ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL)
Steering Committee Charter

1. Purpose of the ACM/IEEE JCDL

The objective of the ACM/IEEE JCDL is to promote research and development in the area of digital libraries.

The conference attempts to meet the needs of a large and diverse constituency, which includes practitioners, researchers, educators, policy makers and users. The focus of the conference is on providing a forum at which all the various aspects of digital libraries are addressed, at which all the various concerned communities are represented, and at which there is the opportunity for all of the various participants and communities to learn from one another, and apply that knowledge to an integrated program of research, development, construction and utilization in digital libraries.

The conference is managed by a Steering Committee, a Conference Committee and a Program Committee. The functions of each committee are described in the following sections.

The ACM SIGIR, ACM SIGWEB and IEEE DLTC are committed to hold this joint conference for the coming three years: 2001, 2002, and 2003. However, based on the first two years experience (2001 and 2002), the steering committee may decide not to continue with the ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries.

2. The Steering Committee

Purpose.

To oversee the long-term planning and success of this conference, a Steering Committee plans for future conferences, evaluates how well each conference has achieved the objectives stated above, and implements improvements to better meet these objectives.

1. provide a continuing committee to represent ACM SIGIR, ACM SIGWEB and IEEE CS DLTC interests in the digital library research community,
2. plan future ACM/IEEE JCDL meetings,
3. obtain feedback about ACM/IEEE JCDL for the purpose of improving the conference,
4. select the General and Program Chairs of future ACM/IEEE JCDL meetings in response to the submitted proposals (section 3),
5. select the sites and dates for future ACM/IEEE JCDL meetings, in response to the submitted proposals (section 3),
6. assist in the appointment of other positions in the Program Committee.

Composition of the Steering Committee.

The Executive Committee.

Steering Committee Members.

Steering Committee Meetings.

A Steering Committee meeting must be held at each ACM/IEEE JCDL. If necessary, interim meetings can be called by the Steering Committee Chair or by a simple majority of the members and can also be held by electronic mail or by other means.

Steering Committee members are expected to attend the Steering Committee meeting at each ACM/IEEE JCDL. Members who miss two consecutive meetings at ACM/IEEE JCDL without giving sufficient cause are considered withdrawn from the Committee, subject to review by the Steering Committee.

The Steering Committee should hold an, at least partially open to the public, business meeting at each year's conference. Alternatively, efforts should be made to solicit input on the conference from the community.

Proxies.

3. Constituting a Conference

1. Written proposals for the conference should be sent to the Chair of the Steering Committee significantly before the proposed conference date. The decision on the conference will generally be made at least 24 months before the proposed date.
2. Proposals shall list facilities, venue, proposed management, budgets and financial arrangements, a brief summary of the conference structure, a draft of a preliminary call for papers, and any other information required by the Steering Committee. In particular, the scheduling of any other potentially conflicting digital library and related meetings within several months before or after the proposed meeting date must be evaluated as part of the proposal. Further, written commitments of financial support from sponsoring institutions, if any, should be submitted in the proposal. In general, the ACM SIGIR/SIGWEB and IEEE DLTC will sponsor the conference at equal basis - 50% DLTC and 50% shared between ACM SIGIR and ACM SIGWEB. Sponsorship means assumption of financial risk and sharing of financial gain.
3. Those wishing to host a future ACM/IEEE JCDL should make their intentions known sufficiently in advance of the proposed date (e.g. 30 month) so that any information required by the Steering Committee can be obtained in a timely manner, and other activities can be integrated into a program of interest to all.
4. The Steering Committee reviews proposals and may seek advise from anonymous reviewers. If the evaluation is positive, the Steering Committee will tentatively accept the proposal, and the proposer(s) will be asked to prepare a detailed budget using the ACM and IEEE CS appropriate forms (TMRF) and submit the form to the Steering Committee Chair at least 15 months before the proposed conference date. After approval by the Steering Committee it will be passed to the ACM SIGIR, ACM SIGWEB and IEEE DLTC. Final approval of the TMRF will be made by the ACM and IEEE Computer Society.
5. The JCDL is a conference which aims to appeal to the broad digital library community. To that end, proposals (and subsequent program implementation) should insure a broad range of contributions, from a broad representation of the digital library community. Research papers will be the primary type of contribution, but other types must also be included, for instance: tutorials; workshops; panels; posters; demonstrations; reports on systems; invited talks; vendor displays. All contributions apart from invited talks and vendor displays must be subject to strict refereeing procedures.

