Community Guidelines

Terms not separately defined in these Guidelines have the meaning given in the Terms of Service. Where these Guidelines conflict with the Terms, the provision that regulates a matter more specifically prevails for that matter. METIS is an academic space used together by student researchers and working researchers alike; by registering, every Member is deemed to have agreed to the principles and rules set out below.

Chapter 1 General Provisions

Article 1 (Purpose)

These Guidelines set out the standards of conduct that Members must observe within the academic search, archive, learning, and community services operated by METIS (the “Service”); the categories of prohibited conduct; the types, procedures, and degrees of sanctions for violations; and the procedures by which a Member may seek relief from a sanction, so that every user can share and discuss research results in a safe and trustworthy scholarly environment.

Article 2 (Scope of Application)

1. These Guidelines apply to all forms of Content and conduct that a Member creates, posts, transmits, or shares within the Service, including papers and their metadata, attachments, comments and replies, community posts, author and institution profiles, one-to-one inquiries, display names, biographies, avatars, and any other expression perceptible to other users. 2. Even where conduct by a Member toward another Member occurs outside the Service, these Guidelines may apply where the conduct originated in a relationship formed within the Service and the harm is directly related to the safety of the Service. 3. The prohibited-conduct rules of Chapter 3 and the interim-measure rules of Chapter 6 apply, mutatis mutandis, to the viewing activity of a Visitor.

Article 3 (Definitions)

1. “Content” means text, images, documents (such as PDFs), datasets, links, metadata, and all other information a Member posts, registers, or transmits on the Service. 2. “Sanction” means any disadvantageous measure the Operations Team imposes under these Guidelines for a violation, including a warning, a content measure, suspension of use, and permanent suspension. 3. “Interim measure” means temporarily blocking the display of (blinding), or restricting access to, Content before a final determination, in order to prevent the spread of harm. 4. “Research misconduct” means fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, improper authorship, improper duplicate publication, and obstruction of an investigation, as defined in the applicable research-ethics norms. 5. “Minor Member” means a Member confirmed, through the age-verification procedure, to be under 19, and includes a Member under 14 who uses the Service on the basis of a legal representative's consent. 6. “Operations Team” means the unit of METIS that performs trust-and-safety functions. 7. “Business day” means a day other than a Saturday, a Sunday, or a public holiday under the Regulations on Holidays of Government Offices.

Chapter 2 Principles and the Obligations of Members

Article 4 (Core Principles of the Community)

Every Member agrees, upon registration, to the following principles. 1. Criticize the work, not the person. Scholarly rebuttal and disagreement are welcome, but personal attacks and insults under the guise of criticism are prohibited. 2. Cite your sources. When you use another's ideas, sentences, figures, or data, you must provide appropriate citation. 3. Write honestly. Do not present experiments you did not perform, manipulated or cherry-picked data, or inflated results as if they were fact. 4. Respect where others begin. Mocking or discouraging the questions of novice researchers is the conduct this community guards against most. 5. Put safety first. Expression that violates another Member's safety, dignity, or personal information is not within the protected scope of academic freedom.

Article 5 (General Obligations of Members)

1. A Member must observe applicable law, the Terms, these Guidelines, and matters announced on the service screen, and must not interfere with the normal operation of the Service. 2. A Member is responsible for managing their account and credentials with the care of a good manager and is responsible for acts performed through their account, except where it is objectively confirmed that the account was stolen without fault on the Member's part. 3. A Member must hold the lawful rights to, or lawful authorization for, the Content they post, and is responsible for not infringing the rights of third parties.

Chapter 3 Prohibited Conduct

Article 6 (Categories of Prohibited Conduct)

The following conduct is prohibited; the sanctions table in Chapter 5 applies according to the gravity of the violation. The list is illustrative, and conduct of a similar nature is governed by the closest category. 1. Research misconduct and harm to scholarly trust — fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, improper authorship, improper duplicate publication or self-plagiarism, and false entry in a review or disclosure field. 2. Infringement of the rights of others — infringement of copyright, trademark, or other intellectual-property rights; impersonation or identity theft; unauthorized disclosure of personal information (doxxing); and defamation or insult. 3. Hate speech and harassment — discriminatory or hateful expression on the basis of sex, age, disability, illness, region, origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, or the like; repeated harassment, stalking, or threats; and encouragement of suicide or self-harm. 4. Sexual content and protection of children and youth — obscene material; distribution or relaying of unlawfully filmed material or non-consensual intimate images; sexual depictions of children or youth; and inappropriate approach to or enticement of a minor Member (grooming). 5. Spam and commercial abuse — unauthorized advertising or flooding, off-platform enticement, speculative or gambling information, account trading, and manipulation of metrics such as recommendations, view counts, or likes. 6. Interference with the system and operations — mass collection, registration, or viewing by automated means; exploitation of vulnerabilities; evasion of sanctions through multiple accounts; and repeated false reporting. 7. Unlawful information — posting or relaying information whose distribution is prohibited by law, and the instigation, abetting, conspiracy, or announcement of a crime.

