Table of Contents:

  1. Purpose of this Policy
  2. Scope of this Policy
  3. Definitions
  4. Guiding Principles
  5. Publication Oversight
  6. Publication Review Process Part I: Review
  7. Publication Review Process Part II: Design & Promotion
  8. Templates and Documentation

Purpose of this Policy

Software Preservation Network working groups, committees, and individual members produce documentation for SPN members and the broader community of software preservation practitioners. The SPN Resource Publication Policy ensures that the work of SPN membership and affiliates is 1) within the scope of the network’s mission, vision values and strategic goals and 2) is reviewed and published in a responsible, effective, and timely fashion.

Scope of this Policy

This policy applies to all forms of documentation meant to be shared or published beyond a single committee, working group or member for the purposes of meeting the Software Preservation Network’s mission. This policy applies to documentation such as, but not limited to, articles, reports, data sets, webinars, and presentation slides. It includes outputs published by SPN and those published through third parties (e.g. a journal article). This policy does not necessarily apply to working drafts, research notes, brainstorming documents and other materials gathered and used by members in order to develop new resources for publication. The content of this policy should be followed as closely as is possible with limitations imposed by funders and partners – and in accordance with the guiding principles outlined in the SPN Data Management Policy. Ideally, all SPN published resources are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License (CC BY 2.0).

Definitions

  1. Resource: a container for storing information; examples include software, tabular data, journal article, data visualization/infographic, and video
  2. Resource Champion: the person designated to kick off the review process and shepherd the resource through to publication. If a group, such as a working group or committee, is collectively responsible for creating a resource, any member of that group can be designated as the Resource Champion. Individuals may also create resources and shepherd them through to publication.
  3. Publication: the process of making a resource available to membership or the general public through review, editing, branding, and sharing
  4. Archiving: the process of storing, describing, and maintaining publications over time; As described in the SPN Data Management Policy, there may be reasons why certain SPN resources and publications are stored in multiple locations. The creation of persistent identifiers for publications, for example, will require ingesting a copy of the publication into an external repository that can assign persistent identifiers.

Guiding Principles

  1. SPN is a community of practice, and therefore, aims to publish findings and other resources for the benefit of our membership and the broader community of digital stewards.
  2. In light of possible funder and/or institutional review board restrictions on publishing data and/or research findings outlined in the SPN Data Management Policy, and in the event that membership chooses to make specific publications available to members-only for a period of time prior to broader publication (as a member benefit), embargos can be placed on publications. The length of the embargo is defined by the Resource Champion.
  3. SPN is committed to increasing accessibility over time. We will ensure that members and staff adhere to baseline accessibility guidelines outlined in the SPN style guide including color contrast, transcription, font size, etc.
  4. Committees, working groups and individuals are welcome to propose a resource for publication; ensure the publication adheres to SPN’s branding styleguide (available upon request); and to ensure that publications are promoted under the guidance of the SPN Communications Manager.
  5. While the SPN Communications Manager has oversight of the publication process, the SPN Staff aims to build complementary templates and resources that transfer more ownership to SPN members. This policy may be updated with links to complementary resources over time.

Publication Oversight

To ensure this policy is followed, the publication process is initiated when a Resource Champion sends an initial email to SPN Communications Manager, and SPN Community Facilitator (with the committee co-chair or working group coordinator CCed if applicable). Contact information for SPN staff members can always be found on the SPN Contact List (available upon request).

Supporting Documents

The following templates and documents are available by request to the Community Facilitator or Coordinating Committee, and may need to be referenced during the publication process:

  1. Educopia Communications Price Sheet
  2. SPN Sample Publication Plans
  3. SPN Brand Guidelines
  4. SPN Accessibility Notes (draft)
  5. SPN Report Template
  6. SPN Presentation Template
  7. SPN Letterhead
  8. SPN Contact List

Publication Review Process Part I: Review

The SPN publication process is divided into two parts: review followed by design & promotion. Sources for SPN publications include working groups, committees, and individual members. The Resource Champion will consult SPN Community Facilitator and Educopia Communications Manager to determine the priority and scope of work for the resource.

Working Groups, Committees, or Ad-Hoc Groups of Members

  1. Prior to publication review, a request for publication support needs to be made.
    • SPN contracts with Educopia for publication support. Obtain a copy of the SPN Communications Price sheet from the SPN Community Facilitator and choose the publication treatment and communications activities for which the group seeks support. For guidance on what kind of support might be appropriate for your publication, see sample publication plans (available upon request). For publications being published by a third-party this may still require publicity and putting things on the SPN website.
    • Make a budget request at least two months before the expected publication date to the SPN Coordinating Committee by filling out this form.
  2. A Resource Champion for the working group or committee is designated by the group.
  3. All members of the working group or committee must sign-off internally on the resource prior to kicking off the publication review. There are many models of group decision-making. See this resource for guidance on building consensus.
  4. The Resource Champion sends the publication draft to SPN Communications Manager and SPN Community Facilitator, CCing the working group and committee members, and the publication review process begins.

Individuals

  1. Prior to publication review, a request for publication support needs to be made.
    • SPN contracts with Educopia for publication support. Obtain a copy of the SPN Communications Price sheet from the SPN Community Facilitator and choose the publication treatment and communications activities for which you seek support. For guidance on what kind of support might be appropriate for your publication, see sample publication plans (available upon request). For publications being published by a third-party this may still require publicity and putting things on the SPN website.
    • Make a budget request at least two months before the expected publication date to the SPN Coordinating Committee by filling out this form.
  2. The individual member must serve as the Resource Champion.
  3. The Resource Champion sends the resource to the membership or subset of membership to review.
  4. The membership has two weeks to make comments or suggested changes.
  5. The Resource Champion is encouraged to incorporate feedback into a new version and may do this on their own timeline.
  6. The Resource Champion sends the document to SPN Communications Manager and SPN Community Facilitator with a summary of edits taken from the membership, feedback addressed, or feedback left unaddressed, and the publication review process begins.

Publication Review Process Part II: Design & Promotion

  1. The SPN Communications Manager will follow up with the Resource Champion within 2 weeks to gather any information required to continue the process and answer any questions about the Communications Price Sheet or selected services.
  2. After information gathering is complete, the SPN Communications Manager will then provide a timeline and work plan based on the requested services for dividing any design or editing needs among the Communications Manager, working group, and Resource Champion, as applicable. Plans and level of work may vary according to each publication’s attributes — see sample publication plans (available upon request) for more information.
  3. Once all communications assets have been created, the SPN Communication Manager will provide the source working group, committee or individual a final opportunity for sign off alongside the rest of the SPN staff.
  4. At this point, a DOI will be created by the Resource Champion by depositing a copy of the publication in Zenodo or institutional repository. This DOI will be applied to the publication by the SPN Communications Manager, and incorporated into a preferred citation for the resource will accompany the publication on the SPN website.
    1. For publications published through a third-party, e.g. a journal article, a copy will be deposited in Zenodo or institution repository for preservation purposes as the publishers policy allows. The DOI provided by the third-party publisher will be the one incorporated into the preferred citation for the resource on the SPN website.
  5. Once the document is ready for distribution, the SPN Communications Manager will post the materials on the website and assign the working group, committee or individual promotional assignments to spread the word according to the services requested by the group and approved by the Coordinating Committee.

Preferred citation:

SPN Policies & Procedures Committee. (2020, September 17). SPN Resource Publication Policy. Software Preservation Network. https://www.softwarepreservationnetwork.org/spn-resource-publication-policy/