Mandate of the Scientific Information Policy Board

1. The Scientific Information Policy Board (SIPB) is an inter-departmental body reporting to the Director for Research and Computing.

2. It deals with any matters related to policies, strategies, and technology services related to the management of scientific information for the high-energy physics community, inter alia library and documentation services, scientific editing, open access publishing, and report production services.

3. The board meetings should serve as a forum for reviews, analyses and assessments of the services given, of the user needs and of preferences for the short and long term developments of the services, with regard to technical and economic feasibility, the international developments in the field and the general trends in the information services market. This includes specifically an obligation to be informed of and follow development plans, projects and feasibility studies where CERN units are involved, and to express opinions and advice concerning such activities as appropriate under its general mandate.

4. The Chair of the board is appointed by the Director for Research and Computing.

5. The group leader of the CERN Scientific Information Service is ex officio Secretary to the board with a managerial role in soliciting and compiling proposals, views and other inputs to the work of the board, setting up the agenda for meetings in conjunction with the Chair, calling meetings and distributing documentation.

6. The composition of the board should provide a balanced representation of the user community and the CERN departments. The composition is proposed by the Chair in consultation with the Secretary, and may evolve to reflect the evolution of the matters addressed by the board. The individual board members will then be appointed by the department heads, ACCU and, when relevant, by the management of experiments.

7. The board shall meet at least two times per year, normally to be scheduled well in advance. Extra meetings can be called if needed, on the initiative of the Chair or at the suggestion of members of the board. The agenda and documents for board meetings should be sent out to members of the board at least 7 days before scheduled meetings.

8. The Chair of the board has the right to set up ad hoc committees and working groups to deal with problems that warrant a deeper or more recurrent revision than can be done in the regular meetings. Members can be drawn from amongst experts or users of services, whether or not they are members of the board, the main criterion being effective performance of the task defined. Such groups can steer projects with inputs from several departments or groups, or help the dedicated teams in developing strategies for the resolution of sensitive policy issues.

The SIPB mandate in this revised version was approved on 5th of December 2022.