Article 7 (Academic Integrity and Disclosure of Generative AI)

1. A Member who uploads a paper warrants that it is the product of honest research and that all sources are appropriately cited. 2. Where generative artificial intelligence was used in producing the work in a manner that must be disclosed under prevailing scholarly norms, the Member must disclose that use truthfully in the designated field. Presenting AI-generated content as original human research without disclosure, or fabricating citations or data with such tools, is treated as research misconduct. 3. Predatory, deceptive, or mass-produced low-quality submissions that undermine the integrity of the Archive may be refused or removed.

Chapter 4 Sanctions

Article 8 (Principles of Sanctions)

1. A sanction is imposed in proportion to the degree of the violation, taking into account the intent, the repetition, the scale and recoverability of the harm, the effect on scholarly trust, and whether a minor is involved. 2. The Operations Team may mitigate a sanction in consideration of a Member's sound history of activity, voluntary reporting, and remedial efforts, and may aggravate the level for intentional, malicious, or repeated violations. 3. Where one act falls within two or more levels, the higher level applies. Where multiple violations are detected at once, the most serious is taken as the standard and its degree may be aggravated. 4. Sanctions apply in graduated fashion in principle; however, conduct falling within Level 4 of the sanctions table in Article 9 may incur the highest-level sanction immediately, without prior warning.

Article 9 (Sanctions Table)

The standard levels of sanction are as follows. The conduct in each row is illustrative.

Article 10 (Additional Measures Accompanying a Sanction)

1. The Operations Team may take the following additional measures together with a sanction: (a) deletion, blinding, or a correction request for the violating Content; (b) affixing a retraction, correction, or expression-of-concern notice to a published paper; (c) recovery or invalidation of improperly obtained Points, grades, or benefits; (d) individual restriction of ancillary features (upload, comment, message) used in the violation; and (e) simultaneous measures against linked or multiple accounts. 2. For a paper retracted for research misconduct, the fact of retraction and the gist of the reason may be displayed on the paper's page to keep the scholarly record accurate.

Article 11 (Sanction Procedure and Opportunity to Explain)

1. Before imposing a sanction, the Operations Team in principle notifies the Member of the gist of and the basis for the conduct judged to be a violation and gives an opportunity to explain. However, it may execute a sanction first and notify the reason afterward where (a) immediate action is needed to prevent the urgent spread of harm; (b) the conduct falls within Level 4 and prior notice risks destruction of evidence or further harm; or (c) there is an unavoidable reason that the Member cannot be notified. 2. Notice of a sanction is given through the email registered at sign-up, an in-service notification, or the one-to-one inquiry channel, and includes the content, period, and reason of the sanction and the method of objection. 3. Where a Member fails, without good cause, to respond to a request for explanation, the Operations Team may decide on a sanction based on the materials it has gathered.

Chapter 5 Reporting, Interim Measures, and Relief

Article 12 (Reporting)

1. A reporting function is provided on all Content (papers, posts, comments). A Member may report by selecting a reason and entering specific details. 2. The Operations Team aims, in principle, to complete a first review within three business days of receiving a report. Where the handling period is extended for an unavoidable reason, it informs the reporter of the reason and the expected time. 3. A report that is manifestly false, or that maliciously repeats against the same target, may itself be handled as a Level-1 or Level-2 violation under Article 9.

Article 13 (Interim Measures)

1. Where reported or recognized Content infringes the rights of others or manifest illegality is suspected, the Operations Team may temporarily block (blind) the display of the Content even before a final determination. This paragraph reflects the purpose of the interim-measure regime under the Network Act, under which such a measure may be maintained for up to 30 days. 2. Where irreparable harm is feared — such as exposure of personal information, unlawfully filmed material, or material harmful to children or youth — an interim measure may be taken immediately, regardless of whether a report has been received. 3. The Member who posted the Content may object to an interim measure, and the Operations Team reviews the objection and decides whether to maintain or lift the measure.

Article 14 (Objection and Re-Review)

1. A sanctioned Member may file an objection through the one-to-one inquiry (category: report/sanction) within 15 days of the notice, submitting the grounds and supporting materials. 2. The Operations Team replies with the result of its re-review within 15 days of receiving the objection. Where a sanction is found to have been unjustified, it lifts the sanction without delay, expunges the related record, and restores the prior state to the extent possible (restoration of Content, recovery of Points, and the like). 3. An objection to a finding of research misconduct may go through external expert consultation or consultation with a relevant body, in which case the Member is informed in advance that the handling period may be extended. 4. The objection procedure in this Article does not restrict a Member's right to apply for mediation to an external dispute-resolution body, or to seek judicial relief, under applicable law.

