LOFAR Publication Policy For Commissioning Papers

Since the building and development of LOFAR involves a large number of people from diverse backgrounds and different traditions of authorship, it has been deemed useful to write down a set of rules on how the project handles publication of science and method papers during the various phases of development and commissioning.

Spirit and objectives

The rules intend to ensure that all contributions to the building and development of LOFAR are appropriately acknowledged. Following the tradition of many astronomical facilities and projects, commissioning data are owned and published by the entire collaboration; a collaboration membership list is kept for this purpose.
After commissioning, papers are signed only by those who worked on that specific paper, just as is the case with other observatories; this paper will duly cite the method papers on which it is based as normal. Large collaborations working with LOFAR, such as Key Projects, may have their own publication rules; these may not, however, exclude authors who on the basis of the general rules are entitled to sign a paper. While the rules establish who may sign a paper, the rules on who actually should sign are set by the journals in which we publish and the rules of conduct of our scientific societies. Quite universally, this implies that each author of a paper should have contributed significantly to the work described, and is fully responsible for the entire content of the paper.

Rules

1. The LOFAR Observatory director, advised by the International LOFAR Telescope (ILT)  Board, determines when commissioning of LOFAR, or a part or mode of LOFAR, ends.

2. The ILT Board has formed a three person publication committee which rules on all matters related to publication policy and rights.

3. These rules apply only to commissioning and related data, not to data obtained under proposals for LOFAR open time.

4. Commissioning data are all data taken before the mode with which they were taken ended commissioning. These data are owned and published by the entire collaboration. The Publication Committee ensures that a list is maintained of all people who are entitled to sign these papers at any time (the Authors List).

5. Papers intended to appear in refereed journals and edited books should be submitted to the committee for internal refereeing and for those entitled to sign to make known their intention to be co-authors.

6. Conference papers must also be internally refereed, but may be signed by the presenter and those who helped write it only, however must then be labelled ‘on behalf of the LOFAR collaboration’. The same holds for popular and outreach papers.

7. To protect junior members of the collaboration, a project they will undertake may be announced to the collaboration and protected for a specific period as being led and performed primarily by this junior member. The announcement is made to the collaboration via the publication committee and contains an adequate description by which its scope can be judged, a term by which a draft paper will be ready, and a list of names of who will work on it. The proposal is accepted or rejected by the publication committee based on response from the collaboration and evaluation of whether the stated work can be done in the stated period. The publication committee rules on cases where multiple groups claim the same project.

7. None of the above rules, nor any other restrictions, apply to the publication of data of which the  proprietary period has expired (to ensure that collaboration members can never face more restrictions than outside users).

Details

The Publication Committee, currently B. Stappers, J. Hessels, M. Hoeft (up to Dec 2012 consisting of R. Vermeulen, J. Hoerandel, B. Stappers),  will oversee the application of these rules and arbitrate in conflicts arising from them.

The  Authors List (sometimes called, informally, the "Builders List") is maintained including all those who are entitled to sign papers.

LOFAR acknowledgement

Depending on the kind of data being published (for a description see the LOFAR data policy), the authors are requested to add the following standard acknowledgement phrases in their papers:

Paper resulting from ILT data

This paper is based (in part) on data obtained with the International LOFAR Telescope (ILT) under project code <...>. LOFAR (van Haarlem et al. 2013) is the Low Frequency Array designed and constructed by ASTRON. It has observing, data processing, and data storage facilities in several countries, that are owned by various parties (each with their own funding sources), and that are collectively operated by the ILT foundation under a joint scientific policy. The ILT resources have benefitted from the following recent major funding sources: CNRS-INSU, Observatoire de Paris and Université d'Orléans, France; BMBF, MIWF-NRW, MPG, Germany; Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI), Ireland; NWO, The Netherlands; The Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK [7].

Paper resulting from "private" co-use of ILT data

This paper is based (in part) on data obtained from facilities of the International LOFAR Telescope (ILT) under project code <...>. LOFAR (van Haarlem et al. 2013) is the Low Frequency Array designed and constructed by ASTRON. It has observing, data processing, and data storage facilities in several countries, that are owned by various parties (each with their own funding sources), and that are collectively operated by the ILT foundation under a joint scientific policy. The ILT resources have benefitted from the following recent major funding sources: CNRS-INSU, Observatoire de Paris and Université d'Orléans, France; BMBF, MIWF-NRW, MPG, Germany; Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI), Ireland; NWO, The Netherlands; The Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK [7].

Paper resulting from stand-alone use of LOFAR equipment

This paper is based (in part) on results obtained with LOFAR equipment. LOFAR (van Haarlem et al. 2013) is the Low Frequency Array designed and constructed by ASTRON.

Paper resulting from stand-alone use of ILT equipment

This paper is based (in part) on results obtained with International LOFAR Telescope (ILT) equipment under project code <...>. LOFAR (van Haarlem et al. 2013) is the Low Frequency Array designed and constructed by ASTRON. It has observing, data processing, and data storage facilities in several countries, that are owned by various parties (each with their own funding sources), and that are collectively operated by the ILT foundation under a joint scientific policy. The ILT resources have benefitted from the following recent major funding sources: CNRS-INSU, Observatoire de Paris and Université d'Orléans, France; BMBF, MIWF-NRW, MPG, Germany; Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI), Ireland; NWO, The Netherlands; The Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK [7].

Submitting a paper for internal refereeing

A paper is submitted by the original authors to the email address: lofar-papers@astron.nl . The author who has done the actual submission step is the Contact Author.

The Publication Committee will coordinate the refereeing. In most cases it will appoint 2 referees from within the "Authors List". The referees within 2 weeks will come back with comments and will discuss them with the Contact Author, who can then make changes to the paper.

The paper will then be announced to everyone in the Authors List who will have 2 weeks to indicate themselves whether they wish their name to appear on the paper (opt-in system). Communication with the people in the Authors List will be done through the lofar-papers email account.

[7] To be named here, the single funding source must have contributed or committed to contribute at least 500k€ as a lump sump or in installments during a period of 5 years including the year of submission of the publication.

Authors List for LOFAR commissioning papers

This is the Authors List which has been compiled by the Board of the International LOFAR Telescope. It contains people that have either done work essential to LOFAR for the equivalent of one full-time year or if they played a key role in organising the funding or participation of their country to LOFAR.

Additions may always be made later and the Publication Committee aleady maintains a list of candidates who with further contributions are likely to become eligible soon.

The list below is current as of December 2016 and is in aphabetical order, irrespective of affiliation.