments will take place by Team Upstream.

Concerns About Upstream Content

If community members have concerns about the content of a blog or a comment, please contact upstream@force11.org. In the case that a query is raised, the following procedure will be followed:

1. A note will be added to the content in question by Team Upstream to notify readers that a concern has been raised or a complaint received and the post or comment is under investigation
2. An initial review by Team Upstream
3. If necessary, the content of concern will be forwarded to and investigated by FORCE11’s Code of Conduct committee
4. Subsequently the note posted on the post or comment will be amended to say it was investigated leading to one of the following possible outcomes:
   4.1 No further action is necessary
   4.2 Post/comment has been edited by the author(s) in response to the concern raised
   4.3 Post/comment has been taken down (stating the reasons for this)
5. Conflict resolution and any necessary sanction will then take place as per FORCE11’s code of conduct.