---
title: "Guiding Principles for _The Turing Way_"
source: The Turing Way
source_url: https://github.com/the-turing-way/the-turing-way
licence: CC-BY-4.0
domain: data-and-analysis
subdomain: turing-way
date_added: 2026-04-25
---

(guiding-principles)=
# Guiding Principles for _The Turing Way_

All activity and community members in *The Turing Way* should align with and uphold our guiding principles: inclusion, transparency, and empowerment.
You will also find useful background context on the philosophical underpinnings for _the Turing Way_ and it's Guiding Principles in [Embracing Digital Commons](#fw-embracing-digital-commons) and [Emergence as _The Turing Way’s_ Strategy](#fw-emergent-strategy).

:::{important}
:name:guiding-principles-summary
Empowerment
: All community members are empowered to participate in the community and play an active role in decision-making processes.

Transparency
: Decisions, actions, and the processes that led to them should all be open to inspection and review.

Inclusion
: We will not discriminate or block participation based on a person's background, and we will strive to involve a diversity of perspectives in all areas of the project.
:::

(guiding-principles-empowerment)=
## Empowerment

The project is deliberately structured to encourage agency and create opportunities and pathways for people to make autonomous decisions about how and when to participate, as long as they align with our other values, [Code of Conduct](#ch-coc) and [Contributing Guidelines](#ch-contributing).
We aim to maximize the amount of agency that the community members hold and minimize the authority of the highest governance levels.

(guiding-principles-transparency)=
## Transparency
We commit to the approach "As open as possible, as closed as necessary".
We design our processes and activities to be open and transparent, and review as needed.
Making information transparent is necessary to allow the community to engage, particularly with project processes. 
Furthermore, a commitment to documenting decisions and outcomes ensures that those with authority remain accountable.

There are, of course, some instances where openness is not appropriate. 
In order to make people feel safe and confident, or to comply with legal obligations, it might be necessary to protect information. 
For example, the process for dealing with a Code of Conduct violation report is open and transparent to the community, but the details of any particular report may not be.

(guiding-principles-inclusion)=
## Inclusion
We are intentionally inclusive. 
We don't only reject discrimination, we believe in inclusion by design.
We believe inclusion means actively pushing to involve a greater diversity of voices and backgrounds in _The Turing Way_.
Furthermore, when we say diversity, we mean a broad range of characteristics that people may hold, and which may introduce barriers to participation. 
This is formally laid out in our [accessibility policy](https://book.the-turing-way.org/community-handbook/accessibility/accessibility-policy/).
We recognize and value the benefits of a diverse community and believe a more welcoming and inclusive community will, beyond being a moral good, produce a better book.
