We want to hear your views, but please express them in the spirit of a constructive, professional debate. Some of the things this means are outlined below.

Topics covered in the community principles include:

• 3 guiding principles
• 19 things we won't tolerate
• Think before you post
• Why we need these principles and what they mean
• Notification
• Removal and editing
• Suspension and termination
• How we might use your contributions
• Final thoughts

3 GUIDING PRINCIPLES

• Be accurate, where they state things as facts
• Be genuinely held, where they state beliefs or opinions
• Comply with the law

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19 THINGS WE WON'T TOLERATE

• Defamation, slander or libel
• The promotion of violence
• The promotion of religious hatred
• The promotion of racial hatred
• The promotion of or engagement in illegal activity
• Discrimination (for example, but not limited to, race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, age)
• Threatening or victimising behaviour
• Harassment or abuse
• Invasion of privacy
• Material that breaches the rights of others (for example, copyright)
• Obscene, sexually explicit or otherwise offensive material
• Impersonation of others
• Misrepresentation (of the user's affiliation with another person or organisation, for example)
• The needless upset or embarrassment of others
• Personal attacks
• Comments that are not related to or don't add value to the contextual article or debate
• Trolling (posting with the intention simply to provoke a reaction rather than to add value to a debate)
• Blatant promotion for commercial purposes and/or of no value to the contextual article or debate
• Spamming (posting the same or very similar material in multiple comments)

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THINK BEFORE YOU POST

By all means post to challenge, to dissent and to amuse. C+D provides the facility for users to contribute with the aim of fostering a professional community in which its users can share views and best practice as well as robust debate. Humour, freedom of expression and a light-hearted approach are all within the spirit of this community and the wider C+D network. Childish, boorish, rude or unprofessional behaviour that discourages others from contributing is not.

We value the vast majority of reader contributions that are mature, considerate and add value to the C+D community. Thank you for continuing to make this a place for intelligent discussion and debate.

You must be a registered user of community.chemistanddruggist.co.uk and be logged in to post contributions to the C+D community pages.  You must be a registered user of Disqus and be logged in to comment on chemistanddruggist.co.uk articles.

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WHY WE NEED THESE PRINCIPLES AND WHAT THEY MEAN

If we believe a contribution breaks one of our Community Principles, we may remove or edit it as we deem appropriate (see Removal and editing, below). The Community Principles are non-exhaustive and the editing and removal of comments remains at our discretion.

Users who repeatedly post contributions that are edited or removed may have their Chemist and Druggist registration suspended or terminated (see Suspension and termination, below), or be prevented from posting contributions to the site.

If repeat offending occurs, then suspensions or bans may be made against the relevant user’s IP address.

If you believe a contribution posted by another user breaks one of the above rules or is otherwise inappropriate, please follow the Notification procedure below

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NOTIFICATION

The contributions facility allows users to post directly to the site - contributions  are not moderated and do not necessarily reflect the views of C+D or any of its employees or authors. We accept no responsibility, legal or otherwise, for contributions posted by users; the responsibility and any liability remains with the user posting the contribution.

If you believe a contribution breaches our community principles, then you can notify us by emailing haveyoursay@chemistanddruggist.co.uk you can explain your concern and then submit it to the C+D admin team who will act accordingly.

We will review your notification as soon as we are able, in any case within two working days. We may contact you for further information about your notification when necessary. If we deem the post in question to be inappropriate, we will remove it from the site or edit it at our discretion (see Removal and editing, below). This may result in the suspension or termination of the user (see Suspension and termination, below). Accordingly, we may contact the user with information about, or a copy of, your notification (although we will never include your name or contact details). We will respond to your notification to let you know what action, if any, we have taken as a result.

Timely and appropriate notifications are essential to the smooth running of C+D's community in the spirit in which it is facilitated – thank you to all users who provide them.

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REMOVAL AND EDITING

If we are notified of a contribution (see Notification, above) and subsequently deem it to break the Community Principles (above) or to be otherwise inappropriate, we will remove it from the site or edit it at our discretion. We will leave a note in place of the contribution stating that we have removed or edited, as appropriate, the comment for a breach of the Community Principles.

The removal or editing of posts is at our discretion, but we may sometimes contact a user to explain why their post(s) has/have been edited or removed.

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SUSPENSION AND TERMINATION

We will contact offenders who post contributions that we consider to breach C+D’s Community Principles. This is considered a written warning; continued breaches of the community principles may result in that user being banned from commenting, or the immediate suspension or termination of their registration to the C+D network.

Please be aware that we have the option to use IP detection to identify accounts that show similar patterns of offending behaviour. In the case that we suspect multiple accounts are created by a single user - who is posting comments that breach C+D’s Community and Comments Principles and has not responded to a warning - then a commenting ban will be implemented against that individual’s IP address. C+D cannot be held responsible if this action affects multiple users that access the site from the same IP address.

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HOW WE MIGHT USE YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS

Contributions are considered in the public domain and may be used in future Chemist+Druggist coverage.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

The C+D network and, in particular, the facility for users to contribute to it by posting comments, aims to foster a professional community in which its users can share informed and informative views. Thank you to all who contribute to our community in that spirit.