Draft print and archival format for Institute documents
Consultation on the print and archival format for Institute documents: what a printed copy must carry so that it remains checkable when detached from the site, and what an archival copy must preserve.
§1Consultation and window
§1.1Window
- Opened
- 4 February 2025
- Closed
- 5 April 2025
- Duration
- 60 days
- Status
- Closed — the disposition is published
- Document under consultation
- Governance document
- Submissions received
- 18
§1.2Consultation questions
The secretariat put the following questions. A submission was not required to address them and several did not; the questions record what the Institute was uncertain about rather than restricting what a respondent could raise.
- Does the proposed print format carry enough for a printed copy to be traced back to its source, including the version and the date it was retrieved?
- Should a printed copy carry the full reference list, or a link to it?
- Is the archival format robust to the loss of the stylesheet, so that a preserved copy remains readable?
§1.3How a submission is handled
- Every submission is signed. The Institute publishes no anonymous submission.
- Every submission carries a declared interest. A declaration of no interest is itself a declaration and is recorded as one. A declaration is not a disqualification and the Institute has never given a submission less weight on that ground.
- A submission from an employee of a marketing-authorisation holder is identified as an industry submission on its face, following a unanimous consultation on the conflicts policy.
- Every submission receives a secretariat response and a disposition. Submissions that are not accepted remain published in full; the Institute does not remove a submission because it disagrees with it.
- There is no voting, no reputation score, no reply thread and no editing after receipt.
§1.4Outcome
The format was ratified with amendments. A printed copy carries the identifier, version, publication date and retrieval date in a fixed position, and carries the full reference list, after respondents pointed out that a printed copy referring to an external list is a document a reader cannot check.
The disposition table, listing each submission with its disposition and the resulting amendment, is at §3.