CLAS Charter

As amended through FEB '04

CLAS COLLABORATION CHARTER

(Originally Ratified by the CLAS Collaboration -- January 10, 1992) Membership ... Working Groups ... Officers ... Elections ... Proposals ... Publications ... Talks
GENERAL INDEX

I. GOAL

The goal of the CLAS Collaboration is the maintenance and operation of the hardware and software instrumentation for CEBAF Hall B -- in particular the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer, CLAS -- and the conduct of a program of experiments using that instrumentation.

II. MEMBERSHIP

A. FULL MEMBERSHIP

    1. Initial complement of full members of the Collaboration as of Jan.10, 1992 was defined by an appendix to the original charter.
    2. CEBAF staff physicists whose main responsibility is Hall B instrumentation are automatically full members of the Collaboration.
    3. An individual can become a full member of the CLAS Collaboration based on his/her commitment and contributions to the Hall B instrumentation, as normally described in a Memorandum of Understanding and/or Statement of Service.
    4. Such an individual becomes a full member by a two-thirds vote of those< full members who actually vote in the election (See Article II.E).
    5. There shall be no limit placed upon the number of times an individual may be considered for full membership.

B. TERM MEMBERSHIP

A postdoctoral researcher or a graduate student is eligible for term membership while he/she is working on Hall B instrumentation and/or experiments.

    1. A full collaboration member who supervises a postdoctoral researcher assigned to work on Hall B instrumentation and/or experiments may designate him/her as a term member of the CLAS Collaboration. A full collaboration member who supervises a graduate student who is assigned a thesis project based on Hall B instrumentation and/or experiments may designate him/her as a term member of the CLAS Collaboration.
    2. Designation as a term member must be submitted to the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee in writing and must be renewed annually.
    3. Any individual recommended for term membership must be approved by a four-fifths vote of the Coordinating Committee.
    4. Term members may be authors on those CLAS publications to which they make significant contributions.
    5. Term members may be considered for full membership.

C. LIMITED MEMBERSHIP

Physicists who have an interest in and plan to work on a small fraction of the Hall B proposals may be recommended for limited membership by a spokesperson(s) for those particular proposals for which his/her contribution appears to be crucial.

    1. Recommendation for limited membership must be in writing and submitted to the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee by a spokesperson for a proposal.
    2. Any individual recommended for limited membership must be approved by a four-fifths vote of the Coordinating Committee.
    3. A limited member will have no voting rights and will be included as an author only on the papers which result from those proposals for which he/she has been approved for limited membership

D. DELETION OF MEMBERS

    1. A member shall be dropped from the Collaboration if that member notifies the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee in writing that he/she wishes to be removed from the Collaboration.
    2. The Membership Committee (see Article V.G) is responsible for reviewing the membership status of members and determining which members should be considered for deletion (by ballot) from the Collaboration.
    3. A member considered for deletion (by ballot) shall be notified in writing by the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee at least 60 days prior to the ballot.
    4. A member (full, term, or limited) will be dropped from the Collaboration if a two-thirds majority of those members who actually cast a ballot on this individual approves the removal.
    5. Non-participation for a period of two years in the Collaboration activities will normally be grounds for deletion.

E. ELECTION OF MEMBERS

An election of members may include any addition or deletion of members and any changes between limited, term and full membership.

    1. Every full member of the Collaboration will have the right to vote in the election of members.
    2. Elections for membership will take place at collaboration meetings.
    3. Membership elections will be by secret ballot. A member may submit a ballot prior to the collaboration meeting by mail or by electronic mail.
    4. It is the responsibility of the Membership Committee to oversee membership elections.
    5. The names of the individuals being considered in membership elections must be made known to the Collaboration at least 30 days prior to the election. The announcement must include whether the individuals are being considered for addition or deletion and whether they are being considered for full or limited membership. Notification by mail or electronic mail is considered sufficient.

III. GOVERNANCE

A. The Collaboration has the ultimate authority on all issues involving the Collaboration on a one-member, one-vote basis.

B. Changes in the Collaboration Charter shall require a two-thirds majority of those full members who actually cast a yes or no vote on the specific issue.

C. Changes in the Collaboration Charter may not be voted on at the same collaboration meeting at which they are proposed.

