ATLAS Authorship Policy Version 7.2 - draft To be endorsed by the CB on 07/09 The ATLAS Authorship Committee This document sets out the policy for ATLAS Authorship for 2009 and beyond. The emphasis is on General Publications by the complete Collaboration. The related policies associated with other documents, in particular the different types of ATLAS Notes, are also reviewed. Note Main changes to the previous document include: - In appendix A the qualification work and details of the qualification mechanism are described. There is no bulleted list of qualification and non-qualification tasks, instead there is a broad description and mention of who decides on valid qualification tasks. - The document explicitly mentions the fact that all OTP tasks are qualification tasks. - Authors of another LHC collaboration are excluded from using pre-dt credit, and there is a new policy that pre-dt credits are only applied upon request. - There are some wording changes to clarify some points. Text in italics provides comments. These are not part of the proposed policy. 1
1 Introduction This document describes the authorship policy of the ATLAS Collaboration at the LHC for the period of data taking. 1.1 Definitions of terms ATLAS author ATLAS member Team leader Publications Committee (PubComm) Authorship Committee (AC) Data Taking (DT) An ATLAS member or a former ATLAS member who is qualified to sign ATLAS General Publications. Someone who is acknowledged to be working on ATLAS by the team leader of an accepted ATLAS Institution. Such a person may not necessarily have qualified yet as an ATLAS author. Thus there are the following types of ATLAS member Those who have already qualified as ATLAS authors; Those who are in the process of qualifying as ATLAS authors by following the qualification process specified in the Authorship Policy Document; Others who have a strong and dedicated involvement in ATLAS, but who are not ATLAS authors and are not in the process of qualifying. The overall leader of ATLAS activities in a member institution, normally the same as the Collaboration Board member. The committee responsible for the ATLAS Publications Policy and its implementation. The committee responsible for overseeing the implementation of the ATLAS authorship rules and management of the ATLAS author list. The period of collision data-taking. Editorial Board (EdBoard) Activity Coordinator A board set up for an individual publication to ensure its progress through the various steps required by the ATLAS Publication Policy. The ATLAS coordinator for Run, Trigger, Computing, Data Preparation or Physics. 1.2 The ATLAS Authorship Committee The Committee consists of three ATLAS members, which have been selected by the Spokesperson among the Publication Committee members. The choice is endorsed by the CB. Each member serves for three years, and each year, a member of the Publications 2
Committee is selected as a new member of the AC, replacing the longest serving member. The member in the third year acts as Chairperson. The Spokesperson and the PubComm Chair are ex-officio members of the AC. The Deputy Spokesperson(s) and the Physics Coordinator are invited to attend the AC meetings. The Committee is responsible for: Implementation of authorship policies Correctness of the information stored in the authorship database Management of the author list. More information about the Authorship Committee and its work can be found at: http://atlasauthdb.web.cern.ch/atlas-authdb/ 2 Qualification to be an ATLAS author Only people qualified as ATLAS authors may sign ATLAS papers. An exception may be made for people who have not qualified as ATLAS authors and yet have made a significant contribution to a particular paper, see Section 3.4.2. 2.1 Obtaining Qualification To become an ATLAS author, a person must: Have been an active ATLAS member for at least one year. Not be an author of another major LHC collaboration at the time of application (this rule applies to all physicists, but an exception may be made for engineers). Have spent at least 50% of their available research time during the year, but not less than 80 full working days, doing ATLAS technical work (see Appendix A). Normally, the relevant amount of technical work must be accumulated over one year. Having satisfied the above, it is up to the person s Institution team leader to apply to the Chairperson of the Authorship Committee, stating the case for Authorship in the form of a short e-mail. Based on this case, the Chairperson will determine whether or not the qualification criteria have been met. In case of contention the Spokesperson will be asked to intervene. The ultimate decision in all cases lies with the Spokesperson, who should consult with the AC and the Collaboration Board Chairperson in case of problems. Note on Membership of other Experiments ATLAS physicists are not excluded from being members or authors of other collaborations apart from the major LHC experiments. The requirements for ATLAS authorship are intended to be sufficiently high to ensure significant contributions to ATLAS. The rules are also intended to allow for people, typically students and post-docs, to transfer between different LHC collaborations as they pursue their career. It is highly unlikely that 3
