PSICAN Internal Document – May 15th, 2016
THIS DOCUMENT ALSO AVAILABLE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC
Paranormal Studies and Inquiry
Canada:
General Information –
Ethics and Codes
Version 4.0
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Paranormal Studies and Inquiry Canada
Our Mission Statement…
The overall purpose of Paranormal Studies and Inquiry Canada is to publish for discussion and potential academic review materials pertaining to the study, and examination of perceived paranormal phenomena.
For clarifications or more information about this document, please contact editor@psican.org
PSICAN ETHICS GUIDE:
Guide Points
1: The safety, security, and overall comfort of any cited witnesses/experients is paramount in all submitted efforts.
(i) Personal and private data including contact information must and will be held in the strictest confidence and not shared beyond the content provider and potentially PSICAN editors unless the individual who shared the information has given express permission to publish or make said data publicly accessible, or the information has been previously published or noted in a public manuscript, document, periodical, or other printed (televised/broadcast) source.
(ii) PSICAN as an entity is bound by neutrality. It remains open to any content provider and/or those PSICAN is sharing information with. It is not the responsibility for any PSICAN content provider to “correct” or otherwise argue any position with belief or faith as an absolute without empirical evidence to substantiate the provider’s stance.
PLEASE NOTE that in a discussion and review of any submitted material, or the study overall and outside of an investigation proper, any content provider or editor for PSICAN may voice an opinion or challenge a viewpoint on the basis of an untested hypothesis or simple thought, this is within the confines of “Guide Point #5” below.
(iii) Witnesses and others who experience the paranormal should be made aware that PSICAN (as an entity) does not certify, validate, or otherwise suggest anything may or may not be happening of a paranormal nature without empirical data to support that stance.
(iv) Any content provider to PSICAN must be cognoscente to the well being of any cited experient(s) as possible and respect any property, local laws, schedules, or any legitimate requests put forward by anyone directly involved with the research and/or data collection for any materials needed for any submissions.
(v) Content providers for PSICAN should work and strive to be within the realm of societal acceptability in deportment and communication and maintain a professional attitude towards the contacts they make in the research of their submissions.
2: PSICAN will only accept materials that acknowledge a neutral standpoint without prejudice to single hypothetical causations, belief, or faith without empirical evidence to legitimise the stand taken.
(i) If the data is being produced for a possible demonstrated hypothesis or is presented as being solely for possible consideration as a hypothetical situation, it must be presented as such. Proclamations of fact without empirical evidence to substantiate a claim that is made is unacceptable.
(ii) All materials submitted for consideration must show a level of accuracy in any statements, evidence of claims, and cite all works compiled or used
as data when producing or presenting articles or papers for consideration. Intentional plagiarism or neglect giving appropriate credit for information and/or data used in any materials will be met with the materials being stricken from the site and the submitter losing privileges of contributing in any way to PSICAN.
(iii) There is a high expectancy of any contributors to work from and with an ethical viewpoint and try to ensure as much empathy is given to any person(s), property, or cultural groups as possible. PSICAN will notpursue, publish, or make public any information or data that may be deemed (after consideration of our editors,) inappropriate or possibly“hurtful”. PSICAN expects, if necessary, a contributor(s) will always try to wait an appropriate amount of time to pursue any study or data that maybe considered controversial that still involves a living person or group of people’s comfort levels. PSICAN reserves to right to place “trigger warnings” at the top of published work to allow readers a chance to avoid potential discomfort if necessary.
(iv) “Hoaxing”, falsifying data, or perpetrating any sort of intentionally fraudulent information or events within what is currently considered the paranormal will not be intentionally published or reviewed for addition to PSICAN.
3: PSICAN, as an entity, does not offer or promote any assistance, aid, or similar “solutions” in terms of helping with perceived problems the requestor feels stem from a paranormal cause.
4: PSICAN is a completely not-for-profit organisation. There will never be a fee for PSICAN’s publishable information.
(i) If using PSICAN material, please give proper citation and ensure the reader knows that the data/material came from PSICAN and cite the original contributor. Although PSICAN asks to retain the right to publishand use materials sent to us (in perpetuity) the copyright will be retained by the contributor(s).
(ii) PSICAN does not allow the use of our logos and graphic materials produced specifically for and by PSICAN outside of approved uses by our editors. PSICAN reserves the right to always demand immediate cessation of production and sale of any merchandise in displaying the PSICAN name or logo at any time.
(iii) People wishing to reproduce PSICAN original documents for non-profit or educational uses may do so through Creative Commons/Fair Use dealings and ensure that credit is given to PSICAN and, if applicable, the individual author/creator of the work.
5: PSICAN does not hold or express any corporate views. Any opinions expressed through its articles, papers, websites, or via other means are, therefore,those of the PSICAN contributors and/or editors alone.
(i) Elements of any statement made publicly by a contributor or editor that would, by Canadian Law, be considered “Hate Speech” or that could be or are received negatively as either considered racism, sexism, or negative “culturalism” will result in actions from deletion of the statement from records/publications to the contributor/editor no longer being able to work within PSICAN in any fashion.
PSICAN Code of Presentation for General Reports:
#1: Our first priority is respecting the needs and wishes of those who claim experiences withperceived paranormal phenomena. We will endeavour to maintain your security and privacy to
the best of our abilities and will not publish, report, "sell", or market any information you give uswithout your express permission. We do, however, reserve the right to publish a report without
exact contact information (such as exact addresses and names) if a request to use/publish has been made and we've had no reply within fourteen (14) days.
#2: Ownership and "copyright" of a report or article submitted to us remains solely with theoriginal witness/reporter/author/creator. We only ask that we have the ability to use or otherwise
publish what the witness/reporter/author/creator has given us permission to work with for our collections or those elements that we have put into our "own words" in perpetuity.
#3: PSICAN as an entity will always take a neutral view on unexplained phenomena.
#4: Someone within PSICAN will read and respond to any or all reports and requests made to us within seven business days (unless otherwise stated on our website's main page).
#5: PSICAN as an entity does not endorse or offer elimination of any phenomena. If a witness requests assistance in this area, we may offer what help we can through third-party contacts free
of charge, but will never recommend any "fee based" help (outside of potential medical, engineering, or “non-paranomal” help,) for someone requesting this assistance.
#6: PRIVACY: We will never sell market or otherwise distribute any "mailing lists" or information that is sent to us to third-party companies or organisations. We will not "spam" people with unsolicited e-mails or send information to a group/company/business that will do this. All information is private and for use within PSICAN only unless otherwise approved by the person
who originates the information.
#7: LIABILITY: A browser, viewer, witness who submits a report or otherwise someone using information from PSICAN or its site assumes all liability for any actions or reactions that may arise
from said visit or information.
#8: COMPLAINTS: If you have a complaint or concern about an item displayed via PSICAN, we ask that you first contact the party who is cited as the contributor to express any issues and see if a resolution is possible. If you are not satisfied with a response or need further assistance, please e-mail editors@psican.org and give us the details of the issue. We will do our best to try and address any or all concerns.
#9: PSICAN will never knowingly display information or data from a third-party source without proper credit and/or consent of the owner of that information.
#10: PSICAN cannot be held responsible for content of site(s) and materials outside of our collections that we may have a link to. We can only be responsible for our own work and content.