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

September 23.09.99

The objective of the ACM/IEEE JCDL is to promote research and development of 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, and a Conference 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.

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.

More specifically the Steering Committee should

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.

The Steering Committee is composed of total of seven members. Ex officio members are one representative each from the ACM SIGIR, ACM SIGWEB and the IEEE DLTC. Initially these three members elect four additional members from the research community who are active researchers in the area.

A Chair and a Secretary of the Steering Committee shall be elected from among the Steering Committee members for two year terms to form the Executive Committee. The Chair and Secretary election will take place alternatively every year. Their term of membership in the Steering Committee will automatically be extended to cover their period of membership in the Executive Committee. The same Chair or Secretary can be elected for one additional term.

Elected members of the Steering Committee are elected by simple majority vote by the current Steering Committee members in a Steering Committee meeting held at each year’s JCDL. The committee membership is open to all participants of any ACM/IEEE CDLTC who have significant experience in the operation of international conferences (such as serving as General and/or Program Chairs of past conferences). Any participant interested to serve should indicate his/her interest to a member of the Steering Committee. The term of office of each member is 3 years., except that initial terms will be staggered to insure continuity on the committee. The newly elected members of the Steering Committee take office on July 1 of the year of the election.

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.

During meetings of the Steering Committee, each member shall have one vote. General proxy voting shall not be permitted, but on specific issues mail (e-mail) voting shall be permitted if the Steering Committee Chair receives the mailed vote before the meeting. Steering Committee members are to be informed sufficiently in advance of any known motions to be voted on during a forthcoming meeting.

The chair has the deciding vote in cases of tied votes.

The Steering Committee obtains, through open and informal solicitations, proposals for: conference locations, names of individuals who are suitable to serve as General Chair(s), individuals who are suitable to serve as Program Chair(s), and other organizational issues. Individuals or institutions interested to propose and organize a future ACM/IEEE JCDL should follow the steps listed below.

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 24months 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 libary 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 (eg. 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.

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.

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.

The Program Chair(s) are responsible for planning the technical program of the conference. They should abstain from submitting papers to their conference.

The Program Chair(s) will appoint individuals to serve in the program committee (with the advice and consent of the General Chair(s)). The Program Committee should be diversified in terms of expertise, geographical distribution, race, and gender. Program Committee members shall be chosen on the basis of their technical qualifications and experience. The Program Chair(s) should promote continuity by keeping some committee members from the previous conferences (e.g., members from past Organizing and Program Committees).

Program Committee Meetings.

It is expected that Program Committee members will attend the program committee meeting at which acceptance/rejection decisions are made. In extraordinary situations and at the discretion of the Program Committee and General Chairs, these meetings may be conducted via virtual meeting rooms (video conference) or even telephone or electronic mail.

The Program Chair(s) will prepare the Call For Papers (together with the Publicity Chair), send out notification of acceptance and rejection of submitted papers, and send out instructions to authors for submitting their final papers. The call for papers as well as actions by the individuals on the Program Committee shall encourage the submission of high quality papers that have not been previously published or are currently submitted elsewhere, including reports on practical experiences with evaluations of advanced technologies.

The conference shall require full papers for review.

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.

Full paper are the cornerstone of ACM/IEEE JCDL. As a consequence only accepted full papers should be included in the proceedings together with panel statements, and of course key note at invited papers.

Amendments to this charter of the Steering Committee of the ACM/IEEE JCDL require the approval by two thirds of the Steering Committee members.

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)

ACM SIGID 3 3 3

ACM SIGWEB 2 3 3

IEEE DLTC 3 3 3

Member 4 3 3 3

Member 5 2 2 3

Member 6 2 2 3

Member 7 2 3 3

The first term of office shell start with the date the appointment and election process will be finished. It will count as an appointment starting July 1. 1999.