they would be members of more than one simultaneously. Further, in the light of the one-year it takes to qualify as author, it is unlikely that they would appear as authors of more than one LHC collaboration at the same time. When an author leaves ATLAS, they stay an author for one year. After one year, if they are not a member of another LHC collaboration, they could ask to remain an author based on Pre-DT Credits, as described in 2.4. Any concerns due to conflicts of interest for people who are authors of ATLAS and another experiment, for example due to contradictory results, or competition to publish results, will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. 2.2 Continuing Qualification In order to continue to be qualified, this person must: Continue to be an ATLAS member. Spend at least 50% of their research time on ATLAS. Not be an author of another major LHC collaboration. It is the responsibility of the Institution team leaders to maintain the correctness of the authorship database for their team. Someone who has changed Institution should also be included on their new team leader s list, and will simply continue as an author. Their affiliation can change to the new Institution immediately (or on the date agreed by the two groups). All ATLAS authors are expected to continue to do some technical work each year after they qualify. Operation tasks, as defined in the OTSMOU report available from the CB webpage, will be allocated to the Institution in proportion to the number of authors, including members in the process of qualifying as authors, but excluding those using pre-dt credit defined in section 2.4. The responsibility for distributing this work within each group lies with the Institution team leader. 2.3 Failure to re-qualify If an ATLAS author fails to qualify for continuing authorship, and wants to resume signing ATLAS papers, then they must qualify as a new author, as described in Section 2.1. However, in the case of an absence from ATLAS due to exceptional circumstances, they may be retained on the author list at the discretion of the Spokesperson after consultation with the CB Chair. 2.4 Authorship of Former ATLAS members 4
When an author leaves the collaboration, they are retained for a further 1 year as an author. In the light of the very long time-scales associated with ATLAS construction, additional credit will be given to those who have worked on ATLAS for many years before data-taking (DT). This will be done using a Pre-DT Credit: Anyone qualifying as an ATLAS author before the publication of the first paper using proton-proton collision data will start to accumulate Pre-DT credit years. These years may be counted from 1 Jan 1997. They are accumulated from the person s date of qualification until the person leaves ATLAS, or until the first DT publication. On leaving ATLAS, a person with Pre-DT credit earns the right to sign ATLAS papers for 4 months for each year of Pre-DT credit. These extra months are credited during the DT period, and are in addition to the standard 1 year of continuing authorship after leaving ATLAS. This option is exercised upon request, following email notification to the person and the Institution team leader. This option is not available to people who are members of another LHC collaboration. Examples of how this is supposed to work are given in Appendix B. This scheme is based on each person s qualification date and departure date. 2.5 Decisions on authorship The normal channels for communication concerning authorship should be between Institution team leaders and the Chairperson of the Authorship Committee. However, as a last resort, anyone may appeal to the Spokesperson. The Spokesperson, with the agreement of the Collaboration Board Chairperson and in consultation with the AC, may remove any person from the ATLAS authorship list for any behaviour or activity which is considered inappropriate for an ATLAS author. 3 Authorship of ATLAS papers 3.1 The standard author list All General Publications will be signed by all authors appearing on the current standard list of ATLAS authors. The standard list of ATLAS authors is maintained by the Chairperson of the Authorship Committee, and is visible on the Web for all to see. The list includes: Names of authors. Institution to which they belong. The ATLAS author database can be found in http://atlas-authdb.web.cern.ch/atlas-authdb/. Technical details The ATLAS authorship database includes basic information about all ATLAS members and Institutions, not just ATLAS authors. In addition to being used to make the ATLAS author list, it took over the role of the ATLAS directory, providing addresses and telephone 5
