OSKB Group Admin Editor Roles and Responsibilities
Overview
Each OSKB Group will have Group Admininistrators. Group Administrators act as Editors in the OSKB, and have related roles and responsibilities. This document is an evolving document maintained by members of the OSKB Editorial Subcommittee to provide transparency on how the editorial process works, who is responsible for what, and how editorial conflicts or administrative issues may be resolved.
Group Admin Editorial Roles
Editors will be associated with a Group, and be Group Admins.
Groups on the OER Commons, where the OSKB will be hosted, can be created.
Currently, the Groups are by OSKB user:
- Researchers Group
- Educators Group
- Librarians Group
- Funders Group
- Publishers Group
- Policy makers Group
- Future Groups could be created by Topic, Discipline, Region, or Project.
Each Group should have up to 3 Group Admins of different Editor Types.
- Content Editor - The Content Editor ensures that the content of new resources meet certain criteria for accuracy, quality, trustworthiness, and accessibility.
- Curation Editor - The Curation Editor ensures that content is well-organized and discoverable, and that metadata is complete and correct.
- Community Editor - The Community Editor ensures that the Group Discussion Board is moderated and updated, answers questions in the Discussion Board, and facilitates new resource collaborations. Community Editors will recruit new Group members and new submissions from diverse sources. Every Group should have a “Good First Task” Thread in their Discussion Board that invites new Group members to get started; Community Editors maintain and update the “Good First Task” Thread.
Group Admin Editorial Appointments
Editors will apply for a role.
- Prior editorial experience will not be necessary for new editors. All interested volunteers will be encouraged to apply.
- The application process intends to allow transparency in the process and allow the promotion of diversity in the community.
- The application form will be minimal, and can be completed here by anyone interested in the Pilot Cohort of Editors recruited during the Summer/Fall of 2020: https://bit.ly/oskb-pilot-editors.
All Editors have term limits.
- Editors apply to the Editorial Subcommittee to be a Content, Curation, or Community Editor for a specific Group.
- Individuals can be in an Editor role for 1 year at a time. Editors can start their role at different dates, and will pass their role after 1 year. Our Pilot Cohort of Editors recruited during the Summer/Fall of 2020 will have shorter terms of 6 months to facilitate the testing of the model. The Pilot Cohort may apply to renew their role for a year following the pilot.
- When a term limit is over, Editors can remain active in the Group without their editorial rights and responsibilities.
Editor diversity is prioritized.
- The Editorial Subcommittee will work with the Governance Subcommittee to review Editor applications.
- Creating a safe and welcoming community at the OSKB starts with ensuring that Groups have diverse leadership and that diversity is actively built, supported, and prioritized.
- Editors will be recruited and appointed to promote diversity in gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, race, nationality, region, language, educational background, and discipline.
Editorial Process
All Group resource submissions will be reviewed before publication.
- Submissions of an existing online OER Resource can be made by any Group member to be added to the Group Resource.
- After a submission is made, it will be held for review.
- The review process will be started by the Content Editor. The Content Editor will review the submission to ensure that the information is accurate, trustworthy, and accessible.
- If the Content Editor accepts the submission, they will notify the Curation Editor to ensure the metadata is complete and correct.
- If the Content Editor deems the submission to not be accurate, trustworthy, or accessible, the Content Editor will either:
- Contact the Submission Author directly with their decision and their reasoning; or
- Describe their decision in the Editorial Discussion thread so the author can amend or clarify before resubmission.
- Submissions that are not accepted for Group publication may still be published to OER Commons without Editorial approval; they will not be part of the Group Collection and may not be part of the OSKB.
- Once the metadata of a submission is complete and correct, the Curation Editor can publish the resource to the Group Collection.
All Group newly authored resources will be reviewed before publication.
- New resources can be created within the Group through Open Author. New resources can be created by any Group member to be added to the Group Resource.
- After a submission is made, it will be held for review.
- The review process will be started by the Content Editor. The Content Editor will review the submission to ensure that the information is accurate and trustworthy.
- If the Content Editor accepts the submission, they will notify the Curation Editor to ensure the metadata is complete and correct.
- If the Content Editor deems the submission to not be accurate, trustworthy, or accessible, the Content Editor will contact the Resource Author with proposed revisions. After revision, the Authors will contact the Content Editor for review again.
- Submissions that are not accepted for Group publication may still be published to OER Commons without Editorial approval; they will not be part of the Group Collection and may not be part of the OSKB.
- Once the metadata of a submission is complete and correct, the Curation Editor can publish the resource to the Group Collection.
Group Admin Editorial Roles Do’s and Don’ts
- Group Admins are required to adhere to the OSKB Code of Conduct.
