Rules & Etiquette

Community Rules & Etiquette and Privacy Guidelines

Thank you for being a part of the AMWA community. To ensure the best possible experience for all members, we have established some basic rules and guidelines for participation.

By joining and using this community, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines. You also agree to limit discussions and shared files and content to those best suited to the platform. This is a great place for you to solicit the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation. 

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these rules and guidelines. If you have questions about these guidelines or the Engage tool itself, contact the AMWA Engage Team. However, questions about AMWA membership, products, or services should be directed to the AMWA Membership Team at membership@amwa.org or 240-238-0940.

In order to maintain an environment that encourages civil and fruitful dialogue, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate access to this community for anyone who violates these rules.

In addition to Engage, AMWA hosts several pages on public tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  By participating on social platforms that are AMWA branded, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines.

 

Purpose of Engage

Engage is an AMWA member benefit. It is designed to stimulate professional discussions and networking related to the practice of medical writing and communication, allowing members to share resources, advice, and expertise.  Engage is not intended to be a job or classified advertising site. 

Medical writing is a broad field that encompasses many forms of communication aimed at various audiences. Please keep in mind that best practices in medical writing may vary with the type of communication and the intended audience.

Access to Engage is available to all members, and may be archived permanently, so do not post anything you would not want a current or potential employer or client to see.

The Rules

  • Discussions and comments are meant to stimulate conversation, not to create contention. Let others have their say. Personal attacks are not allowed. Respectful disagreement with the content of a post, or providing a suggestion, is acceptable.

  • Do not post self-promotional messages, including offering services and seeking jobs (whether paid or unpaid).

  • Do not post advertising messages on any discussion list, resource library entry, or other area where others might see it.  Retail or resale postings for products or services are not permitted.

    To avoid stifling useful discussion, Engage does allow members to share personal experience or recommendations about products, educational opportunities, and services in which they do not have a stake.

  • Do not post job offers/openings or solicitations for services.  AMWA's Jobs Online and Freelance Directory are the most suitable places for that information.

  • Use caution when discussing products. Information posted on the lists and in the libraries can be seen by everyone, and comments are subject to libel, slander, and antitrust laws. Contact people directly with product and service information if you believe it would help them.

  • All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited. Do not post anything that you would not want the world to see. 

  • Please review all items listed in the disclaimer and legal rules below, particularly regarding the copyright ownership of information posted. 

  • Respect intellectual property. Post content that you have personally created or that you have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator. When posting items in Engage, please indicate if the item is not available for reuse. It’s also advisable to contact the owner of any material you would like to reuse. 

    While you, AMWA, and other Engage participants have the right to reproduce postings, be professional and courteous by asking participants for permission to republish their words elsewhere (especially in a publicly viewable setting).

  • Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate lists or libraries. Do not spam several lists or libraries with the same message.

  • We reserve the right to reject any message for any reason.

Discussion Group Etiquette

  • It is recommended that you include a signature tag (name, affiliation, location) on all messages. 

  • Put a clear and concise topic for your comments in the subject line. This helps members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject. 

  • Include only the relevant portions of the original message in your reply. Delete any header information, and put your response text before the original posting. 

  • Only send a message to the entire list when everyone can benefit from it. 

  • Send such messages as "Thanks for the information" or "Me, too" to individuals-not the entire list.  Do so by using the "Reply to Sender" link in the upper right-hand corner of the message.

  • Do not send administrative messages, such as “Remove me from the list” to the entire list.  Instead, use the web interface to change your settings or to remove yourself from a list. If you are changing email addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from the list and rejoin under your new email address. Simply change your settings. 

  • Do not post messages you have received privately to the Engage Online Community without written permission from the sender.

Member Directory

The Member Directory is a benefit of membership designed to help individual members find others with whom they have shared interests and to support peer-to-peer networking between members.  Members share their contact information in the directory with the expectation that their privacy will be respected.  Unauthorized use of this member benefit, including solicitation or other outreach to groups of AMWA members, is a violation of these terms.  

 

The Legal Stuff

This site is provided as a service for the members of American Medical Writers Association (AMWA).  AMWA is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. We disclaim all warranties with regard to information posted on this site, whether posted by AMWA or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall AMWA be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site.

Do not post any defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials. Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants AMWA and users of this site the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.

Messages that encourage or facilitate members to arrive at any agreement that either expressly or implicitly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade are prohibited. Messages that encourage or facilitate an agreement about prices, discounts, or terms or conditions of sale; salaries; profits, profit margins, or cost data; market shares, sales territories, or markets; allocation of customers or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers are inappropriate.

In the event that inappropriate content is brought to the attention of AMWA, appropriate action will take place.  This action may include removal of the post, however AMWA will not alter the editorial content of posting.

AMWA reserves the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these rules and guidelines.

See a Forum Violation? Contact membership@amwa.org.

Privacy Policy

We Respect Your Privacy
Any personal information you provide to us such as your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address will not be released, sold, or rented to any entities or individuals outside of our organization except as noted below.

How We Share the Personal Information We Collect Through This Site

Our Service Providers 
We may share your personal information with companies (including our affiliates) that perform services on our behalf, for example, companies that help process credit card payments. Our service providers are required by contract to protect the confidentiality of the personal information we share with them and to use it only to provide specific services on our behalf. 

Business Transfers 
Your personal information may be transferred to another entity (either an affiliated entity or an unrelated third party) in connection with a merger, reorganization, dissolution or similar corporate event. If such a transfer were ever to occur, the acquiring entity’s use of your personal information will still be subject to this Privacy Policy. 

Government and Legal Disclosures
We may disclose the personal information we collect through this Site (Engage), when we, in good faith, believe disclosure is appropriate to comply with the law (or a court order or subpoena); to prevent or investigate a possible crime, such as fraud or identity theft; to enforce our Terms and Conditions or other agreements that govern your use of this Site; or to protect the rights, property or safety of our company, our users, or others.

External Sites
We are not responsible for the content of external Internet sites. You are advised to read the privacy policy of external sites before disclosing any personal information.

Cookies
A "cookie" is a small data text file that is placed in your browser and allows us to recognize your settings each time you visit this site (personalization, etc). Cookies themselves do not contain any personal information, and we do not use cookies to collect personal information. Cookies may also be used by third party content providers such as newsfeeds.

Remember the Risks Whenever You Use the Internet

While we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us and you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of any passwords or other account information. In addition other Internet sites or services that may be accessible through our site have separate data and privacy practices independent of us, and therefore we disclaim any responsibility or liability for their policies or actions. Please contact those vendors and others directly if you have any questions about their privacy policies.  For any other information please contact us using the Contact Us page. 

AMWA may change these rules at any time. If you continue to use the site after AMWA posts changes to these rules, you are signifying your acceptance of the new terms.

 

The community rules & etiquette policy was developed with input from Higher Logic and the Engage Advisory Group. Higher Logic is the industry leader in the online community space, with more than 25 million engaged members in more than 200,000 communities.

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