Engage Community Rules and Privacy Guidelines
Engage is an AMWA member benefit 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, nor is it a place for corporate or self-promotion, explicitly or implicitly.
To ensure the best possible experience for all members, we have established the following rules and guidelines for participation on all Engage communities. Members must review and adhere to the following rules, guidelines, legal disclaimer, and privacy policies.
By joining and using AMWA’s Engage 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: Engage is a helpful and supportive tool where medical communicators can network and connect with their peers. This is a place for you to solicit the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in ongoing conversations.
To maintain an environment that encourages civil and fruitful dialogue, AMWA reserves the right to suspend or terminate access to this community for anyone who violates these rules and guidelines.
If you have questions about these rules, guidelines, or the Engage tool itself, contact membership@amwa.org. In addition, inquiries about AMWA membership, products, or services should also be sent to membership@amwa.org or 240-238-0940.
Engage Rules
- Engage is not a job or classified advertising site, nor is it a place for corporate or self- promotion, explicitly or implicitly.
- Discussions and comments are meant to stimulate conversation, not to create contention. Personal attacks are not allowed. Respectful disagreement with the content of a post or providing a relevant suggestion is acceptable. Public retaliation against someone for disagreeing with you will not be tolerated; unresolved contention between two or more parties is best addressed by sharing the concern privately with the AMWA membership team (see contact information above).
- Do not post self-promotional messages, including offering services (consulting, writing, editing, coaching, etc.) and seeking jobs (whether paid or unpaid). This includes both explicit or implicit corporate or self-promotion.
- Do not post job offers/openings or solicitations for services to the Medical Writing & Communication community. AMWA's Jobs Online and Freelance Directory are the most suitable places for that information. Discussions about freelance opportunities are acceptable on the Freelance Network community only.
- 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, members are allowed to share personal experience or recommendations about products, educational opportunities, and services in which they do not have a personal stake.
- 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.
- Do not post messages you have received privately to the Engage Online Community without written permission from the sender.
- Do not redistribute content from Engage onto other platforms or communications without written permission from the original poster.
- 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).
- AMWA reserves the right to reject any message for any reason.
- AMWA may remove a member’s access to Engage if they do not abide by these rules.
Discussion Group Etiquette
- Please do a search first to see if your question has already been answered. You can use the search box in the top right corner. The Engage home page also has several shortcuts to topics that come up regularly.
- It is recommended that you include a signature tag (name, affiliation, location) on all messages. Company names, LinkedIn pages, and website domains are allowed in signature lines, but other promotional text, taglines, materials, and content are prohibited.
- 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.
- Keep in mind that new members are joining in all the time and that first impressions matter. An unprofessional post could reflect poorly on the entire group. Please keep your posts professional.
In addition to Engage, AMWA hosts several pages on public tools such as Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, and LinkedIn. By participating on social platforms that are AMWA branded, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines.
AMWA members also have access to the AMWA Member Directory. This 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.
Legal Disclaimer and Privacy Policies
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.
When 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 the 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.
We Respect Your Privacy
Any personal information you provide to us such as your name, address, telephone number, and email 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 resources from Higher Logic and input from the AMWA Engage Committee. Higher Logic is the industry leader in the online community space, with more than 25 million engaged members in more than 200,000 communities.