Listserv

Purpose and Code of Conduct

Purpose: The Cognitive Development Society listserv exists to support the professional lives of students, post-baccalaureate and post-doctoral researchers, junior faculty, and senior scholars in the field of cognitive development. It is primarily intended for job announcements, conference and meeting announcements, grant and award announcements, and general queries. The listserv can also be used to post questions or share ideas, but it is not intended to be a venue for extended debates (see below). Commercial and political announcements are not allowed.

As a society, we meet, connect and engage every two years at an in-person meeting. When used wisely and judiciously, the listserv can supplement these personal connections, and promote an open and respectful environment for engagement. We hope this makes the listserv a welcome space for engagement for all members, especially our student, postdoctoral and junior faculty members. As we use the listserv to post questions, share or exchange ideas, we now introduce a Code of Conduct to preserve an open and respectful environment. We also suggest that when discussions become debates, the exchange be moved off the listserv to other non-CDS-affiliated forums (e.g., the Commons Lounge community at SRCD, online meeting or conference call, Reddit, Slack, etc.).

Code of Conduct

Summary:  This Code of Conduct describes some ground rules to protect the CDS listserv community and seeks to ensure that all users can make the most of our listserv. In addition to the rules listed below, this Code of Conduct requires that users not harass or spam other users, post inappropriate content, or engage in any disruptive conduct. Although we do not want to be in a situation where we have to remove someone from the listserv, we reserve the right to do so when the following terms and guidelines are violated. We ask that users be considerate of the other members of our listserv and let the CDS Secretary or another member of the CDS Board know if you believe someone is acting inappropriately.

• The CDS listserv has zero tolerance for content that is threatening, abusive, defamatory, or otherwise fails to respect the rights and dignity of others.
• The CDS listserv has zero tolerance for the sharing of private communications without that person’s expressed consent.    
• The CDS listserv has zero tolerance for sharing other people’s communications posted on other social media forums (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Reddit).  
• The CDS listserv has zero tolerance for harassment in any form. This includes asking people offline to defend their public posts to the listserv.
• Users should seek to directly answer the queries that are posted.  Direct and helpful answers to queries cultivate and preserve the support and helpfulness that the listserv has always provided to its users.
• Users should refrain from changing the subject, questions or goals of an existing thread. This interrupts and derails the intentions of the person who started the thread. For example, if a user posts a request for data or resources pertaining to topic A, it would not be appropriate to question the validity of topic A in the same thread.  If you would like to change the subject or raise a different question, please start a new thread.
• Users should not express or imply that any statements made are endorsed by CDS or by another person, without their expressed consent.
• Users should not present information that is false or misleading.

If you see any communications on the listserv which you believe violate or are inconsistent with these guidelines, please contact the CDS Secretary ().

Listserv members must adhere to these guidelines or opt out of the listserv (i.e., To unsubscribe from the CDS listserv (or to update your email address), visit: http://lists.cogdevsoc.org/listinfo.cgi/cogdevsoc-cogdevsoc.org)

Other helpful suggestions and information for listserv use

Although researchers may post opportunities for research participation of listserv members (pending individual lab IRB guidelines), these should not be forwarded by others to prospective participants who are not listserv members. Such unsanctioned forwarding may violate the original poster’s IRB and further may incorrectly signal that a particular study is endorsed by CDS. If your lab is trying to reach a broader pool of potential participants, consider other mechanisms, such as childrenhelpingscience.com 

Job ads posted on the listserv are also posted to the Job Bank on the CDS website: https://cogdevsoc.org/job-bank/.

Also, opportunities, information and resources for undergraduate students can be found here:  https://www.psychresearchlist.com/.