4. Rules Governing the ACM/IEEE JCDL Chair Positions

1. The General Chair(s) and Program Chair(s) of JCDL shall normally go to new individuals each time. These individuals should be highly respected for their work in digital libraries. It is especially important that these persons are active in the field, have extensive practical experience, and/or have published frequently in relevant journals and conferences. In addition, they should have significant experience in organizing international conferences (e.g., as chairs or program chairs or as program committee members of other conferences). Given the JCDL goal of support of the broad digital library research and development effort, it is important that the General and Program Chairs, as well as the members of the Program Committee and the Organizing Committee, represent the various groups of the digital library community as a whole. By this is meant explicitly representation of the different disciplines and professions concerned with digital libraries.
2. The names of the persons recommended as the General Chair(s) and Program Chair(s) shall be part of the proposal (see Section 3). At least one of the General Chairs shall be from the country hosting the conference. The Steering Committee shall be free to accept or reject any recommended names for General Chair or Program Chair in order to best promote the conference.
3. Other conference chairs, e.g. Tutorial Chair(s), are chosen by the General Chair(s) with the advice and consent of the Steering Committee. The Program Chair(s) select(s) the program committee members with the guidance of the General Chair(s).

5. General Chair(s) and the Organizing Committee

In each conference, the General Chair(s), the Program Chair(s), and explicitly identified other chairs (for example, Tutorial Chair) form the Conference Organizing Committee for that conference and are charged with the planning, running, and oversight of that conference to ensure that it meets the objectives stated in Section 1.

The General Chair(s) are responsible for the overall running of the conference, and serve as the Chair(s) of the Organizing Committee.

The Organizing Committee approves all major decisions concerning the conference. The General Chair(s) are responsible for the finances of the conference and for coordinating local arrangements. To these ends, the General Chair(s) will appoint a Treasurer and a Local Arrangements Chair. The General Chair(s) may also appoint a Publicity Chair, Publications Chair, Registration Chair and other positions as necessary.

The General Chair(s) and the appointed Publicity Chair are responsible for the publicity of the conference. All notices requesting papers, panels, tutorials and tool demonstrations as well as the advance program announcement and registration material shall be widely distributed in a timely manner. This should include announcements in professional and research journals, the trade press, electronic bulletin boards, the World Wide Web, and mailings to individuals on (electronic and postal) mailing lists of interested or participating organizations. The goal is to allow full participation in all facets of the conference by the world-wide digital library communities.

The General Chair(s) are responsible for obtaining all necessary approvals and financial supports from conference sponsors. A budget document must be submitted for approval to all Sponsoring Societies. Budget approval will be handled concurrently by all Sponsoring Societies.

The General Chair(s) are responsible to solicit proposals on local facilities (such as hotels and universities) that host the conference. Hotel contracts must be ratified by ACM and the IEEE Computer Society, and the General Chair should not sign a hotel contract without first consulting the Conference Departments of the ACM and IEEE Computer Society.

Special efforts should be made by the General and Program Committee chairs to get organizers of future ACM/IEEE JCDL's involved in the organizing and program committees of the present conference.

6. Program Chair(s) and the Program Committee

Program Committee.

Program Committee Meetings.

Call For Papers, etc.

Reviews of Submitted Papers.