numbers. This DB is also used to extract information used to compute the M&O share of each Institution. 3.2 Updating and checking of the list The standard list will be updated daily using the information in the database. Newly qualified authors will be added, and people whose authorship has run out will be removed. The current author list can then be picked up for each paper, based on the authorship on a date determined by the Publications Committee. This will be done before the final draft of each paper is posted. 3.3 The appearance of the author list in a paper The author list on ATLAS publications is ordered alphabetically by author. Depending on the Journal's and ATLAS' decision it may appear printed on a paper or a paper can be signed by 'The ATLAS Collaboration' and the author list, specific to this paper, is stored electronically. 3.4 Exceptions 3.4.1 Request for removal from author list for a particular paper Should an ATLAS author wish to be removed from the author list of a given paper, they must inform the AC Chairperson before the list is finalised for that paper. The request to be removed from the author list has to arrive to the AC within the period of time given for the final draft to be read by the Collaboration (see section 2.1 of the Publication Policy Document). 3.4.2 Additional authors for a particular paper An ATLAS member who has not yet qualified as an ATLAS author and yet has made a significant contribution to a particular paper may make a request to the AC Chairperson to be included in the paper s Author list. A non-atlas member already associated to ATLAS by Short-Term Association, and who has made a significant contribution to a particular paper, may make a request to the AC Chairperson to be included in the paper s author list. A document giving guidelines for Short- Term Association with ATLAS can be found on the CB web-page. http://atlas.web.cern.ch/atlas/private/atlas_cb/cb_approved_documents/a62_access_n on_atlas.pdf Team leaders may recommend members of their Institution who would not normally qualify as authors and yet who have made a significant contribution to ATLAS. In particular, it may be very appropriate to recognise key Engineers on papers related to the subsystems on which 6
they have worked. In all cases, the AC Chairperson will make a recommendation to the Spokesperson. The ultimate decision lies with the Spokesperson. 4 Other forms of ATLAS papers and notes This section describes the authorship policy for Project papers, Combined Test Beam papers and other documents, termed notes, other than general data publications. For the purpose and the approval procedure of these documents, see the Publication Policy Document. Here the authorship criteria are discussed. In the event of a disagreement that cannot be resolved on the authorship of any paper or note, the ultimate decision lies with the Spokesperson, after consultation with the AC and the CB Chairperson. 4.1 Project Publications Different types of project publications involve different authorship regulations. The rules are described in the ATLAS Publications Policy. http://atlas.web.cern.ch/atlas/private/atlas_cb/cb_approved_documents/a62_pub_pol icy_7%201.pdf 4.2 Combined Test Beam (CTB) papers The author lists of papers that describe the Combined Test Beams (CTBs) and their results should be composed of people who have actively contributed to the preparation, operation and data analysis of the CTBs. The proposed author list should be prepared by the Project Leader (or the leader(s) of the community(ies) involved) in close consultation with the CTB coordinator(s). Input should also be sought from Project Leader(s) responsible for providing support infrastructure. The list should be based on the Institutions author lists made by the Institutions group leaders specifically for each paper. The proposal should be reviewed by the Institution leaders and Institution Boards involved in the CTBs. In line with general ATLAS publications and stated in this document [3.4.2], it is possible to have non-atlas authors on the CTB publications where justified by contributions to the project. In case no agreement among the above bodies can be achieved, the authorship committee should be consulted and asked to provide recommendations. If necessary, the final decisions are left to the Spokesperson. 4.3 ATLAS Notes For a description of the purpose of the different types of ATLAS notes, see the Publications Policy Document. Here we discuss only the authorship. 7
There must be at least one ATLAS member as an author of an ATLAS note, and non-atlas persons may appear as authors when appropriate although this should be the exception rather than the norm. 4.3.1 Internal Notes (INT) Any number of ATLAS members. 