- Group Admins are required to report every possible violation of the OSKB Code of Conduct. They will not make personal judgement calls on whether the possible violation is “serious enough” to be reported, but will report liberally to allow the Code of Conduct Committee to assess all incidents. This ensures transparency and consistency, and is intended to improve and strengthen the Code of Conduct document and process over time.
- Group Admins must follow the roles and responsibilities of their assigned editorial role(s). They must limit their acts to those explicitly permitted by their assigned role. If they are unsure whether a certain act is their responsibility, they should raise the issue with the Editorial Subcommittee for guidance.
- Content Editor - The Content Editor ensures that the content of new resources meet certain criteria for accuracy, quality, trustworthiness, and accessibility.
- The Content Editor can assess the accuracy, quality, trustworthiness, and accessibility of a resource using existing OSKB guidelines.
- The Content Editor can choose to respond to a resource in 3 ways, and 3 ways only:
- Accepting the resource for Group Publication by contacting the Curation Editor to initiate the Metadata review.
- Rejecting the resource as-is, and communicating which part of the OSKB guidelines the resource does not meet directly to the submitter. For Open Authored submissions, this communication can include suggested revisions.
- Rejecting the resource as-is, and communicating which part of the OSKB guidelines the resource does not meet publicly in the Editorial Discussion thread. For Open Authored submissions, this communication can include suggested revisions.
- The Content Editor cannot choose to assess the resource by criteria not currently described in the OSKB guidelines. If the Content Editor notices that criteria are missing or unclear, they must raise the issue with the Editorial Subcommittee.
- Curation Editor - The Curation Editor ensures that content is well-organized and discoverable, and that metadata is complete and correct.
- The Curation Editor can choose to respond to a resource passed from the Content Editor in 2 ways, and 2 ways only:
- Accepting and publishing the resource as-is, after assessing that the Keywords are in alignment with the OSKB Metadata and Collections.
- Adding additional OSKB Metadata Keywords, and then accepting and publishing the resource.
- If the Curation Editor feels that the resource does not meet the publication criteria currently described in the OSKB guidelines, they can choose to respond in 2 ways, and 2 ways only:
- Contacting the Content Editor directly and communicating which part of the OSKB guidelines the resource does not meet.
- If the Content Editor and Curation Editor do not agree on their assessment of the OSKB guidelines, they must raise the issue with the Editorial Subcommittee.
- Community Editor - The Community Editor ensures that the Group Discussion Board is moderated and updated, answers questions in the Discussion Board, and facilitates new resource collaborations. Community Editors will recruit new Group members and new submissions from diverse sources. Every Group should have a “Good First Task” Thread in their Discussion Board that invites new Group members to get started; Community Editors maintain and update the “Good First Task” Thread.
- The Community Editor can choose to respond to new Group Discussion posts in 4 ways, and 4 ways only:
- After reviewing the posts and deciding that no Code of Conduct violations, off-topic conversations, or misinformation is within the posts, the Community Editor leaves the posts public.
- Deleting posts that either the Community Editor, another Admin, or a Group Member have flagged as a possible violation of the Code of Conduct. Community Editors have full discretion to delete posts without a full Code of Conduct Incident review. Post Authors have the right to request and receive a private explanation as to why the post might violate the Code of Conduct. The Post Authors have the right to request and receive a Code of Conduct Incident review if they believe that their post does not violate the Code of Conduct.
- Deleting posts that either the Community Editor, another Admin, or a Group Member have flagged as off-topic or misinformation. Community Editors have full discretion to off-topic and misinforming posts, but must provide a private explanation as to why the post was deleted to the Post Author. Post Authors who wish to challenge a pattern of post deletions have the right to request discussion of the posts with the Editorial Subcommittee.
- In addition to deleting posts, the Community Editor can choose to request a user ban from the Code of Conduct Committee or the Editorial Subcommittee. This request is a judgement call by Community Editors for major possible violations of the Code of Conduct, which would be evaluated by the Code of Conduct Committee. This request could also be for repeated posts of misinformation or spam, which would be evaluated by the Editorial Subcommittee.
Current Group Admin Editors
- Researchers Group
- Marcy Reedy (August 2020 - January 2021)
- Felix Henninger (August 2020 - January 2021)
- Educators Group
- Marcy Reedy (August 2020 - January 2021)
- Erin M. Buchanan (August 2020 - January 2021)
- Librarians Group
- Marcy Reedy (August 2020 - January 2021)
- Erin M. Buchanan (August 2020 - January 2021)
- Funders Group
- Marcy Reedy (August 2020 - January 2021)
- Publishers Group
- Marcy Reedy (August 2020 - January 2021)
- Felix Henninger (August 2020 - January 2021)
- Policy makers Group
- Marcy Reedy (August 2020 - January 2021)