Last updated May 2023
The Agroecology Lab at the University of Maine is an interdisciplinary group of faculty, post-docs, staff, graduate and undergraduate students, and affiliated cooperators. Our group is committed to conducting research and outreach that serves communities, with a special focus on the intersection between natural resource use (agriculture and forestry), human dimensions of natural resource use, and complex challenges such as climate change, food insecurity, and environmental contamination.
Our work is grounded in the complementary traditions of agroecology and participatory action research (PAR), meaning that we work with stakeholders and partners to identify problems that require research and action, and contribute our resources and time to solving these problems. As agroecologists, we look at systems-level relationships between plants, animals, insects, people, abiotic elements (e.g., rainfall, temperature, climate change), policy, and governance.
Our code of conduct has been developed collaboratively by members of our group and is a living document. We commit to reviewing it on an annual basis and updating as necessary. Here, we lay out guidance for how we strive to conduct ourselves as members of the Agroecology Lab, scientists, citizens, and humans.
How to use this code of conduct:
Lab members should read (or re-read) this document before starting a research project;
reread relevant sections prior to starting a new phase of the research process;
reread, and make comments to improve the code of conduct based on your experience, before leaving the lab along with a group debrief.
Key words: Professionalism, inclusivity, collaboration, ethics