What is an Author of an IETF Stream Draft?
draft-carpenter-whats-an-author-01

Network Working Group                                       B. Carpenter
Internet-Draft                                         Univ. of Auckland
Intended status: Informational                              May 30, 2015
Expires: December 1, 2015

               What is an Author of an IETF Stream Draft?
                   draft-carpenter-whats-an-author-01

Abstract

   This draft suggests guidelines for assigning authorship in IETF
   stream Internet-Drafts.  It also discusses the related issues of
   acknowledgements, editors and contributors.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on December 1, 2015.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Carpenter               Expires December 1, 2015                [Page 1]
Internet-Draft              What's an Author?                   May 2015

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction and Scope  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   3.  Contributors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   5.  List of Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   6.  Exceptions and Discussions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   7.  Intellectual Property Rights  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   8.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   9.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   10. Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   11. Change log  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   12. Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6

1.  Introduction and Scope

   The question sometimes comes up of who should be listed as the
   author(s) of a draft, who should be listed as editors or
   contributors, and what acknowledgements are appropriate.  The
   guidelines below are aimed at Internet-Drafts in the IETF publication
   stream [RFC5741].  Any inconsistency with [RFC7221] is unintentional,
   and related issues are discussed in
   [I-D.crocker-rfc2418bis-wgguidelines].  The guidelines are intended
   to be compatible with the RFC Editor's style guide [RFC7322], with
   the RFC Editor's authorship policies <http://www.rfc-
   editor.org/pipermail/rfc-interest/2015-May/008869.html> and with the
   (draft) IESG statement on "surprised" authors
   <http://trac.tools.ietf.org/group/iesg/trac/wiki/SurprisedAuthors>.

   This draft has been written purely to aid discussion and is not
   expected to be published as an RFC.

2.  Authors

   Authors are people who have made a substantial creative contribution
   to the document.  Normally this means writing text or drawing
   diagrams.  Occasionally, with the consent of the other authors, it
   means making some other substantial creative contribution to the
   document, for example by writing a software implementation as part of
   the design process.  It's a matter of judgement whether a person who
   simply makes a key intellectual contribution should rank as an
   author.

   People who did not make any such substantial contribution should not
   be listed as authors.  Funding support, managerial or supervisory
   status, and CV embellishment don't count.

Carpenter               Expires December 1, 2015                [Page 2]
Internet-Draft              What's an Author?                   May 2015

   In normal circumstances, people should not be listed as authors
   without their explicit permission.

   The practical impact is that the authors will be listed as such on
   the front page if the document becomes an RFC, and in public
   bibliographies.

3.  Contributors

   Contributors are people who made smaller creative contributions to
   the document than the authors, for example providing initial ideas
   that others have transformed into publishable text, or drafting only
   a few paragraphs.

   People who did not make any such contribution should not be listed as
   contributors.  People should not normally be listed as contributors
   without their explicit permission.

   The dividing line between contributors and authors is a matter of
   judgement and cannot be rigidly defined.  However, the RFC Editor's
   policy is to query any document that has more than five listed
   authors.  Any list of more than five authors will need to be
   negotiated if the document is approved for publication as an RFC.

4.  Editors

   When a document has a large number of contributors and potential
   authors, it may be appropriate to designate one or two people as both
   "Authors" and "Editors" and list the others as contributors.  The
   editors will indeed do the actual work of editing the document on
   behalf of the community.  The practical impact of this is that the
   editors will be listed as such on the front page if the document
   becomes an RFC, and in public bibliographies.

   In some cases, it may be appropriate to retain a list of authors of
   which one or two are designated as editors.  What matters is "truth
   in advertising": the people involved should all feel happy that the
   designations of editors, authors and contributors are fair and
   accurate.

   It's worth noting that in some people's opinion, once a draft has
   been adopted by a WG, all future changes are performed as an editing
   action on behalf of the WG.  Traditionally, the IETF has chosen to
   retain the word "Author" in most cases, with the formal designation
   of editors being exceptional.

