New Photography and Recording Policy for SfN’s Annual Meeting

SfN embraces the concept of sharing discovery with professional colleagues. The annual meeting has long served as a key venue for SfN members to present new information (much of it unpublished), receive feedback, and create new collaborations. Many annual meeting attendees use their smart phones and tablets on-site to share exciting discoveries with their friends and colleagues on social media, or to capture photos for note-taking purposes. At the same time, members come to the meeting to discuss their research and some prefer that images of their preliminary data not be photographed and shared.

In an effort to balance the preferences and intellectual property of presenters and their institutions with open scientific communication, SfN Council has adopted new policies, recommended by the Program Committee, regarding the use of photography and recording devices during SfN-sponsored meetings.

The new policy allows presenters and exhibitors to choose whether or not to allow photography and recording of their poster, talk, or exhibit booth. Presenters and exhibitors at SfN-sponsored scientific meetings and events will now have the option to license their presentation material to attendees and SfN. After giving proper credit to the exhibitor or presenter, this will enable attendees to use the presented material in the manner specified under a Creative Commons Attribution + Noncommercial + ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

The new policies were adopted following the recommendations that came from the Photography and Recording Policy Working Group, which consisted of representatives from the Program Committee, Public Education and Communication Committee (PECC), and the Trainee Advisory Committee. The working group met over the course of the last year to consider revisions to the policy following feedback from annual meeting attendees. The goal in these discussions was to revise the policy in a way that brings SfN into alignment with the expectations of an increasingly digital world, while also respecting the annual meeting as a safe place to present unpublished or proprietary data. A new policy also needed to be more enforceable than the current version.

To support the new policy, the following changes have been put in place:

• Presenters and exhibitors will be invited to display a set of icons to indicate to the audience whether or not photography/recording of the poster, presentation, or exhibit booth and sharing/remixing of the material is permitted. SfN will provide presenters with a digital graphic to incorporate into their slides/poster or to print and display. Hard copies will also be made available on the poster floor. These icons include:
  • Camera with an X:  Photography/recording/sharing/remixing/derivative works of the material are prohibited.  All rights are reserved.
    
  • CCBY-NC-SA icon/Camera with a Checkmark:  Photography/recording of the material is permitted.  Sharing and remixing are permitted with appropriate attribution as stated in CCBY-NC-SA 4.0 International, subject to commercial patents and trademarks, when applicable.
    
• In the absence of a visible image/sign, photography, video and audio recording and all other forms of recording a presentation, poster, or exhibit booth are prohibited.
• Presenters are expected to obtain permissions from all co-authors before choosing the level of capturing and sharing allowed of the work described in the presentation. If all co-authors do not agree, the presentation must be marked as the camera with an X. Displaying the CCBY icon will indicate that permissions have been obtained from all authors.
• Attendee photography and recording of presentations and exhibits should not be disruptive. Flash photography is not permitted. Devices should be handheld. Large cameras and other equipment such as tripods, monopods, etc. are prohibited in session rooms and the Exhibit Hall.
• SfN expects that all attendees will honor the request of the presenter or exhibitor as a matter of scientific and professional courtesy. In the event of an allegation of noncompliance with this policy at an SfN-organized scientific event, SfN will receive a complaint and will refer reports of violations by an attendee to the attendee’s organization or institution for review and handling. SfN staff or security personnel will not police or actively enforce noncompliance.

Over the next several months leading up to Neuroscience 2019 in Chicago on October 19–23, 2019, SfN plans to provide additional information on the new photography and recording policies on SfN.org. Questions should be directed to program@sfn.org.