1. H-Caribbean is an electronic forum for discussion about Caribbean Studies across all eras and regions. The list encourages scholarly exchanges on all aspects of the topic in all languages spoken in the Caribbean Basin. Our list welcomes the exploration of inter-disciplinary and methodological approaches, and the evaluation of new archival sources.

2. H-Caribbean operates in the manner of scholarly journals, the program committees of professional organizations, or indeed anyone conducting a seminar. The editors reserve the right to keep the discussion on the subject, free from ad hominem attacks or other arguments that go beyond the limits of accepted professional discourse.

3. H-Caribbean is non-partisan. The list will not post submissions in which the primary content or objective is partisan or political. The list will run information about the status of current controversies or policy debates that might affect the interests of our subscribers. The editors welcome frank and open discussions about such issues.

4. H-Caribbean does not run advertisements. It welcomes information about new books, new journals, new sources, fellowship and scholarship opportunities, proposed conferences, and -- through H-NET -- job listings. But it will not run solicitations to purchase books, or to subscribe to journals, or to apply for admission to particular academic programs, or to review specific books for scholarly and on-line journals.

5. H-Caribbean will post reviews it has assigned through the H-NET book review project. The list encourages discussion of book reviews following their posting. The editors will also, from time to time, post reviews forwarded from other lists if these articles appear to be of interest to subscribers. H-Caribbean will not post unsolicited book reviews.

6. H-Caribbean will post abstracts of articles appearing in scholarly journals or of papers presented at scholarly conferences, as well as items from other discussion lists, if in the judgment of the editors these relate to subscribers' interests and are not of excessive length, or violate copyright.

7. H-Caribbean will regularly post information about new discussion lists or other resources on the Internet that might be of interest.

8. H-Caribbean will not provide e-mail addresses beyond those listed on communications addressed to the list as a whole. The editors will refer subscribers to directories where such information is usually available.

9. H-Caribbean welcomes requests for information from subscribers for whom standard reference sources have proved inadequate, but it discourages inquiries easily answerable from such sources. It encourages potential authors of theses and dissertations, as well as articles and books to use its facilities as a way of finding other scholars working on similar topics. The editors may ask those responding to such inquiries to consider whether their reply will be of general interest to everyone on the list, or might better be sent directly to the subscriber making the inquiry.

10. H-Caribbean reserves the right to reject any message that does not fall within the list's guidelines, and to ask an individual to modify a submission to conform with them. In all cases, the editors will contact the contributor to explain their handling of the message. The editors may not always assume this obligation when non-subscribers forward messages originating on other lists. H-Caribbean editors also reserve the right to decline messages that duplicate information already sent by a previous subscriber.

11. H-Caribbean has an appeal mechanism in case objections to these procedures arise. Unresolved disputes will be referred first to the editors. If they are unable to resolve a dispute, the editors will refer the issue to the Editorial Board, whose decision will be final.

12. H-Caribbean is still a "work in progress." The editors and the Editorial Board encourage suggestions from subscribers as to how the list might be improved.

--The H-Caribbean Advisory Board and Editors