Chapter 6 Special Protection of Minor Members

Article 15 (Protection of Minor Members)

1. Many youth researchers are active on METIS. Inappropriate approach to a minor Member, demands for personal information, enticement to an outside messenger, and attempts at sexual expression or contact (grooming) are handled, regardless of context, as Level 4 of the sanctions table in Article 9 (immediate permanent suspension and report to the relevant authorities). 2. The Operations Team handles reports concerning minor Members with the highest priority and, where necessary, immediately reports to an investigative agency and preserves the related materials in accordance with the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth Against Sex Offenses and other applicable law. 3. A minor Member or that Member's legal representative may request priority interim measures and deletion with respect to Content involving the minor Member.

Chapter 7 Moderation Transparency and Cooperation with Authorities

Article 16 (Automated and Human Moderation)

1. The Service uses automated tools to support safety, including banned-word screening of text and automated image moderation of uploaded avatars, banners, and attachments for nudity and unsafe content. Automated tools may mask, block, or queue Content for human review. 2. A Member affected by an automated decision may request human review and may object; the Operations Team handles such requests under the Privacy Policy and applicable law. 3. The Operations Team strives to apply moderation consistently and proportionately and to avoid both over-removal of legitimate scholarly expression and under-enforcement against genuine harm.

Article 17 (Cooperation with Investigative Agencies and Preservation of Data)

Where required by law or by a lawful request from an investigative or supervisory authority following due process, the Operations Team may preserve and provide the minimum necessary records, and, for serious harms such as those involving children or youth, may report to and cooperate with the authorities on its own initiative. Such handling of personal information follows the Privacy Policy.

Chapter 8 Rights, Liability, and General Matters

Article 18 (Intellectual Property and Responsibility for Content)

1. Intellectual-property rights, including copyright, in Content a Member posts belong to the rightful rights holder. The Member licenses METIS to use, reproduce, display, and transmit the Content to the extent necessary to operate, display, and promote the Service and to preserve the scholarly record, as provided in the Terms. 2. Where a dispute arises because Content infringes a third party's rights, the Member who posted it bears responsibility, and METIS, upon receiving notice of an infringement claim, takes necessary measures such as interim measures in accordance with these Guidelines and applicable law.

Article 19 (Processing of Personal Information)

Where the Operations Team processes a Member's personal information to handle a report, impose a sanction, or respond to a dispute, that processing follows the PIPA and the METIS Privacy Policy. The Operations Team may retain the minimum information necessary to investigate a violation and to enforce, record, and give effect to a sanction and a re-registration restriction, for the period prescribed by law.

Article 20 (Limitations of Liability)

1. METIS does not warrant the accuracy, legality, or completeness of Content a Member posts, and does not bear a duty to intervene in disputes between Members or between a Member and a third party. However, nothing in this Article excludes or limits the mandatory liability a service provider bears under applicable law, or liability arising from METIS's intent or gross negligence. 2. A sanction, interim measure, or report handling by the Operations Team is a self-regulatory measure for the safety of the scholarly environment, separate from the existence of civil or criminal liability for a Member's unlawful act.

Article 21 (Governing Law and Jurisdiction)

1. The interpretation and application of these Guidelines are governed by the laws of the Republic of Korea. 2. Litigation concerning a dispute arising between METIS and a Member in connection with use of the Service is brought before the court of first instance having jurisdiction under the Civil Procedure Act and other applicable law.

Article 22 (Amendment of these Guidelines)

1. METIS may amend these Guidelines where there is an amendment of applicable law, a change of policy, or a change in the Service. 2. When amending, the Operations Team announces the content and the effective date on the in-service notice board at least 7 days before the effective date. For an unfavorable or material change, it announces at least 30 days in advance and endeavors to give individual notice by the email registered by the Member. 3. Where the Operations Team, in announcing an unfavorable amendment, clearly states that a Member who does not express refusal within the notice period is deemed to have consented, and the Member does not expressly refuse, the Member is deemed to have consented. A Member who does not agree may terminate the service agreement.

Article 23 (Language and Prevailing Version)

These Guidelines may be provided in multiple languages. The English version is the drafting reference and the Korean version is the legally governing version; where a translation conflicts with the Korean version, the Korean version prevails, except to the extent the mandatory law of a Member's country of residence requires otherwise.

Addenda

Article 1 (Effective Date) These Guidelines take effect on 1 January 2026; the Version 3.0 revision was announced on 16 June 2026 and takes effect on 16 July 2026 (a 30-day advance-notice period). Article 2 (Transitional Measures) A sanction for a violation that occurred before the effective date follows the standard in force at the time of the conduct; however, where these Guidelines are more favorable to the Member, these Guidelines apply. Article 3 (Relationship to Other Rules) Matters not provided for in these Guidelines are governed by the Terms, the Privacy Policy, and applicable law.

This document sets out the operating standards of the METIS Service and does not itself constitute legal advice on any particular matter. In an actual dispute or the enforcement of a sanction, the facts of the individual case and the most current law should be reviewed.