Community White Paper Author Guide

Expanding your community of contributing authors

The organizers of the conference ask that lead authors think expansively to bring communities from across the globe into the writing of their Community White Paper. Please try to ensure young scientists and operators are involved, and make an effort to include representatives from developing countries where appropriate. The community contributing to your paper should represent those that will carry things forward in the coming decade.

Review process and the conference

The timeline for submissions and review are found below. First drafts of the Community White Papers will be posted to the oceanobs09.net web site for open review by the (named) public in a forum format. The draft will also receive an anonymous review by the OceanObs'09 review team. This review will address:

1. How well does the CWP/PWP reflect a community view, e.g. are there missing elements or activities that should be included that aren’t addressed in other CWP/PWPs? Are relevant international, national, regional, and community reports and planning documents referenced?
2. Many of the CWP/PWPs will address future developments/plans. Do these plans suitably describe the readiness of the community as well as the opportunities (e.g. potential supporters) and challenges they may face?
3. How well does the CWP/PWP address how the observation system, technology, or infrastructure will (does) serve the needs of, and provide benefit to, the user community, whether scientific, intermediate and/or end users.

You are asked to identify which invited Plenary Talk(s) (and associated Plenary Paper) your Community White Paper contributes to, and may be asked to directly contribute as a co-author to that Plenary Paper(s). You will have a chance to review these Plenary Papers before the conference.

At the conference your Community White Paper will be presented in poster form during the entire week.

Guidelines for length and style

• Please include a short abstract or executive summary: this should identify your community plan or vision in a few key points, listing countries involved, and giving a rough estimate of new resources required to realize.
• 5 typeset pages max (10-12 double-spaced 12 pt pages, 3500-5000 words), 5 figures
• Displayed at the meeting in poster form in a separate area with the other Community White Papers

Guidelines for poster

• The space for each Community White Paper at the conference is in vertical format: 140 cm (55 in.) tall by 95 cm (37 in.) wide maximum

Guidelines for content

The Community White Papers (CWPs) for OceanObs’09 will be a part of the permanent record of the meeting published as a part of the proceedings by ESA, and form an important building block for community plans for the ocean observing system for the coming decade. If you are contacted by other potential contributing authors we ask that you consider such requests based on whether they could usefully enlarge the community vision delivered by your paper.

As you write your paper, please bear in mind that ocean observations and their societal applications (including science applications) are the focus of OceanObs’09, and all authors are requested to retain this focus in developing their papers.

• For papers addressing an observing network: please work with your contributing authors to build a forward-looking community-consensus vision for how the network will develop and/or be sustained in the coming decade. For existing networks this will refresh plans in light of new information, new technologies, and new opportunities. For networks new to the global ocean observing system, the paper should describe plans for a global or basin-scale observing network, and how it integrates with other existing systems. All papers should address how the observations serve the needs of and provide benefit to the user community, whether scientific, intermediate and/or end users.
• For papers addressing observing technology: please work with your contributing authors to build a forward-looking community-consensus vision for how the technology may contribute to sustained ocean observations in the coming decade.
• For papers addressing aspects of the data infrastructure for the observing system: please work with your contributing authors to identify a forward-looking community-consensus vision for how this infrastructure will develop and be sustained in the coming decade. The paper should address how the infrastructure serves the needs of and provides benefit to the user community, whether scientific, intermediate and/or end users.
• For papers addressing a scientific question. please work with your contributing authors to briefly review progress and identify the big remaining research questions and challenges. The main questions the organizers would like to see addressed in the white papers include: How have existing observations allowed scientific progress? What additional observing system actions are necessary to make progress?
• For papers addressing aspects of the transformation of observations into information useful to the scientific community or for wider societal benefit: the organizers ask you to work with your contributing authors to briefly review progress and identify the big remaining challenges facing your community. The organizers would like you to address: How do existing observations support your product? What additional observing system actions are necessary to make progress?

Given the broad scope the organizers are asking to be addressed in the papers, the length guidelines above will force you and your co-authors to focus on the few key points.  If your community has further detailed plans that cannot fit into this format, please make reference to other documents while touching on the highlights.

Each Community White Paper needs to identify the Plenary Talks (topics) in the conference agenda to which it makes a ‘core’ or ‘relevant’ contribution. The invited authors of the Plenary Talks and Papers, which will synthesis the contributions of the Community White Papers, will be helped in their task through this identification.

Once received, your first draft Community White Paper will also be made available for comment via the www.oceanobs09.net web site. These comments will be forwarded to the corresponding author, and a meeting draft of the Community White Paper will be due 1 September 2009. The final draft for publication will be due after the meeting at the end of 2009.

At the conference itself, your Community White Paper will have a guaranteed space to be presented in poster form during the entire week.

Timeline and review process