CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

Code of Conduct

SONARIS sits at the intersection of naval engineering, environmental science, acoustic research, and open-source software. The people working on it come from different countries, disciplines, and levels of experience. Some are professional engineers. Some are researchers. Some are students. Some are activists. That range of backgrounds is what makes the project scientifically credible and practically useful.

For this community to work, everyone needs to be able to participate without hostility, condescension, or exclusion. This document describes what that means in practice.

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Our Standards

Expected behavior

• Communicate with respect, even when you disagree. Scientific disagreement is part of the process here, and that requires the ability to challenge ideas without attacking the people who hold them.
• Give credit where it is due. If a contribution, an idea, or a dataset came from someone else, say so.
• Be specific when giving feedback. "This approach is wrong" is not useful. "This masking model underestimates threshold shifts at high SPL because it does not account for upward spread; see Moore (2012) p.87" is useful.
• Accept that you might be wrong. Everyone working on this project is operating near the edge of their knowledge in at least one area. That is fine. Stay open to correction.
• Consider the experience of people who are newer to the codebase, the science, or open-source contribution generally. Not everyone starts with the same context.

Unacceptable behavior

• Harassment of any kind, including unwanted attention, threats, and targeted mockery.
• Discrimination based on nationality, gender, age, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or any other personal characteristic.
• Dismissing contributions because of who made them rather than what they contain.
• Publishing someone's personal information without their explicit consent.
• Sustained interruption of discussions, deliberate derailing of technical threads, or bad-faith engagement intended to frustrate rather than resolve.
• Using SONARIS project spaces to promote unrelated commercial products or services.

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Scope

This code of conduct applies in all project spaces: the GitHub repository, issues, pull requests, discussions, and any public forum where someone is representing SONARIS. It also applies to private communication when a participant brings a complaint about conduct that occurred in those spaces.

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Enforcement

Reporting

If you experience or witness behavior that violates this code of conduct, report it by opening a GitHub issue marked with the label conduct-report, or by contacting the project maintainer directly through GitHub. Reports will be handled with discretion. The identity of the person reporting will not be disclosed without their consent.

When filing a report, include as much context as you can: what happened, where, when, and who was involved. If there are links to the relevant comments or threads, include them.

What happens after a report

The maintainer will review the report, gather additional context if needed, and determine the appropriate response. The person who filed the report will be informed of the outcome. All reports are taken seriously. No report will be dismissed without review.

Enforcement ladder

Responses to violations follow a four-level escalation based on the severity and frequency of the behavior.

1. Correction

For minor violations, such as a single instance of dismissive language or an inappropriate comment. The maintainer will contact the person privately, explain the problem, and ask them to correct the behavior. A public apology may be requested.

2. Warning

For a more serious violation, or a repeated minor violation after correction. The person receives a formal warning. Continued participation is conditional on improved conduct. Further violations will result in a temporary ban.

3. Temporary ban

For a serious violation or pattern of behavior that has continued after a warning. The person is removed from all project spaces for a defined period. No contact with the project community is permitted during this period, including through third parties. Re-entry requires acknowledgment of the conduct issue.

4. Permanent ban

For sustained harmful behavior, harassment, or conduct that creates a genuinely hostile environment for other participants. The person is permanently removed from all project spaces with no path to re-entry.

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Attribution

This Code of Conduct is adapted from the Contributor Covenant, version 2.1, maintained by Coraline Ada Ehmke and contributors. The enforcement guidelines draw from Mozilla's conduct enforcement ladder.