fediscience.org is a social network for scientists run by FediScience e.V., an international association dedicated to promoting scientific communication.

About Fediscience.org

FediScience is a social network for publishing scientists. Everyone is welcome to join from PhD student to professor, as well as researchers from outside of academia. You are welcome to stay afterwards, but it is also easy to change to another server.

There will be a lot of science talk on this server, but there is no need to only talk science.

This site is owned and operated by the charitable association FediScience e.V. and other volunteers from the FediScience community.

Imprint / Impressum

FediScience e.V.
Bahnhofstraße 22
85354 Freising
08161 / 2408483
support@fediscience.org

FediScience e.V. is registered in Munich, Germany
Registration no: VR 240410
Board members:
Frank Sonntag (chair & treasurer)
Christian Meesters (deputy)
Tatjana Scheffler (secretary)
Bahnhofstraße 22
85354 Freising
08161 / 2408483
support@fediscience.org

About the registration process

FediScience is a community for active scientists. Establishing the exact definition of "science" and who is actively contributing to it is a long-standing open problem (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demarcation_problem).

Therefore, we need to fix a criterium. We have opted to assume that researchers currently publishing in scientific journals are active scientists, knowing the potential limitations of this definition. To register on FediScience, you'll need to provide us with evidence that you are working as a publishing scientist or aspiring to be one, by sending us a link to your ORCID, academic web page, or similar where we can see your contributions. We will not save or use this information for anything other than the verification process. For students or junior researchers who have not yet published a paper - no problem! Just explain your situation. It will help us if you can add a link where we can see that you are affiliated with a research institution.

Other edge cases will be moderated on an individual basis. If you really think that you are a good match for the FediScience community, please apply and carefully explain your situation.

Code of conduct

As many people as possible should feel welcome at FediScience, so please follow the code of conduct.

• You do not have to give your name, but please tell us about your expertise and interests in your bio and introduce yourself using the #introductions hashtag.
• Don’t do anything that’s illegal in Germany or where you live.
• We want to be inclusive; do not engage in exclusionary behaviour or language. Consider not only the current interaction, but how it would be if your behaviour were common.
• Don’t harass people. Respect it if people want to stop an interaction. Sexual attention can constitute harassment, even if it wasn’t intended to cause upset.
• Please relax. Don’t assume you know better than the person you’re talking to.

Users violating these rules may have their accounts suspended and will not be welcome to take part any more.

If you are subject to or observe any harassment, or have any other concerns, please report the toot concerned or message a moderator. Reports will be dealt with discreetly and in confidence.

We want everyone to have a great time and treat each other with respect.

Use of the Content Warning (CW) feature

Mastodon has Content Warnings, please use them. They can be used to collapse a long (series) of messages, but also to hide topics some may find upsetting, especially when people would not expect this kind of content in your stream, e.g., when you are not talking about your area of expertise.

At the bottom of the message editor you can click the "CW" button; anything in the small warning field above your larger message editor field will be visible. The reader will have to click on "Show more" to see the full message.

Use of bots and cross-posters

It is fine to use apps or services which generate toots automatically, but please make sure that you have them under control: make sure they are relevant, try to limit it to a few posts a day. Mark the account as bot. When using bots and cross-posters visit FediScience regularly, if only to interact with replies.

Support Mastodon and FediScience

The best way to help is to spread the word! If you starting using Mastodon and find it useful then help out by telling other people about it.

Multiple people have kindly offered to support FediScience financially and since we are getting so many new people onboard that we can make use of the funds to support the infrastructure and moderation costs.


Liberapay is a not-for-profit financed by donations itself.

Patreon
is a for-profit and more expensive, but we offer it for people's convenience

1. When signing up, you need to verify you're a scientist! Please provide a link to your ORCID, Scholar, or academic webpage, showing your recent publications. (Junior) researchers without publications, please tell us why you want to join.
2. Discrimination in any form (including, but not limited to sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia...) is strictly prohibited on the platform.
3. Harassment, doxxing, or other abusive practices are not allowed.
4. Posting of content illegal in Germany or the EU is not allowed.
5. The intentional spreading of disinformation (“fake news”) is not allowed on the platform.
6. No sexually explicit or violent content allowed.
7. No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies.
8. Promotion of pseudoscience is also not allowed.
9. Respect the Fediverse etiquette: use content warnings for sensible content and describe your uploaded images using alt text.
10. So that we can moderate the instance, content has to be in a language for which free machine translation (e.g. Deepl.com) is available.
11. Be kind to your peers! Treat others with empathy and respect.

1. mytter.jp: suspension