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37-746: During this conference, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) (Rome, Italy) presented guidelines for the production of scientific and technical reports documents included in the wider category of grey literature (GL) defined at the International Conferences on Grey Literature held in Luxembourg (1997) and in New York (2004) – as "information produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in electronic and print formats not controlled by commercial publishing i.e. where publishing

74-416: A table of contents , appendices , footnotes , and references . A bibliography or list of references will appear at the end of any credible report and citations are often included within the text itself. Complex terms are explained within the body of the report or listed as footnotes in order to make the report easier to follow. A short summary of the report's contents, called an abstract , may appear in

111-456: A distinction between rules applicable to all reports regardless of mode of publication (paper or digital) and rules applicable to reports published in paper form only. Specific information is provided on fonts, line length, margins, page numbering, style, units and numbers, formulas and equations, paper (format and type), printing equipment, ink. The ANSI/NISO Z39.18 also includes specifications on index entries and errata, which are not present in

148-632: A list of institutions adopting the guidelines. Update: The first version 1.0 from March 2006 was updated in July 2007 (version 1.1). Translation: Version 1.1 was translated in French, German and Italian and Spanish. Availability: Version 1.1 and translations are available on the GLISC website. The total content of the Guidelines may be reproduced for educational, not-for-profit purposes without regard for copyright;

185-402: A major role in the progress of business. Reports are the backbone to the thinking process of the establishment and they are responsible, to a great extent, in evolving an efficient or inefficient work environment. The significance of the reports includes: One of the most common formats for presenting reports is IMRAD —introduction, methods, results, and discussion. This structure, standard for

222-602: A metadata schema, which is absent in the Guidelines. *Annexes All material included in the "Nancy style" is approved by the GLISC, while the ANSI/NISO Z39.18 provides a large amount of additional information (almost half of the pages) that is not part of the Standard (Appendices including selected annotated bibliography, glossary, Dublin Core data elements, etc.). *Content In general,

259-551: A regular revision is required to keep pace with the changing ITC scenarios and information policies (see De Castro et al. 2006). *Electronic grey literature The "Nancy style" is mostly paper oriented, because editorial consistency and ethical considerations recommended for traditional documents do apply also to digital publications. Yet, progressively more and more GL is being produced, stored, published and made available electronically and in order to manage relevant GL publications, metadata are required. The importance of metadata, as

296-582: A specific audience and purpose. Although summaries of reports may be delivered orally, complete reports are usually given in the form of written documents. Typically reports relay information that was found or observed. The credible report enhances the previous beliefs while dishonest information can question the agency preparing the report. Reports from IPCC as IPCC reports, World Health Report and Global Gender Gap Report from World Economic Forums are few examples of reports highlighting important worldly affairs. In modern business scenario, reports play

333-481: A valuable source for comparison. The major differences concerning the two documents as a whole regard: *Document type They are different in that the "Nancy style" represents guidelines – that is general principles agreed upon by a small group of experts, to be followed as an indication or outline of policy or conduct –, while the ANSI/NISO Z39.18 is a proper standard, developed by the Standards Committees of

370-413: A voluntary system backed up by an official recognition of compliance to facilitate the adoption of the Guidelines. This would encourage like-minded supporters within an organisation to informally use the Guidelines and then gain the official "stamp of approval" to show that they are really following them. Actually, other organizations policies take a voluntary approach in the documents they recommend, such as

407-646: Is also important. Faulty numbers in a financial report could lead to disastrous consequences. Reports use features such as tables, graphics , pictures, voice, or specialized vocabulary in order to persuade a specific audience to undertake an action or inform the reader of the subject at hand. Some common elements of written reports include headings to indicate topics and help the reader locate relevant information quickly, and visual elements such as charts , tables and figures, which are useful for breaking up large sections of text and making complex issues more accessible. Lengthy written reports will almost always contain

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444-549: Is mostly paper oriented giving recommendations on report preparation mainly reflecting a traditional paper structure, while the organization pattern of the ANSI/NISO Z39.18 is user-based more than content-based. The key concepts incorporated in the American standard mainly refer to metadata, persistence of links, interoperability, creation, discovery/retrieval, presentation in digital format (DTD, XML, XSL), maintenance and preservation (original content, software and media); it also contains

