Comments Guidelines

Science X offers our readers the opportunity to post reasoned comments about our published articles. We reserve the right to edit or delete comments or to withhold publishing if the content is offensive or may involve personal attacks or be construed as libelous.

Guidelines for posting comments on Science X articles:

• Stay on topic: Acceptable comments include those that add to the discussion in a meaningful and thought-provoking manner or provide an intelligent counterpoint to our articles.
• Avoid pointless verbiage: Try not to post comments such as e.g. "this is great", "useless" or "this is wrong". Say what you think is wrong, useful or useless about the article. Our readers are an articulate group. We want to know what you think.
• Be civil: Please respond insightfully and respectfully, avoiding personal attacks and name calling. Do not make comments that are threatening, obscene, profane, contain hate speech or degrade others. Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
• Keep science: Include references to the published scientific literature to support your statements. Pseudoscience comments (including non-mainstream theories) will be deleted (see pseudoscience).
• Avoid political and religious discussions: Because of the complexity and ambiguity of this subject matter, political and religious discussions are not allowed.
• Keep it short & concise: Limit your posts to about 1000 characters.
• Review your comment: Good grammar, spelling, and punctuation make it easier for everyone to understand your ideas. SMS messaging shorthand (e.g. "u" instead of "you") is not acceptable.
• Do not 'crosspost': Do not keep posting the same message, or very similar messages.
• Do not paste articles: If you find a relevant article, include a link or an excerpt.
• Do not quote complete posts: Use only text that is directly related to your comment.
• Do not include links in signatures or links to irrelevant materials: Comments that contain irrelevant links (including links in signatures) will be deleted. Linking to obviously "crackpot" sites is prohibited.
• Do not 'feed' the trolls: Do not engage with trolls in the comment threads (see internet troll).
• Do not use HTML: HTML tags will be deleted, links will be converted automatically.
• Do not use url-shortening services such as bit.ly, tinyurl.com.

Comments that will be deleted include:

• spam;
• promotion of services, publications or work unless it is relevant to the post;
• abusive, snarky, obscene, or just plain nasty remarks about anything or anyone;
• off topic ramblings, rants, or pointless verbiage;
• political and religious discussions;
• pseudoscience theories.

Updated: July 23, 2010