Technical Guidelines - Archiving of working documents serving as background documentation for expert group reports and/or advice

The present guidelines were developed by the ICES Secretariat and approved by ACOM at their annual meeting in 2010. They were established to codify the use of documentation that, though it is not part of an expert group report serves as the basis for, or is cited in the advice. In the interest of transparency such documentation must be made publicly available.

There are two situations which may call for different approaches:

1. Work done in the context of the expert group (EG) but which is not integrated in the main report. Examples are presentations of analytical approaches that for various reasons are not integrated in the main report, or work done after the EG meeting, but which has been agreed to by the EG. There may be various reasons for an EG not to include a detailed analysis in their main report, e.g. that the EG has not accepted it as the basis for its work (but still referring to it), or that authors want to reserve authorship for later publication.

2. Work done entirely outside EGs to underpin answers to specific requests. Such documentation may occur when special requests arrive too late to be included in TORs for EGs and where the analytic background work may be outsourced (e.g. the response to the EU on the EC policy paper rules), or when ICES is asked to evaluate work from another source such as an independent evaluation of a management plan (e.g. the request from the Netherlands to review an evaluation of the EC flatfish management plan).

At its consultations in September 2016 ACOM discussed only the first category (basically relating to working documents submitted to EGs); the second category may not have been clear at the time. It was also decided to consult with EG chairs whether they would agree to the suggested approach – this could be an item for discussion at the WGCHAIRS meeting.