Editorial Policy

Edition:  January 2020

 

TC68 SG 4 Communications Sub-group

Editorial Policy

Introduction

The TC68 SG 4 Communications Sub-group is responsible for managing communications, the Sub-Group will be responsible for bringing relevant information to the TC68 community and other stakeholders in a timely manner.  The editorial policy and submission process for such communications are discussed in this document.

Expected Content

• Updates from the current working groups under TC68 and the SCs on standard initiatives as milestones and important decision points, e.g., ballots, are reached
• Educational background pieces on upcoming and ongoing ballots to help with voting decisions
• Educational pieces on use or implementation of standards; interrelationship with other standards, etc.
• News articles relating to TC68 standards
• Whitepapers with deeper dives on topics
• Lessons learned and success stories on adoption of standards in the financial services industry and beyond

 

Content should promote the goals of TC68 and address the interests and needs of our membership including addressing business process and standards across the financial services lifecycle and be written in a manner that our target audience will find useful, accept and enjoy.

Authors

All  working group participants are expected to contribute content. Authors could include standardizers, implementers, end users, educators, regulators, product and services providers and others. Materials may be submitted to the Convenor(s) of the Communications Sub-Group by anyone representing the ISO community and addressing a TC68 or financial services related subject.

Authors are encouraged to include a short biography (30 words or less) when submitting a major article or white paper.

Communications plan

The Communications Sub-Group defines the annual communication plan including the communication channels to be used in function of the content and the audience: newsletter, website, social media, events, press, etc. The plan also defines the frequency of the updates by channel.

Process and Schedule

For articles and whitepapers, authors are encouraged to submit proposals (optional) and/or drafts well in advance of a desired publication time to allow time for review and revision.  One - two months should be expected for reviews of articles or whitepapers.   Two – four weeks should be expected for previously published news articles and convenor updates. 

The Communications Sub-Group can work with any party that needs an expedited publication on an ad hoc basis.

The Communications Sub-Group will be the editorial body that reviews all material submitted for publication to ensure consistency of formats (standards) and content between the different subjects.  Materials will be provided to the Sub-Group members with an appropriate turnaround time to allow for the above noted deadlines to be achieved. All articles will be proof read for content, spelling and grammatical errors and corrections suggested to the author.  If no major issues are raised, the material will be published through the agreed channels.

The Sub-Group reserves the right to determine whether material submitted for publication shall be published and reserves the right to edit as needed, for space, content, unwarranted statements/attacks or appropriate messaging for the audience. 

It cannot guarantee the acceptance or publication of any article. It may be necessary to return the article to the author for revision so as to render the article suitable for publishing consideration in a subsequent issue. Authors should not pre-publicize the submission of an article for publication.

Opinions expressed by the authors of the materials are those of the individual(s) and should be stated as such.

Articles  

Articles should be submitted in word format and discuss subjects relevant to the TC68 community and should be 500-1500 words in length.  They may include section headings, illustrations, tables, and sidebars to illustrate and emphasize the message.  Articles may address a variety of topics.

Whitepapers

Similar to articles, whitepapers should be submitted in word format and discuss subjects relevant to the TC68 community, but would typically be more in-depth and technical.  The length of whitepapers may vary widely depending on the topic, therefore, it is expected that a summary of the white paper would be shown on the website with a link to the actual paper.  They should include section headings, illustrations, tables, and sidebars to illustrate and emphasize the message.  

News items

News items should be about subjects relevant to the TC68 community and should be approximately 50 to 200 words.  A summary with links to the actual news items can be provided if the piece is much longer.

If an article has been previously published, approval of the Author and the Publisher may be required.  A Word version of the article must be provided so the article can be posted to the website.

Briefing Papers

Communication is key when a ballot is sent out to the TC68 / SCs community for a vote on the development of a standard or a change to an existing standard. The use of briefing papers to accompany the ballot can be very valuable in helping voters to understand better what they are voting on. The Communications Sub-Group can help facilitate this. Summary updates should be short (not to exceed 300 – 350 words) and attachments/links can be used for reference to external documentation.

Subcommittee, Advisory Group, and Working Group Updates

The TC68 Subcommittees, Advisory Groups and Working Groups are the core of the standard setting process.  Updates from convenors or members would represent valuable information for the TC68 community.   

Updates from convenors would generally be done when a new group is kicking off, a draft standard has been issued for ballot, and when a final standard is issued.