Community Guidelines and Trust & Safety Playbook

Scope and Governance

Controller, Operator, and Contact

• Controller/Operator: ResearchC Operated by Kazunori Fukuhara
• Address: 737 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, United States of America
• Safety & Privacy Contact: support@researchc.app

If we appoint a data protection officer ("DPO") or EU/UK representative (where required), we will provide contact details here or in an addendum to this Privacy Policy.

These Guidelines Apply To:

• All users, accounts, and content on the platform
• Activity across profiles, DMs, postings, likes/views/matching (including attempts to manipulate those systems)
• Certain off-platform activity when it is directly connected to ResearchC (e.g., a credible threat delivered via ResearchC, then continued elsewhere), or when it creates a credible safety risk to users.

Relationship to Terms and Privacy Policy

These Guidelines are enforced under your Terms of Service. Privacy handling for reports, investigations, logging, and evidence preservation must follow your Privacy Policy and GDPR principles (minimization, purpose limitation, storage limitation).

Product and Infrastructure Context

ResearchC is delivered through a standard web SaaS stack (e.g., Vercel frontend, Render backend/API, MongoDB Atlas database, Cloudinary for images, and Resend for transactional emails). Safety operations must assume abuse can occur through accounts, content, messaging, and automated access patterns.

User-Facing Community Rules

Below, each category includes user-facing policy text (what we publish) and internal guidance on detection, reporting, and enforcement.

Harassment, Hateful Conduct, and Abusive Behavior

ResearchC does not allow harassment or abuse. This includes targeted personal attacks, intimidation, shaming/disparagement, hateful or discriminatory attacks, sexual harassment, and coordinated harassment. Do not "pile on," follow someone across the platform to intimidate them, or create new accounts to evade blocks or enforcement.

Examples include:

• Targeted insults, slurs, or demeaning remarks about someone's identity
• Repeated unwanted contact after the recipient asks you to stop
• Sexual advances or sexual comments (ResearchC is not a dating platform)
• Coordinating harassment or directing others to harass a person

Threats, Extortion, and Intimidation

Threats are prohibited. This includes threats of physical harm, threats to hack or compromise accounts/devices, threats to expose private information, and extortion/blackmail. We may escalate credible threats to appropriate authorities to prevent harm.

Doxxing and Invasion of Privacy

Do not post or share other people's personal information without consent. This includes private emails, phone numbers, home addresses, government IDs, financial details, passwords, medical/biometric data, or other sensitive private information. Non-consensual private images may also be treated as a privacy invasion.

Impersonation

You may not misrepresent your identity or affiliation, or pretend to be another person, lab, or institution. This includes copying another user's profile details (photo/bio) in a way that misleads others or using a deceptively similar identity to deceive.

Fake Accounts and Affiliation Fraud

Accounts must reflect a real person and truthful academic/research affiliation. Fake accounts, deceptive credentials, or accounts created primarily for spam/harassment/evasion are prohibited.

Spam, Scams, and Phishing

Spam and scams are prohibited, including bulk unsolicited outreach, repeated promotional messages, phishing attempts, requests for money/credentials, or misleading research opportunities.

Abusive Messaging and Unwanted Advances

Direct messages must remain respectful and research-focused. Unwanted sexual advances, repeated contact after refusal, coercion, threats, or abusive language are prohibited. Use Block to stop contact and Report to alert us.

Misuse of Research Content, Confidentiality, and IP

ResearchC is not an NDA service. Use discretion when sharing unpublished or confidential research. Do not upload or distribute confidential or proprietary research materials without permission. Do not repost others' research proposals, private messages, or postings outside ResearchC without authorization. Report suspected IP violations or confidentiality leaks.

Automation, Scraping, and Bulk Data Extraction

Do not use bots, scrapers, scripts, browser extensions, or automated methods to extract data from ResearchC (profiles, messages, likes/views, network graphs) without written permission. Do not harvest institutional emails for unsolicited outreach.

Reverse Engineering and Competitive Use

Do not reverse engineer ResearchC or attempt to derive its source code, non-public algorithms, or system behavior. Do not use ResearchC to build, benchmark, train, or improve a competing service by copying non-public methods or by bulk extracting user data.

Child Safety and COPPA Alignment

ResearchC is for users 18 and older. We do not knowingly allow children on the platform. We have zero tolerance for content that depicts the sexual exploitation of minors.

Enforcement Outcomes and Appeals

Enforcement Ladder

ResearchC may apply one or more actions depending on severity, history, and user harm:

1. Education / warning
2. Content removal or visibility restriction
3. Feature limits (e.g., messaging restrictions, posting cooldowns)
4. Temporary suspension
5. Permanent ban
6. Account linkage action (e.g., device/IP blocks for evasion)
7. Legal escalation (DMCA processing, law enforcement requests, emergency escalation)

Appeals Process

• How users appeal: via support@researchc.app with subject "Appeal" and relevant IDs (profile/post/message).
• Human review: decisions are reviewed by a human; where feasible, a reviewer not involved in the original decision conducts the appeal review.
• Appeal window: 30-180 days depending on severity.
• Outcomes: uphold, modify (lesser restriction), reinstate (with conditions), or deny with explanation.

How to Report

Use the in-app Block and Report features available in messaging, profiles, and RA postings. When reporting, please provide:

• Category of the issue (Harassment, Threats, Doxxing, Impersonation, Fake Account, Spam/Scam, Research Content Misuse, Automation/Scraping, Security, Child Safety, or Other)
• Location of the content (Profile, Message, Posting, or Other)
• Content IDs (message IDs, posting ID, profile URL)
• Description of what happened
• Whether you believe you are in immediate danger

If you believe you are in immediate danger, contact local emergency services.

Contact

For questions about these guidelines or to report concerns, contact us at support@researchc.app.