The Program Committee shall be responsible for reviewing all submitted papers, for submitting timely, informative reviews that provide authors with feedback about their papers, and for attending program committee meetings. The Program Chair(s) will determine the procedures for reviewing and accepting papers for the program. They shall distribute the papers for review, and arrange information so the papers can be discussed by knowledgeable reviewers during the program committee meeting. Program committee members can seek expert advice from external reviewers, but they shall be responsible for having reviewed the papers themselves. Each paper shall be reviewed by at least three reviewers and each paper shall be discussed at the program committee meeting. Direct discussion provides other committee members familiar with the work an opportunity to contribute useful information that might affect the outcome of the review process. If consensus cannot be formed or there are additional concerns raised about a paper, additional information or reviews should be obtained.

Usually those papers that have received very poor reviews or very strong reviews can be discussed briefly, but an open discussion of all papers is required. It is important that the Program Committee consider all papers fairly.

If a committee member (Program, Organizing, or Steering Committee) of the forthcoming ACM/IEEE JCDL submits papers, care must be taken that his/her papers be reviewed at least as stringently as other submitted papers. Committee members shall leave the room during the discussion of their submitted papers or for any paper where he/she might have a conflict of interest.

All discussion about a paper shall remain in confidence. The names of reviewers are not to be revealed to authors. Reviewers, however, shall be free to identify themselves to an author if they so wish.

It is recognized that English may not be the native language of many of the authors of contributed papers. It is still expected, however, that all papers will be reasonably presented and written in acceptable English. It is strongly recommended that authors whose native language is not English seek professional help in polishing the writings in their papers.

7. The Bush Award

The Bush Best Paper Award is given for best paper presented at the annual JCDL conference The award carries a cash prize, whose amount will be determined by the conference committee, and which will be part of the conference budget. Award winners will also receive a plaque or certificate to commemorate the award. This will also be funded from the conference budget.

1. An independent selection committee chooses the recipient of the annual Bush Best Paper Award from the set of accepted full papers.
2. Selection criteria are the scientific quality of the paper as well as its impact on the field of digital libraries.

   The selection committee consists of experienced people from the digital library community. Membership in the selection committee is by invitation only. The committee is organized by the JCDL Steering Committee. Usually, members include e.g. one of the program chairs of the conference, past program chairs, past conference chairs, and other experienced people (e.g. PC members). The head of the selection committee is by default the program chair, but this can be delegated (also for limited time, e.g. one conference only).

3. Members of the selection committee cannot be named for an award granted by the committee (thus, being nominated forces a member to resign from the committee for the current conference - or to drop the paper from the considered list).
4. Selection of the award winners is done by majority of votes in the selection committee. If there is an equal split, the head of the committee has the deciding vote.
5. In a first step, the program committee members of the conference nominate papers for the award.
6. From this list, the selection committee selects the winner at least four weeks before the conference. The process of publicizing the winner is up to the conference committee but some part of it has to be done during the conference.
7. Award winners will be further publicized by the participating organizations.

8. Intellectual Property

The copyright holder will also provide to the other organization electronic rights and the rights to produce derivative works.

The Sponsoring Societies agree that copyright ownership will either alternate in successive years or be decided as belonging to one of the Sponsoring Societies named below. The copyright processing responsibility falls to the copyright owner or, by agreement, to whichever of the Sponsoring Societies takes the title of publisher of the proceedings. (Herein after called the "Responsible Society.")

Conference Year 1: _________________________________________ Society
Conference Year 2: _________________________________________ Society
Conference Year 3: _________________________________________ Society
Conference Year 4: _________________________________________ Society

Definition

Ownership

The disposition of rights and permissions, and the maintenance of the authors' copyright assignments, rests solely with the copyright holder. The revenue from dispensation of rights and permission shall be the sole property of the rights owner, while revenue from sales of the Proceedings shall accrue to each distributing Sponsor, respectively.

This clause does not apply to material owned by third parties. Requests for reprint or re-use from third-party material will be handled according to the existing reprint policies of the copyright holder.

Entitlement

9. Amendments

10. Start up rules

For start up purposes the following terms of office rules will be followed (The shorter term of SIGWEB ensures a staggered appointment of the ACM representatives)

11. Steering Committee Members

Retired Steering Committee Members

Document History

Copyright © JCDL Steering Committee, 2000