An open science advocate has apologised after he was barred from an academic community for breaching its code of conduct, over what he described as ¡°inappropriate public behaviours¡±.

OpenCon, a coalition?that works to make online research and educational materials freely available,??that its code of conduct committee ¡°has decided to remove Jon Tennant from the OpenCon community and disallow his participation in future OpenCon events ¨C in-person or online¡±.

OpenCon did not provide further details about the allegations against Dr Tennant, a palaeontologist who works as a research fellow at the University of Southern Denmark, but provided a link in its statement to its code of conduct.

In a??posted on 12 November, Dr Tennant said that the ban had been imposed 12 months ago and that he ¡°respect[ed] the decision taken by OpenCon in reaction to my inappropriate public behaviours towards other participants of OpenCon that caused harm and breached the code of conduct¡±.

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Dr Tennant said that he took ¡°full responsibility for these actions¡± and that he was ¡°ashamed that my actions put [OpenCon] in this position¡±.

Dr Tennant added: ¡°I apologise for my behaviour at OpenCon. I had apologised previously to those directly involved, and deeply regret the hurt that my actions caused.

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¡°However, I have not yet made a public apology to the wider community for the continued direct and indirect consequences of my behaviour. I apologise to everyone also indirectly affected by my actions, and all subsequent chain effects.¡±

Dr Tennant said that he would ¡°dedicate my future to repairing the damage that I caused¡± and was now ¡°much more vigilant of my behaviour and the impact it might have on those around me¡±.

Members of the steering committee of Open Science Mooc, which offers online courses in open research practice and was founded by Dr Tennant,??that they were ¡°currently in the process of addressing the OpenCon statement¡± and aimed ¡°to publish and announce a joint statement regarding consequences for the Open Science Mooc operations¡± by 15 November. Dr Tennant sits on the steering committee, but was not a signatory to the statement.

A Southern Denmark spokeswoman said that the university was ¡°not allowed to comment on personnel matters¡± under Danish law. ¡°Therefore, we cannot confirm or deny that we are investigating an employee,¡± she said.

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The Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity in Paris said that Dr Tennant was a short-term research fellow there between July and September this year.

¡°We have been alerted by the OpenCon announcement and are currently investigating any instances of misconduct during his term on our campus, though nothing was signalled out at this moment,¡± a CRI spokeswoman said.

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com