All lab members shall adhere to the following code of conduct. Enforcement of the code is ultimately the responsibility of the lab PI (Shane), but all lab members are expected to help create a fun, safe, and productive environment for everyone. Please contact Shane if you have a concern with any topic on this page. If your concern is with Shane's conduct, you should contact Shane's supervisor (the head of UTU biology department).

Occupational health and safety: Everyone in the group shares responsibility for maintaining the highest standards of occupational safety in the lab and the wider department. Each lab member must familiarize themselves with occupational safety at UTU. Additionally, all members must read and agree to the UTU Department of Biology rules (PDF - print, sign, and return to Shane). Each of us is responsible for following chemical and biological safety standards and all instructions for campus-wide emergencies. Please refer to the UTU Cheminventory database to review any chemical risks when working with a new reagent. Please also refer to Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) for safety information related to handling microorganisms. I expect all team members to read BMBL-6, sections I-IV. We work at Biosafety Level 1 (BSL-1), which is the lowest risk category. BSL-1 labs follow Standard Microbiological Practices (BMBL-6, section III), require no special features beyond standard laboratory equipment, and are safely equipped to handle organisms or toxins not known to cause disease in healthy adults. Work in BSL-1 labs has minimal potential hazards to laboratory personnel and the environment. Occupational safety also applies to those of us doing office or computational work. Please mind your office ergonomics! If your desk and chair are insufficient, you should talk to the faculty of science representative from UTU Occupational Health and Safety and the Vice Heads of the Biology Department. Please know that your health and safety are more important to me than your research!

Mental health, well-being, and work/life balance: We commit to fostering a working culture and environment that is kind, safe, open, and fair, emphasizing the importance of our mental and physical well-being. We acknowledge that mental distress is challenging and can impact all dimensions of a sufferer's life. We strive to provide reasonable accommodations to team members suffering from mental distress, and all lab members are expected to show compassion and understanding to anyone having trouble. Disparaging comments regarding mental health will be treated as discriminatory behavior and will handled following lab policy on Harassment, bullying, discrimination, and other inappropriate behaviors. If you feel mentally or physically unwell, you are expected to take the time (and actions) you need to return to a healthy place. Please keep the PI informed of where you are in your recovery and how much time you need. If you anticipate needing more than a week or two, a formal sick leave may be the most appropriate course of action. The PI will try to keep all communications regarding mental health confidential, but he is required to report to the university administration any information you disclose concerning harm to self or others.

Harassment, bullying, discrimination, and other inappropriate behaviors: We commit to maintaining the highest level of respect and professionalism towards others. Our community is open to all regardless of their ethnic or national origin, race, religion, citizenship, language, political or other opinion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, age, or economic class, and discrimination based on these characteristics will not be tolerated. We also do not tolerate harassment/bullying in any form (including microaggressions ). Some examples of inappropriate conduct include, but are not limited to, sexual language or imagery, racially or culturally offensive comments, touching of hair or clothing or the body without permission, and threatening, humiliating, coercive, or otherwise intimidating behaviors. More examples are available here. If you encounter these behaviors, you should confront the perpetrator and tell them to stop. You should also notify the PI about the incident. The PI maintains the right to remove repeat offenders from the lab group at any time.

Research integrity: We adhere to the University of Turku guidelines for research ethics. It is the responsibility of all lab members to familiarize themselves with the The Finnish Code of Conduct for Research Integrity and Procedures for Handling Alleged Violations of Research Integrity and adhere to the code. Additionally, we hold ourselves to the highest standards of scientific rigor and honesty, which in practice means that we document our projects and thinking clearly and thoroughly, we ensure raw data is documented, backed-up, and immutable, we use reproducible scientific notebooks (e.g., Quarto or Jupyter) for data analysis, we release research data and code from our publications into the public domain, we follow FAIR data principles when publishing our raw data, and we release all of our papers as preprints (e.g., on bioRxiv) before publication.