481-417: Is not the primary activity of the producing body". The Italian initiative for the adoption of uniform requirements for the production of reports was discussed during a Round Table on Quality Assessment by a small group of GL producers, librarians and information professionals who agreed to collaborate in the revision of the guidelines proposed by ISS. The group approving these guidelines – informally known as

518-849: The European Association of Science Editors which included a chapter on grey literature in their Science Editor's Handbook. The use of GLISC guidelines is also supported by the European NECOBELAC Project Necobelac financed by the European Commission within the [7 Framework program], by the US National Library of Medicine Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives: By Organization , by the German National Library of Science and Technology TIB - Technische Informationsbibliothek: Reports / Germany and by

555-818: The Istituto Superiore di Sanità , Rome (Italy). They were critically revised by Joachim Schöpfel and Christiane Stock (INIST-CNRS, Nancy, France), Dominic Farace (GreyNet, Amsterdam, the Netherlands), Catherine Candea and Toby Green ( OECD , Paris, France) and Keith G. Jeffery (CCLRC, Chilton Didcot, UK). The work was accompanied by Marcus A. Banks (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA), Stefania Biagioni (ISTI-CNR, Pisa, Italy), June Crowe (Information International Associates Inc., IIA, Oak Ridge, USA) and Markus Weber (Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, Berne, Switzerland). Structure: The guidelines are divided in five sections: The annex contains references and

592-713: The "Nancy Group" – has been formally defined as the Grey Literature International Steering Committee (GLISC). The recommendations are adapted from the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals , produced by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) - better known as "Vancouver Style" (updated February 2006, available from ICMJE | Home and now adopted by more than 500 biomedical journals). These requirements also took into consideration

629-448: The "Nancy style" contains technical requirements for a report, but does not include full details (i.e. format, style, etc.); yet, it provides important elements, which are not present or not fully described in the ANSI/NISO Z39.18. An initial section is explicitly devoted to authorship, editorship, peer review, conflicts of interest, privacy and confidentiality. Producers are strongly recommended to issue instructions to guide authors in

666-531: The "Nancy style" represents international guidelines developed by a corporate author (GLISC), which worked on the draft proposed by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, and signed approval of this best practice on behalf of their respective organizations, while the ANSI/NISO Z39.18 is a national standard approved by the American National Standards Institute through a number of Voting Members. *Paper vs digital document medium The "Nancy style"

703-480: The "Nancy style". Many institutions considered the relevance of the GLISC Guidelines for the production and distribution of technical reports and for educational purposed, therefore, accepted to carry out the translation of the original English version into different languages. Translations are available in: The GLISC guidelines and the impact of grey literature on science communication were also appreciated by

740-497: The "Vancouver style" is recommended and examples and rules are given as a fundamental step for information retrieval. As regards document structure, it is basically the same in "Nancy style" and ANSI/NISO Z39.18, with minor terminological variations. Yet, the American standard explicitly gives indication on: – Report Documentation Page (since it is used by some agencies within the federal government, and also some sample pages are given). – Distribution list. – Glossary (although not part of

777-506: The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers ( ALPSP ) with more than 230 not-for-profit publishers. As suggested by the OECD, voluntary sign-up is a less demanding step for organisations to take, but the effect is the same – more and more publishers will opt to use them. Reports A report is a document or a statement that presents information in an organized format for

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814-594: The Committee encourages distribution of the material. The GLISC policy is for interested organizations to link to the official English language document at www.glisc.info. The GLISC does not endorse posting of the document on websites other than GLISC . The GLISC welcomes organizations to reprint or translate this document into languages other than English for no-profit purposes. The ANSI/NISO Standard Z39.18-2005 Scientific and Technical Reports – Preparation, Presentation, and Preservation (released in 2005) has been considered

851-466: The French Academic Agency of Francophony [1] . Next steps for updating the GLISC Guidelines could be: The Guidelines should be considered as a suggested model rather than a model in itself; they represent a basic step to improve quality in the different stages of GL production in view of its wider electronic circulation. The proposals for their updating will make them more effective, although

888-432: The Guidelines is, in fact, to permit an independent and correct production of institutional reports in accordance with basic editorial principles. The Guidelines include ethical principles related to the process of evaluating, improving, and making reports available and the relationships between GL producers and authors. The latter sections address the more technical aspects of preparing and submitting reports. GLISC believes

