8. Publication
8.1 Standards
Upon approval by the IEEE-SA Standards Board, the standard shall be published as an IEEE standard. The Sponsor shall be notified of the approval. Balloters with unresolved negative ballot comments shall be informed of the approval and of their right to appeal.
8.1.1 Errata
An erratum shall be prepared when an editorial error is found in an approved IEEE standard that represents a deviation from the standard as approved by the IEEE-SA Standards Board and that could result in misinterpretation of the standard. The date of the erratum and a statement that the erratum represents an editorial correction only shall appear.
8.1.2 Amendments and corrigenda
Amendments and corrigenda are independent projects and are processed with separate PARs and balloted independently in accordance with the requirements of these procedures, including submission to the IEEE-SA Standards Board.
All amendments and corrigenda shall follow the style conventions for indicating changes defined in the IEEE Standards Style Manual. (See clause 21 and annex C.)
Sponsor ballots of amendments and corrigenda shall also include access to the approved base standard and any approved amendments and corrigenda in order to provide sufficient information to the ballot group.
Up to three amendments can be approved before the standard shall be revised, unless the base standard has been approved or reaffirmed within the past three years. In the latter case, multiple amendments may be added until the base standard is three years old or three years have elapsed since the most recent reaffirmation of the standard. After the three-year period, RevCom shall defer consideration of additional amendments or corrigenda until a revision or a two-year extension request is approved by the IEEE-SA Standards Board. The standard shall not be reaffirmed if three or more amendments to the base standard exist.
If, for any extenuating circumstances, an exception to these rules is required, the Sponsor shall take its request for a two-year extension to RevCom. A project plan outlining the rationale for the request, as well as a schedule for the revision, also shall be submitted. RevCom will review the request and make a recommendation to the IEEE-SA Standards Board.
During the two-year extension period, Sponsors can submit additional amendments and corrigenda for approval consideration. However, after this period, RevCom shall defer consideration of additional amendments or corrigenda until a revision is approved by the IEEE-SA Standards Board.
Since the schedule for a standard's maintenance is based upon the approval date of the base standard, an amendment or a corrigendum may have been available for less than five years when it is subject to a maintenance action. Rules concerning the procedures for updating amendments are covered in Clause 9.
8.1.3 Normative annexes
Normative annexes are official parts of the standard that are placed after the body of the standard for reasons of convenience or to create a hierarchical distinction. They are official (substantive) parts of the standard. A normative annex shall be referred to as such (Annex A, Annex B, etc.) in its title, the table of contents, and the text.
8.1.4 Informative annexes[3]
Informative annex texts shall be submitted with the proposed standard.
Informative annexes are included in a standard for information only and are not normative (substantive) parts of the standard. Standards writers should carefully consider the nature of material placed in informative annexes. The working group should also understand that informative annex material is considered part of the balloted document and, as such, shall be submitted to the IEEE-SA Standards Board for approval.
8.2 Publication of drafts
Drafts of standards under development are normally distributed to members of the group involved in their generation (working group, subcommittee, etc.) for comment and letter ballot. The normal method for generating valid comments is to conduct a letter ballot of the working group or subcommittee.
All drafts, no matter how broad their circulation, shall be marked on the cover and elsewhere with the appropriate copyright and legal statements. See subclause 4.2 of the IEEE Standards Style Manual.
When using the approved IEEE standards designation on a draft standard, the designation shall be structured, at a minimum, as "IEEE Pxxx/DXX," where "xxx" represents the specific designation and "XX" represents the specific draft version of that document. The date of the draft shall also be included. Any additional information (such as the draft chapters) may be included at the discretion of the working group. The draft designation shall appear on each page of the draft in the same location for the sake of continuity (for example, the upper right corner, the bottom right corner, etc.).
In projects of broad interest, it is sometimes useful to collect a broader spectrum of comments than that available within the working entity involved in the development of the draft. Although the practice is deprecated by the IEEE-SA Standards Board, a small number of IEEE committees publish such drafts for distribution either as separate documents or in Society Transactions. Publication, including electronic, hard copy, or other forms of distribution, shall be carefully controlled to avoid misunderstandings regarding the status of and legal responsibility for such documents (N.B. these documents must not be mistakenly regarded as IEEE standards). The following conditions shall be met for such publication:
- a)
- The document shall be marked according to IEEE Standards Department directions (see subclause 4.2 of the IEEE Standards Style Manual.).
- b)
- The draft can be authorized for publication only by the IEEE Standards Department. Committees wishing to have their drafts published and distributed shall have their Sponsor contact the IEEE Standards Department.
A preferred alternative to this procedure is to process the document as a trial-use standard (see 5.7).
