Bridging fields in the life sciences: The organism-environment systems that we study inherently span multiple levels of biological organization. As such, we want our research to connect with a variety of different kinds of biological research and generate discussion across those disciplines. That means (1) presenting results that speak to multiple fields, (2) making our results presentable to the dialects within those fields, and (3) extending the analytical tools we build to operate in several fields. In achieving these three goals, we both provide a haven for multidisciplinary work and researchers while also generating common analytical currencies for them to use.

Rigor: We value rigor over speed in the construction and analysis of our model systems. We do not prioritize the publication or dissemination of phenomenological results without an account of the mechanisms underlying those phenomena. This effort is not always possible in its entirety; exhaustive causal accounts of adaptive behavior are generally unattainable. That said, providing causal accounts is still our priority. We hope that our commitment to rigor will validate our research in the eyes of the public and limit its misappropriation. 

Regular output and engagement: While we are committed to rigor, that does not come at the expense of communication and engagement with the community. The ideas and tools that underlie our research are constantly developing and expanding, providing us with ample opportunity to communicate our research and the study of adaptive behavior regularly. As such, we are committed to frequent research dissemination and education in the form of essays, video introductions, programming demonstrations, and more, along with the regular output of our projects.

Accessibility: We prioritize making our output accessible in two ways. First, we are committed to maximizing open access to our work. Published works will always be available, either via publishing in open access journals or by making pre-prints of that work available free online. Software tools and applications will be available in free online repositories, appropriately linked to projects and educational content that use them. Second, accessibility doesn’t just require access to materials, it requires that those materials be approachable to a variety of audiences. We explain our research at a variety of levels of detail. While published works meet the standard of the scientific community, our descriptions and tutorials on that content and the underlying concepts are presented for anyone ranging from the curious to the expert. 

COMMUNITY: Finally, we are committed to making the study of adaptive behavior an open and accepting space for biologists of all backgrounds. We strive to highlight how contributions to the study of adaptive behavior have come from broad cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.