Last updated: June 2026
OME is a community of technology developers, imaging scientists and experimentalists dedicated towards building and using imaging data for discovery and insight. OME uses a variety of electronic forums and media (GitHub, Slack, Zoom, Trello, Image.sc and others) to mediate communication among its developers and its global user community. By using OME’s Slack, posting on OME’s GitHub repositories, participating in Zoom calls hosted by OME, attending meetings and workshops either organised by OME or in which you participate as an OME team member, you agree to abide by the following Code of Conduct.
OME reserves the right to update this code of conduct at any time. When updates do occur (as pull requests against https://github.com/ome/governance/blob/main/code-of-conduct/README.md, a message will be posted to the image.sc forum to notify OME developers and users.
This code of conduct applies to all spaces managed by OME and its collaborators. Violations of this code outside these spaces may affect a person’s ability to participate within the OME-managed spaces.
At OME we do not have pages of policies or procedures. Instead we have short, guiding statements of our values and principles.
Always try to do the best work you can do, for you, for OME, and for others.
Nothing is perfect. Be self-aware and always be respectful of others.
Act with compassion and respect for the community.
Be curious, and always be ready to change. There is always more to learn.
Be open and honest with others and most importantly, yourself.
OME is committed to providing an inclusive, accessible and positive community that is free from harassment, bullying or victimisation. Below are types of behaviors that will not be tolerated.
Threats of violence towards another person is not acceptable. This includes encouraging violence towards someone or posting/threatening to post other peoples personally identifying information (known as “Doxxing”).
There will always be times when two parties will have a difference of opinion. While this can be frustrating, this should never turn into a personal attack on someone. Attacking people for their opinions, personal beliefs, ideas, or suggestions is not acceptable. Please be professional and respectful at all times.
Harmful language towards a person’s:
is not acceptable.
If you see a Code of Conduct violation, follow these steps:
Most OME team members are employees or contractors of public Universities, and therefore bound by their institution’s policies and procedures. OME will use the same policies for addressing any issues that arise within the community. OME may, according to these policies block usage, access to its developers, or participation in OME’s community resources. These decisions are final.
OME is largely a grant funded project and thus the community support it offers is always “best effort”. OME aims to respond to all requests for information and support on public forums within 24 working hours. While OME developers are happy to assist where they can, please refrain from contacting OME staff on personal emails or messaging OME employees with direct questions. If you have a question about using OME’s work, understanding OME’s tools or directions, or just want to connect, please use a public forum like image.sc. If you are interested in receiving a letter of support for your own projects, please contact LoS-requests@openmicroscopy.org with the details of your project.
This Code of Conduct was forked from the policy from the Python Software Foundation Code of Conduct under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, with additional text from:
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© 2005-2026 University of Dundee & Open Microscopy Environment. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
OME source code is available under the GNU General public license or more permissive open source licenses, or through commercial license from Glencoe Software Inc.
OME, Bio-Formats, OMERO, IDR and their associated logos are trademarks of Glencoe Software Inc., which holds these marks to protect them on behalf of the OME community.
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Version: 2026.07.02