4.3.2 Public Notes (PUB) ATLAS Collaboration (as a whole, not listed by name). A searchable list of author names for each note will exist in CDS. 4.3.3 Conference Notes (CONF) ATLAS Collaboration (as a whole, not listed by name) 4.3.4 Conference Proceedings Notes (PROC) The speaker, on behalf of the ATLAS Collaboration or on behalf of an ATLAS project, as appropriate. In exceptional cases concerning technical PROC notes only, subject to the style of conference and to endorsement by the PubComm Chair, a few authors may be added besides the speaker. It is possible, but unlikely, that an ATLAS member who gives a Conference talk on behalf of ATLAS may not yet be qualified as an ATLAS author. This should only happen in exceptional cases, and the Speakers Committee should discuss this with the Spokesperson before the speaker is selected. Appendix A: Qualification work and qualification mechanism Technical work needs to be undertaken by ATLAS members to ensure that the detector, trigger, software and computing operate well and in order to produce high quality physics results. Technical work will also be required of ATLAS members to qualify for authorship. Typically, new members would work on tasks and activities matching their group's responsibilities and expertise. All operation tasks defined in the operation task planning OTP are suitable qualification tasks. Some tasks that are not defined in OTP may be used for qualification. Non-OTP qualification tasks are defined by the Project Leaders and Activity Coordinators of the various domains. The Project Leaders and Activity Coordinators will maintain up-to-date lists of tasks valid for qualification, ranking them by priority and indicating if a given task is also an OTP task or not. They will advise the newcomer's team leader on the choice of a suitable qualification task. Doing physics analysis, writing physics papers or supervising the work of other people doing analysis are not qualification tasks. Convening a Physics or Combined Performance working group is not a qualification task. The Physics Coordinator will decide on a list of technical or 8
support tasks from the Combined Performance and Physics groups which may count for qualification. Some main-stream activities within the ATLAS Upgrade project may count as qualification tasks. These will be defined by the Upgrade Steering Group. In case of doubt or disagreement on which tasks count as qualification tasks, the Spokesperson and the Chairperson of the Authorship Committee should be consulted. They have the final decision. It is expected that the list of qualification tasks (OTP or others) will evolve with time and with the increasing understanding of the experiment needs and performance with LHC data. The AC will make appropriate modifications to this document whenever needed. Qualification mechanism When a newcomer joins ATLAS, the ATLAS Secretariat will register the new member in the ATLAS DB based on the personal data from the CERN DB. The new member s team leader will be led, by email and by the authorship DB user interface, through the procedure of choosing a qualification task for the new member. One of the following two paths will be followed: If the newcomer wishes to fulfil their qualification work inside a given system, the system Project Leader will be notified. They will then help the newcomer select a task and, together with the team leader, will ensure that work is followed up. If the newcomer wants to do their qualification work on general tasks, e.g. in the areas of Software, Computing, Data Preparation or Trigger, the corresponding Coordinator will be notified. The Coordinator, together with the team leader, will ensure that the newcomer is integrated in the chosen activity and that the work is followed up. Typically, new members would work on tasks and activities matching their group's responsibilities and expertise. The qualification period is one year from the qualification start date entered in the authorship DB. Once per month a script will run providing a list of all the members for whom that year ends in the next month. The AC Chairperson and the team leader of the author-to-come will receive an e-mail with a reminder (which will include a short description of the service task chosen) The person s team leader will apply to the Chairperson of the Authorship Committee, with a copy to the relevant Project Leader or Activity Coordinator, stating the case for Authorship in the form of a short e-mail. 9
Appendix B: Examples of the Pre-DT credit scheme 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 1996 A B C D E F G 10
Parameters It is assumed (for illustration) that the first publication is on 1 Jan 2007 Authors qualify any time on or after 1 Jan 1997 Credit for pre-dt work is 4 months per year Key ATLAS member - periods of work ATLAS author Qualification period Pre-DT work Work during DT Authorship before DT (not very useful!) Authorship during DT Authorship credit from pre-dt work Discussion Person A leaves before DT starts. He receives a credit of 2 years 4 months as an author of ATLAS publications. Person B leaves just as DT starts. She continues as a standard author for 1 year, and then continues for a further 3 years 4 months using her pre-dt credit. Person C leaves a bit later than B, but has been on ATLAS since 1996 or longer, and also gets 3 years 4 months extra credit. Post docs D, E, F and G each serve 3 years on ATLAS, and illustrate the features of the transition from pre-dt to DT. D leaves 1 year before data taking, and so only gets to sign ATLAS physics papers for 8 months. E leaves as data taking starts, and signs for 1 year 8 months, F is on ATLAS for the first year of data taking, and gets to sign for 2 years 4 months, while G has no pre-dt credits at all. 11