Volunteer editorial work
Join a working group
Twenty working groups carry the dictionary, one per domain. Membership is open to qualified practitioners. The cadence is quarterly; the recognition is formal.
Working groups are where the dictionary is written. Each is convened for a single domain, chaired by a recognised practitioner, and bound to a quarterly cycle of proposals, public review, and release. The model follows established standards-body practice — the procedural template draws from the NISO Standards Committee process and the broader convention of editorial transparency described in the ICMJE recommendations.
Who can join
Working-group membership is open to anyone with demonstrable practitioner standing in the domain — researchers, librarians, research-office staff, publishers, repository managers, integrity officers, CRIS administrators, infrastructure engineers, regulators, funders. Institutional membership is not required. The qualification test is competence and time, not affiliation.
Meeting cadence and time commitment
- Quarterly group calls — one hour, recorded, minutes published.
- Asynchronous review — candidate-term shortlists circulate by email; review windows are typically two weeks.
- Public-review windows — once per cycle, candidate entries are opened for public comment via /get-involved/comment.
- Annual face-to-face — optional, typically co-located with a federation partner event such as the euroCRIS membership meeting or the NISO Plus conference.
Time commitment averages four hours per quarter for an active member, more for a chair. Chairs are recognised on the editorial masthead and may stand for a two-year term, renewable once.
Contributor recognition
The dictionary is released under CC-BY 4.0. Every entry carries an editorial-meta block naming the proposing working group, the contributor(s) credited under CRediT, the review history, and the release version. Recognition is formal, machine-readable, and citable — not a buried acknowledgement.
Where a contributor's work is substantial enough to constitute authorship of an entry, the entry carries them as an author with a CRediT role assignment (typically Conceptualization, Writing — original draft, or Methodology). Where the contribution is editorial review, it is recorded as such. The convention follows the contributorship literature anchored by Allen et al. (2014) in Nature.
The twenty working groups
Each group corresponds to a dictionary domain. Tracks group related domains for editorial coordination.
Generative AI use and disclosure
Vocabulary for human–AI collaboration on research outputs and the disclosure required.
CRediT extensions and adjacent contribution vocabularies
Extending CRediT to acknowledged contributors, peer reviewers, technical staff.
Mentorship, training, and career stages
Career-stage terms underpinning narrative CVs and mentorship recognition.
Research outputs (expanded)
Modern outputs taxonomy beyond articles — preprints, datasets, models, protocols, more.
The persistent identifier ecosystem
ORCID, ROR, RAiD, IGSN, PIDINST, DOIs — the PID landscape.
Research-information systems and integration
CRIS, RIM, CERIF, OpenAIRE, JATS — vendor-neutral terms.
Research data infrastructure
Trusted repositories, EOSC, biobanks, data trusts, federated infrastructure.
Machine-actionable data management plans
RDA DMP Common Standard and the ecosystem of maDMP tools.
Reproducibility and computational research
Workflows, containers, FAIR4RS, Software Heritage, computational reproducibility.
AI and ML research outputs
Model cards, system cards, datasheets, benchmarks, evaluation suites.
Research integrity and misconduct
FFP, paper mills, retractions, COPE / ORI / UKRIO frameworks.
Compliance and regulatory
IRB/REC, IACUC, GDPR, MTAs, EAR/ITAR — the compliance lattice.
Research security
NSPM-33, foreign component, DURC, dual-use research.
Indigenous data governance — CARE principles
CARE alongside FAIR; TK labels, FPIC, GIDA.
Responsible research assessment
DORA, COARA, R4RI, narrative CVs.
Knowledge equity, diversity, global-south inclusion
Diamond OA, APC waivers, Plan S, bibliodiversity.
Engagement, impact, and SDG alignment
REF Impact, PPI, citizen science, SDGs.
Sustainable research and laboratory operations
LEAF, My Green Lab, carbon footprint of research.
Funding lifecycle and financial vocabulary
Calls, NCE, indirect costs, biosketch, current & pending.
Research lifecycle stages and project metadata
RAiD-anchored project lifecycle, phases, milestones.
How to express interest
- Identify the group you wish to join. The full roster — including chairs once confirmed — sits on the about/working-groups page.
- Write to [email protected] naming the group, a one-paragraph note on your standing in the domain, and a link to a public profile (ORCID, institutional page, or equivalent).
- The group chair confirms the fit and adds you to the next cycle's mailing list. There is no formal voting on individual members — the chair's discretion governs, with the editorial board as a second-line check.
Formal updates from each group are published quarterly at /news/working-group-updates. The dictionary itself is browsable at /dictionary/browse.
