Working groups
Working-group inquiries
Express interest in joining a working group, propose a scope change, raise a procedural question, or nominate a chair. The address routes to the editorial board.
The working-groups address routes to the editorial board's working-group secretariat. Write to [email protected].
Expressing interest in joining a specific working group
Name the working group, attach a short note on your standing in the domain, and link to a public profile (ORCID, institutional page, or equivalent). The full set of twenty groups is on the /get-involved/working-groups page; the public roster — including chairs once confirmed — sits at /about/working-groups.
The chair confirms the fit and adds you to the next cycle's mailing list. There is no membership fee and no formal vote on individual members — chair's discretion governs, with the editorial board as a second-line check.
Other procedural matters
- Scope changes. A proposal to extend or narrow a working group's scope, with rationale.
- Chair nominations. Recognised practitioners who could chair a group — self-nominations welcomed.
- New working-group proposals. Domains the current twenty do not adequately cover, with a sponsoring practitioner identified.
- Coordination requests. Inquiries from federation partners — NISO standards committees, euroCRIS task groups, ICMJE — seeking liaison.
Response time and next steps
We aim to acknowledge working-group inquiries within five working days. Chair nominations and scope-change proposals are queued for the editorial board's next scheduled quarterly meeting rather than actioned individually as they arrive, so please allow up to a quarter for a substantive decision on those two categories. Expressions of interest in joining an existing group as a community member move faster: the chair (or, before a chair is confirmed, the working-groups secretariat) typically confirms fit and adds you to the next cycle's mailing list within two weeks.
For background
The pattern of meetings, public-review windows, and contributor recognition is documented at /get-involved/working-groups. Quarterly updates from each group are published at /news/working-group-updates.
