Stanford SNSF
Stanford Nano Shared Facilities
Stanford Nano Shared Facilities

SNSF Policies

SNSF Code of Conduct

Last updated: April 11, 2024

Welcome to Stanford Nano Shared Facilities. Stanford University, the National Science Foundation, and other public and private entities have invested tens of millions of dollars in buildings, equipment, and staff to provide this world-class research environment for you. It exists to help you learn, discover, invent, develop a successful career, and serve society.

All of us share responsibility for stewardship of this user facility. SNSF management must assure that it remains open, that it remains safe, that the equipment remains in good working order, that the working environment remains conducive to high-quality research, and that we can attract funding to keep the facilities operating in the future. We need your support to fulfill these responsibilities.

We believe that the support we request consists of little more than common sense, common courtesy, and universal professional ethics. To be clear, we specify in detail what we ask of you:

  • Take responsibility for your own safety and the safety of others.
  • Avoid working alone in the facilities. If you must work alone, ensure that another qualified individual is available and checks frequently to ensure your safety.
  • Gain prior approval from SNSF staff before bringing chemicals or potentially hazardous materials into SNSF.
  • Maintain a valid administrative account.
  • Log equipment activities within the appropriate system (Badger, logbooks, etc.) as soon as you take on the equipment (including loading samples, instrument preparation, etc.).
  • As soon as you realize that you are unable to use either all, or a significant remaining part, of your reserved time, to:
    • Cancel the reservation on the appropriate reservation platform, and
    • Notify the instrument community of the newly available time (instrument email list, etc.).
      • Exception for EBPG tools only:
        • A reservation holder may coordinate to have another user to utilize the reserved time.
        • Reservation releases no longer need to be communicated to the user list. 
  • Act in a professional manner based on courtesy, mutual trust, and respectful and timely communication.
  • Comply with all instrument-specific and facility-specific policies and procedures, including training and re-training.
  • Stay informed about facility and instrument updates (SNSF and instrument email lists, etc.).
  • Know and adhere to the University Code of Conduct (https://adminguide.stanford.edu/chapter-1/subchapter-1/policy-1-1-1).
  • Know and adhere to relevant policies and guidelines related to Stanford University’s research enterprise contained in the Research Policy Handbook: (https://vpge.stanford.edu/academic-guidance/research-policies).
  • Do not reserve or operate a tool until you have been trained and qualified to use it.
  • Do not modify SNSF equipment without prior approval from an SNSF staff member.
  • Do not share lab management software accounts with other users.
  • Do not make reservations or otherwise enable equipment for other users.
  • Do not make reservations or enable/disable equipment with short interruptions, making it generally difficult for other users to reserve or use the instrument.
  • Do not bring visitors or collaborators into SNSF facilities for the purpose of performing work without prior approval from an SNSF staff member.
  • Do not consume or have food/drinks in the facilities except in designated areas. Designated areas are limited to
    • McCullough: carpeted area just outside the Raman room
  • If your research at SNSF generates data that appear in any type of publication, we expect you to acknowledge SNSF in that publication. Please follow directions under Acknowledgements for more information.

These requests constitute the SNSF Code of Conduct for all users from inside and outside the university. Our experience teaches us that we must insist on compliance with these requests in order to maintain an environment in which you and other members of the user community can work safely, creatively, and productively. If users violate this code, we may protect the SNSF environment by revoking their access to facilities and equipment.

We reserve the right to charge repair costs, equipment and staff time resulting from damage caused by users. Minimum equipment charges will be half of the average hours sold during the time period of the downtime. The average hours sold will be calculated based on the average hours sold during the previous three months of operations.