925-513: The Standard). – Executive abstract. *Technical recommendations Since the "Nancy style" represents guidelines and not a standard, all technical considerations are limited to the essential, while the ANSI/NISO Z39.18 gives indications (all absent in the "Nancy style") on: The Section 6 "Presentation and display" describes standard methods for ensuring consistency in presentation including designing visual and tabular matter, formatting, etc. and makes

962-646: The UK Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils ( CCLRC ) pointed out working on the "Nancy style" draft – this standard has several problems: a) it is machine-readable but not machine-understandable; b) it does not have a formalised syntax or semantics and therefore is open to ambiguous interpretations. Therefore, he proposed a formalised metadata standard (an umbrella standard, mainly generated from Dublin Core metadata: "Formalised DC" based on

999-582: The US National Information Standards Organization (NISO), subject to rigorous control and approval process including peer review. This is why also the structure of the two documents is different since the standard may repeat concepts in different sections which may be used separately, while the Guidelines are intended as an easy to read document giving the general idea for recommended items. The Guidelines, different from standards, do not give full details on format and style. Moreover,

1036-506: The basic principles of ISO Standard Documentation entitled "Presentation of scientific and technical reports" (ISO 5966/1982) withdrawn in 2000. The ISO 5966 no longer met the requirements of ITC (Information Technology Communication), however, it still provides useful tips in the preparation of reports. The Guidelines are created primarily to help authors and GL producers in their mutual task of creating and distributing accurate, clear, easily accessible reports in different fields. The goal of

1073-421: The beginning so that the audience knows what the report will cover. Online reports often contain hyperlinks to internal or external sources as well. Verbal reports differ from written reports in the minutiae of their format, but they still educate or advocate for a course of action. Quality reports will be well researched and the speaker will list their sources if at all possible. A typical report would include

1110-586: The concepts of the CERIF Model ( Error message (euroCRIS) ). Yet, as the traditional cataloguing practice has different rules, similarly different communities may adopt different metadata schema. Nowadays the World Wide Web provides the possibility to search for information across heterogeneous archives/databases/catalogues, but the systems managing different information resources must be "interoperable" (capable to work together), and interoperability requires that

1147-513: The entire document is relevant to the concerns of both authors and GL producers. The Guidelines are informally known as "Nancy style". These are the institutions which officially adopted the "Nancy Style" in the production and distribution of grey literature. Many other institutions all over the world do support and use the GLISC guidelines without a formal agreement which would require longer procedures. Authorship: The GLISC guidelines were prepared by Paola De Castro and Sandra Salinetti from

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1184-419: The genre, mirrors traditional publication of scientific research and summons the ethos and credibility of that discipline. Reports are not required to follow this pattern and may use alternative methods such as the problem-solution format, wherein the author first lists an issue and then details what must be done to fix the problem. Transparency and a focus on quality are keys to writing a useful report. Accuracy

1221-543: The natural evolution of library catalogue records, had been already stressed in the first version of the "Nancy style" (when dealing with report structure: Section 4.2 of the Guidelines), but no metadata schema was then provided since it was difficult to find a formula that would satisfy all requirements. At present, much GL is catalogued using the Dublin Core Metadata Standard (DC). However – as Keith Jeffery of

1258-416: The production of a formally correct document containing ethical and editorial issues as well as indications for formats, styles, illustrations, etc. Special attention is given to revision editing as GL is not generally peer reviewed, or produced with editorial support; therefore, it is fundamental that authors be aware of the importance of a careful revision of their texts before diffusion. The adoption of

1295-550: The same metadata schema be used. As Stefania Biagioni (of the Italian Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell'Informazione - ISTI , Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche ) clearly commented, there is much work towards standardization and the Dublin Core Initiative ( DCMI: Home ) is receiving worldwide consensus as it suggests adding a very simple metadata record to any specialized one. *Adoption strategy When consensus

1332-435: Was soon granted by all institutions involved in their creation. For example, a large international organization (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development - OECD ), which took part in the development of the Guidelines, expressed concern to officially endorse them (and in fact, it did not), because that would require a great deal of internal debate and discussion with their own members. Suggestions were made to follow

1369-411: Was to be reached to release the first version of the Guidelines, a formal approval was asked to all organizations wishing to officially adopt them. Contrary to expectations, consensus was given only by a small number of institutions as the official adoption was sometimes a difficult step. Yet, support and encouragement did not lack: a less formal approach in launching the Guidelines and getting them adopted

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