Mandate of the Scientific Information Committee

1. The Scientific Information Committee (SInC), formerly SIPB, is an inter-departmental body reporting to the Director for Research and Computing.

2. It addresses matters related to all aspects of scientific information for the high-energy physics community, inter alia, library and documentation services, repositories and related technologies, scientific editing and publishing, and report production services.

3. The Committee meetings should serve as a forum for reviews, analyses and assessments of the services given, of the user needs and of preferences for the short and long-term developments of the services, with regard to technical and economic feasibility, the international developments in the field and the general trends in the information services market. This includes specifically an obligation to be informed of and follow development plans, projects and feasibility studies where CERN units are involved, and to express opinions and advice concerning such activities as appropriate under its general mandate.

4. The Chair of the Committee is appointed by the Director for Research and Computing, and may also serve ex officio as the CERN representative in other related bodies, such as the INSPIRE Advisory Board and the SCOAP3 Governing Council.

5. The group leader of the CERN Scientific Information Service is ex officio Secretary to the Committee with a managerial role in soliciting and compiling proposals, views and other inputs to the work of the Committee, setting up the agenda for meetings in conjunction with the Chair, calling meetings and distributing documentation.

6. The composition of the Committee should provide a balanced representation of the user community and the CERN departments. The composition is proposed by the Chair in consultation with the Secretary, and may evolve to reflect the evolution of the matters addressed by the Committee. The individual Committee members will then be appointed by the department heads, ACCU and, when relevant, by the management of experiments.

7. The Committee shall meet at least two times per year, normally to be scheduled well in advance. Extra meetings can be called if needed, on the initiative of the Chair or at the suggestion of Committee members. The agenda and documents for the meetings should be sent out to the members at least 7 days before scheduled meetings.

8. The Chair of the Committee has the right to set up ad hoc committees and working groups to deal with problems that warrant a deeper or more recurrent revision than can be done in the regular meetings. Members can be drawn from amongst experts or users of services, whether or not they are members of the Committee, the main criterion being effective performance of the task defined. Such groups can steer projects with inputs from several departments or groups, or help the dedicated teams in developing strategies for the resolution of sensitive policy issues.

Approved 13 July 2026

Gautier Hamel de Monchenault
Director for Research and Computing