D. The Coordinating Committee will be responsible for overseeing ballots to modify the Collaboration Charter.

E. All other matters brought to a vote at a regular meeting will be decided by a majority of those present unless specified otherwise in this Charter.

IV. WORKING GROUPS

A. Physics issues and their consequences for Hall B instrumentation will be discussed in the following Physics Working Groups (as restructured Spring'04):

             Hadron Spectroscopy
             Deep Processes
             Nuclear Physics

B. Subsystems of Hall B instrumentation will be designed and their construction, commissioning, and maintenance will be coordinated by such Technical Working Groups as may be established by the Coordinating Committee or the Collaboration at large.

V. MANAGEMENT

A. The Collaboration shall be managed by a Coordinating Committee consisting of the Chairperson, the Hall B Program Manager, and one representative of each of the Physics Working Groups. The coordinating committee shall make decisions regarding major collaboration issues, in particular: allocation of resources within the Collaboration, resolution of conflicts in construction and operation caused by different physics requirements, and scheduling.

    1. Any matter on which there is more than one dissenting vote shall be brought to the Collaboration for a vote.
    2. The Coordinating committee shall also monitor the progress in design and construction of Hall B instrumentation.
    3. The Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee shall promptly inform the members of the Collaboration in writing of all actions taken by the Coordinating Committee.

B. The Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee shall be the collaboration spokesperson and the principal contact to the CEBAF directorate for the CLAS Collaboration. He/she will have overall responsibility for assuring smooth operation of the Collaboration. The Chairperson shall be elected to a term of TWO years. In the absence of extenuating circumstances, it is expected but not required that the incumbent not be renominated. Apart from this strong preference against contiguous terms, there is no lifetime limit on service in this office.

C. The Hall B Program Manager is appointed by the CEBAF management. He/she will have responsibility for the overall organization and management of the construction and operation of the Hall B instrumentation.

D. (Technical Committee removed July '03. Lettering retained to preserve later cross reference links in .html version)

E. The remaining members of the Coordinating Committee (excluding the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee and the Hall B Program Manager) shall be elected for terms of one year, with no limitation on succession.

F. The members of the Coordinating Committee must be full members of the Collaboration.

G. The Membership Committee will consist of one full collaboration member from each institution involved in the Collaboration. An institution is intended to mean CEBAF, another national laboratory, or a university, and not individual groups, centers or institutes within these entities. The Membership Committee is responsible for managing the collaboration membership, supervising the nomination and election of the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee, and determining the authorship of publications.

    1. The representative from a given institution is determined at the discretion of the full collaboration members at that institution. The representative for each institution will notify the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee of his/her selection. If an institution fails to appoint a representative, the Coordinating Committee will appoint a representative for that institution.
    2. The Membership Committee will be headed by a chairperson who is selected annually by the Membership Committee.
    3. The Membership Committee must meet at least once a year.
    4. The Membership Committee will review the status of members and make recommendations to the Collaboration concerning the addition and deletion of members.
    5. The Membership Committee will determine the limited and term members who are eligible for authorship on each publication.
    6. The Membership Committee will nominate suitable candidates for the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee and notify the members of the Collaboration of the list of nominees at least 30 days prior to the election of the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee.
    7. The Membership Committee will supervise the election of the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee.
    8. The responsibilities of the Membership Committee do not affect the rights granted to full members of the Collaboration. Specifically, any full member of the Collaboration may nominate candidates for Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee at any time prior to the election, and may recommend individuals for addition to or deletion from Collaboration membership.

VI. ELECTIONS OF COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVES

A. Every full and term member of the Collaboration will have the right to vote in the election of the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee.

B. Every full and term member of the Collaboration will have the right to vote in one and only one Physics Working Group.

C. Physics Working Groups will be responsible for organizing the election of their representatives.

D. Election of new committee members, including the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee, will take place at the last scheduled collaboration meeting during the Spring so that new members may take their positions starting September 1 of each year.

E. Election of the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee will be by secret ballot. A member may submit his/her ballot prior to the collaboration meeting by mail or by electronic mail.

F. Election of the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee requires a plurality of the votes cast.

G. A special election may be called by the Coordinating Committee to replace the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee as needed.

    1. Members must be notified of a special election at least 30 days prior to the special election.
    2. Notification of the special election may be by mail or electronic mail.
    3. A special election may take place at any time.

