Discussion policies (proposed)

Each network enjoys the ability to draft some guidelines for its own operation. As a new editor of a network that hasn't had one for a while, there is a backlog of discussion posts I'm working through. I thought this would be a good opportunity to suggest some basic discussion policies to facilitate discussion and keep the site tidy, using our sister network H-War's policies as a template. I welcome your comments on any of these suggestions and any additions as well, especially to the style guidelines, over the long weekend.

Monday morning (Central DST), I will post the policies and begin processing discussion posts in the hopper according to what we've produced.

H-Peace Discussion Policies (Proposed)

I. Scope, Content, and Purpose of H-Peace

H-Peace is a moderated discussion group for scholars, librarians, and teachers in the field of peace studies. We encourage discussions and announcements concerned with any theoretical or pedagogical perspective, subspecialty, or era of the field, especially those that may provide opportunities for comparative and general perspectives on the entire field.

The primary purpose of H-Peace is to provide a forum for peace historians, researchers, and practitioners to communicate openly. In this light, H-Peace focuses particularly on research and teaching interests, new scholarship in the field, discussions of historical and contemporary approaches to peace and conflict processes that foster critical thinking and enhance professionalism, and the sharing of knowledge and experience about the teaching of peace and conflict processes, including posting and discussion of course syllabuses and reading lists. In addition, H-Peace welcomes announcements from scholarly and professional societies or other organizations about their journals, conferences, fellowships, and funding opportunities. (Jobs may be posted announced if already posted on the H-Net Job Guide.) We also encourage organizers of conferences to send calls for papers and program contents. Graduate students are welcome to post abstracts of their doctoral dissertations and research papers. H-Peace is also an appropriate forum for information on bibliographic and archival sources.

II. Editorial Policy

H-Peace editors maintain a scholarly forum in which professionals and qualified students in this field exchange ideas and useful information. Because H-Net maintains a permanent list of disucssion posts with a search engine open to anyone, H-Peace posts are published materials that represent not only the subscriber but also H-Net and the H-Peace editors; thus, the editors will filter out extraneous posts and items that do not belong on H-Peace. Editors uphold the stated policies of the H-Net Council regarding discussion posts; in addition, reasons for rejection of a posting might include the following (although this is not an exhaustive list):

• Inappropriateness for this network.
• Inability of a post to assist in the furthering of scholarly dialogue on the topic of peace studies.
• Ad hominem or otherwise personal attacks.
• Personal promotion, except announcments that foster discussion of recently published work, innovative research or teaching methods, or other efforts to generate discussion within the field.

Editors avoid the outright rejection of posts as much as possible. In that interest, editors may require the revision of discussion posts before they can be posted. Revisions might deal with the tone, specific passages, style, or structure of a post. An editor may request splitting a message into separate posts. In general, editors work with subscribers to produce acceptable edits for all sides.

If a subscriber believes a rejection or revision is unjustified, he or she may appeal the editor's decision to the H-Net Vice President for Networks and the H-Net Council. Those contemplating an appeal are advised to review H-Net's procedures on such appeals.

III. Style Guidelines

In order to keep the site tidy and maintain consistency across all discussion posts, editors uphold the following style guidelines:

• An author of a discussion post must have a verifiable professional affiliation within his or her H-Net profile, preferably by a link to an institutional webpage.
• Because each discussion post includes a link to the author's H-Net profile, no signature, salutation, or other identifying remarks will be included within the text of a discussion post. (If you wish to share information about yourself with the network, include it in your H-Net profile.)
• The text editor allows for a range of formatting, including the addition of hyperlinks. When referencing a person, organization, publication, or other entity that exists on the Internet, include a hyperlink to the entity's website, embedded within the natural flow of the prose. Do not paste links directly into the text.
• Each post must include at least two relevant keywords. Keywords help organize posts within the site, facilitate searches for posts, promote linking among posts, and enhance the visibility of the network on the Internet.
• Each post must include one or two relevant categories. Categories act as a filing system for discussion posts. The following are possible categories: Calls for Papers; Announcement; Query; Research; Teaching.
• Because categories file posts, no categorization terms may be used in post titles.

IV.  Copyright Notice

All contributions to H-Peace fall under the H-Net Copyright Policy. In general, the author retains copyright to publication of any submission to the list, and H-Peace and H-Net retain the right to store, disseminate with full attribution, and make available to subscribers such submissions.