Carpenter               Expires December 1, 2015                [Page 3]
Internet-Draft              What's an Author?                   May 2015

5.  List of Acknowledgements

   Acknowledgements should be given to people who have made significant
   creative contributions smaller than those from the authors and
   contributors, or to people who have made useful comments, provided
   critical reviews, or otherwise contributed significantly to the
   development of the document.  If ideas have been adopted from other
   written sources, including IETF documents, clearly a reference is an
   ethical requirement, but an acknowledgement might also be
   appropriate.

   Acknowledgements may also be given to people or organizations that
   have given material support and assistance, but this should not
   include the authors' regular employers.

   An acknowledgement does not signify that the person acknowledged
   agrees with the document.  In general, people who do not wish to be
   listed as an author or a contributor, but have in fact made a
   significant contribution, should be given an acknowledgement.

6.  Exceptions and Discussions

   It goes without saying that normally nobody should be listed as an
   author, contributor or editor against their will.  Ideally, the
   parties involved will agree among themselves, or defer to the
   judgement of the WG Chairs or Area Directors.  Practice may vary
   between WGs.  However, we need flexibility to deal with unusual
   cases, such as these:

   o  An acknowledgement is a statement of fact (the person contributed
      to the discussion), and in some cases may be included even if the
      person acknowledged objects, for example if they made a suggestion
      that might later be viewed as prior art.

   o  An author or contributor may deserve to be listed, even if they
      cannot be contacted when a document is updated after a long
      interval.  It is quite common to list the original authors of an
      RFC in a "bis" draft, even if they are long gone from IETF
      participation.

   o  In particular, an author or contributor might be deceased.

7.  Intellectual Property Rights

   None of the above directly affects intellectual property rights.
   However, it's worth noting that if a draft includes complete
   acknowledgements and references, it will be much simpler to identify
   its status as possible prior art.

Carpenter               Expires December 1, 2015                [Page 4]
Internet-Draft              What's an Author?                   May 2015

   Copyright in IETF documents is governed by BCP 78 [RFC5378] and its
   predecessors, the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions, and applicable
   national and international law.

   The word "contributor" used in this draft might not mean the same
   thing as the word "Contributor" used in BCP 79 [RFC3979].  That BCP
   should be consulted by anyone concerned about the IETF requirement
   for disclosure of intellectual property rights.

8.  Security Considerations

   None, really.

9.  IANA Considerations

   This memo includes no request to IANA.

10.  Acknowledgements

   Valuable comments were received from Loa Andersson, Andy Bierman,
   Carsten Bormann, Dave Crocker, Tom Petch, Yaron Sheffer, and Joe
   Touch.

11.  Change log

   draft-carpenter-whats-an-author-01, 2015-05-30: incorporating
   community comments, citing RFC Editor and IESG statements.

   draft-carpenter-whats-an-author-00, 2015-04-24: original version.

12.  Informative References

   [I-D.crocker-rfc2418bis-wgguidelines]
              dcrocker, d. and R. Droms, "IETF Working Group Guidelines
              and Procedures", draft-crocker-rfc2418bis-wgguidelines-00
              (work in progress), March 2015.

   [RFC3979]  Bradner, S., "Intellectual Property Rights in IETF
              Technology", BCP 79, RFC 3979, March 2005.

   [RFC5378]  Bradner, S. and J. Contreras, "Rights Contributors Provide
              to the IETF Trust", BCP 78, RFC 5378, November 2008.

   [RFC5741]  Daigle, L., Kolkman, O., and IAB, "RFC Streams, Headers,
              and Boilerplates", RFC 5741, December 2009.

   [RFC7221]  Farrel, A. and D. Crocker, "Handling of Internet-Drafts by
              IETF Working Groups", RFC 7221, April 2014.

Carpenter               Expires December 1, 2015                [Page 5]
Internet-Draft              What's an Author?                   May 2015

   [RFC7322]  Flanagan, H. and S. Ginoza, "RFC Style Guide", RFC 7322,
              September 2014.

Author's Address

   Brian Carpenter
   Department of Computer Science
   University of Auckland
   PB 92019
   Auckland  1142
   New Zealand

   Email: brian.e.carpenter@gmail.com

Carpenter               Expires December 1, 2015                [Page 6]