Social Media & Commenting Policy

The American Ornithological Society’s (AOS’s) Social Media and Commenting Policy governs engagement and conduct on the AOS’s social media platforms and applies to content referring to or generated by the AOS Annual Meeting.  In addition, we ask meeting participants to abide by the additional meeting-specific social media and commenting policy elements detailed here. 

Sharing ornithological science with the public via social media is one way to educate the public, which can help support science and its application. The AOS 2025 meeting is a pro-social media event and meeting organizers actively encourage the sharing of conference content.  Promotional content for the meeting will be aggregated online using the conference hashtag: #AOS25. 

AOS 2025 presenters are encouraged to include personal and/or project social media handles and hashtags on slides and posters. We recommend adding relevant handles and hashtags to at least the opening slide, but preferably to all slides. For those without personal/project handles or hashtags, consider including the conference hashtag or a social media icon on slides to let people know you are supportive of them posting about your work on social media.

AOS 2025 presenters must opt out if they do not want their presentation or research to be featured in social media posts: this is best achieved by placing a “no social media” message and symbol on slides or materials. (Graphics are available for download at this link.) If presenters do not opt out in this manner, conference organizers and/or attendees can share published research presented at the conference without obtaining any additional consent. 

Only authorized representatives of the AOS may record or distribute audio or video recordings of the AOS 2025 event or its participants. Other recording of AOS 2025 events, including recording of individual talks or symposia, is strictly prohibited without prior written permission from the AOS. This includes recording events, in whole or in part, via videos and/or making audio recordings. Participants wishing to share information from the Event and/or post screenshots or photos via social media, whether of their own material or that of others, must adhere to the platform’s stated rules and policies including this Social Media and Commenting Policy.

The goal of this policy is to facilitate lively and respectful conversations about science, professional development, and ornithology. AOS 2025 organizers are not responsible for attendees’ social media comments or live tweets on platforms that are not managed by the AOS, but provide the following guidelines.

• When posting about content from AOS 2025, AOS meeting participants must give appropriate credit to presenters and researchers whose work is featured in their posts.  
• Conference attendees are expected to abide by the AOS 2025 Meeting Code of Conduct and all those engaging on social media are asked to maintain a respectful discourse to ensure a safe, hospitable, and productive environment for all. Discrimination, harassment, and/or retaliation will not be tolerated. 
• Meeting participants must refrain from sharing content for which a presenter has indicated an opt-out message, as detailed above. 

If any of the guidelines above are violated:

• The AOS has the right to delete posts or comments on AOS platforms that contain spam, irrelevant remarks, or items that violate the AOS Social Media & Commenting Policy, the AOS 2025 Meeting Social Media & Commenting Policy, the AOS Meeting Code of Conduct, or the AOS Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics Policy.
• AOS 2025 reserves the right to block or ban users who violate the aforementioned policies from our social media channels, and/or from participating in AOS 2025.

We recommend that presenters and those sharing on social media be mindful of how photos of birds (and other animals), especially birds in the hand, may appear to the public. Some of the questions to consider before sharing a photograph include: Are safe and taxonomically-appropriate grips being used? Does the bird appear in any way to be stressed, disheveled, or in an unnatural position? Is it a “trophy shot” (prolonging handling time), or was it taken during banding and provides educational material such as molt? For further suggestions on sharing photos of wild birds in the hand, see the 2022 AOS Policy on the Use of Photography on Digital Platforms and the North American Banding Council’s photographic guidelines. We discourage the posting of “bird selfies” in which a human subject is holding a wild bird in the hand while looking directly at the camera and not engaging with the bird.

AOS 2025 participants can report violations of this policy by contacting the meeting’s Professional Ethics & Safe Conduct Committee at: safe-meeting@americanornithology.org.