Policies & Procedures

The British Society for the History of Science (BSHS) strives to be a community that welcomes and supports people of all backgrounds and identities. This includes, but is not limited to members of any race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, colour, immigration status, social and economic class, educational level, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, size, family status, political belief, religion, and mental and physical ability. We are committed to providing a welcoming and inspiring community for all.

We want every BSHS Annual Meeting to be a safe and productive environment for delegates. We expect all participants—attendees, speakers, sponsors and volunteers—to demonstrate appropriate behaviour at BSHS conferences, including BSHS-related social events and in related online communities and social media.

Social Media Policy for BSHS Events

The BSHS often uses social media as a complementary channel for conference communication. Ideally, this encourages and perpetuates the intellectual exchange inspired by keynotes, guest speakers and conference delegates. It facilitates virtual attendance to BSHS events and helps resolve the dilemma of wanting to attend more than one panel at the same time. In order to ensure that conference social media use is a positive and affirmative experience for all users and non-users who are quoted and referenced throughout a BSHS event, we request that social media users adhere to the following guidelines:

• First and foremost, think before you post. Use common sense and courtesy when posting. The ‘Golden Rule’ is: post unto others as you would have them post unto you. Remember, we are a community of professionals and we should conduct ourselves professionally.
• Be generous with compliments and feel free to share interesting links to projects and materials, highlighting a colleague’s research in a positive way. The tone of posts should always be polite and respectful, as if you were speaking to the presenter directly.
• Questions, comments and constructive feedback should be made on social media in a courteous manner. When quoting or citing others’ work, we ask users of social media to uphold our scholarly values of intellectual collegiality and accuracy, and to respect context at all times to avoid misrepresentation and appropriation.
• Please be prudent about posting unpublished research results. Respect the presenter’s wishes: If a presenter says they would not like their paper to be posted, then this should be adhered to. If a presenter is OK with posting of comments but asks you to refrain from posting pictures of their slides, please adhere to this as well.
• If a presenter has a social media handle, mention it in the first of your posts from the panel. Also include the conference hashtag (e.g. #BSHS2027) so others may find posts relating to the conference and their work quickly. In some cases, it may be sensible to include information on the panel (e.g. panel #d4) as well. When quoting directly, always include the name of the scholar or their social media handle, if applicable.
• Questions and comments should always relate to the presenter’s research and ideas only – not to their person or their mode of presentation. The strength of our community comes from its diversity.

These guidelines reflect our common understanding and goal of a collaborative, shared environment. We expect it to be followed in spirit as much as in the letter. In the case of inappropriate social media use, please inform a member of the BSHS Council and please do not engage at all with posts that may be in breach of these guidelines.

(Guidelines adapted with permission from SHARP)

Social Media Policy for advertising events in the History of Science

The BSHS takes its role as a central node and distributor of information in the history of science, broadly construed, very seriously. We use our social media channels and website to promote BSHS news and events, as well as selected news and events from across the wider history of science community. This typically includes information on conferences, workshops, and other academic or academically adjacent events; job vacancies; calls for prizes and grants; and, on occasion, publication announcements.

If you would like us to announce a specific news item, please contact communications@bshs.org.uk and include the following information:

• Title of the news item

• Relevant dates

• Content

• Images (optional; minimum size 500 × 500 px)

• Preferred social media channels (optional; please include your social media handles)

By submitting text, images, or other materials for distribution, you confirm that you hold the necessary rights to these materials and grant the BSHS permission to use them for promotional purposes on its website and social media channels. The BSHS assumes no responsibility for rights clearance beyond this confirmation.

Please note that BSHS news items are given priority. We reserve the right to decide whether a submission is suitable for distribution and may decline to post it. We may also choose to schedule posts at our discretion—for example, to manage high submission volumes or to avoid multiple items competing for attention.

You are also welcome to follow and tag us on our social media channels, which are linked in the footer of our website. Suitable items may be reposted.