VII. MEETINGS

A. The Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee shall convene regular meetings of the full Collaboration, not less frequently than two times a year.

B. The Coordinating Committee shall meet as required.

VIII. PROPOSALS FOR RUN TIME

A. Proposals, including jeopardy proposals, for using the Hall B instrumentation can be submitted by members of the Collaboration to the CEBAF Program Advisory Committee only with the approval of a Physics Working Group or the full CLAS Collaboration.

B. The spokespersons for these proposals must be members of the Collaboration.

C. The Coordinating Committee is responsible for communicating recommendations for the scheduling of Hall B experiments to the CEBAF management. These recommendations shall be based primarily on readiness to run the experiment, the natural progression of the technical equipment, the contributions of the experimenters to the Collaboration, and any priorities attached to the experiments by the PAC.

IX. DATA

All full members of the Collaboration shall have free and equal access to any data taken by the Collaboration. Members shall inform the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee of their plans to analyze data.

X. THESES

When a part of the Hall B activity is to become the thesis work of a student, the student's thesis advisor will so inform the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee in writing. The Chairperson will maintain a list of active thesis projects.

XI. PUBLICATIONS

A. Any paper reporting the result of an experiment using Hall B CLAS data requires the approval of the Collaboration before publication.

    1. The lead author of a paper reporting the result of a Hall B experiment will submit a pre-publication draft to the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee.
    2. The Chair of the Coordinating Committee, or a member of the Coordinating Committee designated by the Chair, will immediately appoint an ad hoc committee of two or three individuals to review the paper and assist the lead author in getting it accepted by the Collaboration.
    3. If the ad hoc committee recommends publication, the document will be made available to each Collaboration Member for comments. All responses concerning the document shall be addressed to both the author and the ad hoc committee. The Chair of the Coordinating Committee will specify a deadline for responses.
    4. After the lead author and the ad hoc committee have addressed the comments from collaboration members -- if, in the judgment of the members of the Ad Hoc Committee, major rewriting of the paper or sections of the paper have taken place as a result of member's comments, the revised paper will again be made available, in the manner specified in XI.A.3, for final approval by the Collaboration.
    5. Any disapproval on the part of the whole Collaboration or members of the Collaboration should be communicated to both the ad hoc committee and the authors. The ad hoc committee may withdraw its recommendation for publication at any time before final approval. Approval for publication is automatically granted following the specified deadline unless the ad hoc committee withdraws its approval, or the author changes the content of the paper. Changes to correct grammatical errors or to incorporate minor modifications suggested by referees are not considered changes in the content of the paper.
    6. If a paper is rejected by the Ad hoc committee, the authors may rewrite and resubmit the paper. The review process outlined in Articles XI.A.2 through XI.A.5 will be repeated. In case of conflict the Coordinating Committee as a whole will review the draft and recommend for or against publication. If the paper is rejected by the Coordinating Committee, the author may submit the paper to the full Collaboration for majority approval at a collaboration meeting.

B. All full and term collaboration members (who were members at the time the data were taken) will be included in the author list (unless they decline). The membership committee will maintain a database that shall be used to decide which names (full & term) should appear on the publication. It is the responsibility of the lead authors to initially determine which limited members (if any) shall be included on the author list (consistent with the provisions of II.C.3 of this Charter). In case of disputes, the CLAS coordinating committee (in consultation with members of the membership committee) will make the final decisions on authorship.

XII. TALKS

A. The CLAS Coordinating Committee is responsible for the accurate and broad dissemination of results arising from CLAS activities to the scientific community. To accomplish these goals, the CLAS Coordinating Committee will establish a CLAS Speakers Committee, and authorize that committee to select speakers, solicit invitations to speak, review content of talks, and coordinate the release of results through talks and proceedings.

B. All invitations for talks based on CLAS results fall under the purview of the CLAS Speakers Committee. Members who receive invitations for such talks will forward those invitations to the CLAS Coordinating Committee and the CLAS Speakers' Committee.

C. The CLAS Speakers Committee shall act in accordance with bylaws approved by the Collaboration for that committee.

D. The CLAS Coordinating Committee will act as a final arbiter of disagreements with decisions made by the CLAS Speakers' Committee.

(removed Article XII re: completion of first round of experiments)

Legacy link for old language regarding composition of technical groups, removed in Summer '03 revisions