The IESG observes that requests to publish IETF RFCs with greater than the loose recommendation of five (5) authors [RFC7322] is increasing in frequency. Having more than five authors extends the AUTH48 process, dilutes the value of authorship and seems generally opposed to the idea that Working Group documents are consensus documents and the work of an entire group. It is also noted that there is confusion regarding the roles of Authors, Editors, and Contributors. This statement clarifies a number of aspects in relation to authorship of documents and slightly adjusts the AUTH48 processes to be flexible for future publication requests.
It is important to first clarify the roles in the construction of IETF Documents:
Author
A person, in the context of an IETF document, who contributes to a document by writing a substantial amount of text, over and above Working Group participation such as mailing list discussions or document reviews.
Editor
A person, in the context of an IETF document, who manages the document contents as directed by Authors and/or the Working Group [RFC2418]. Editors can be made responsible for a document by a Working Group, Working Group Chairs, or Area Director/Stream? management. An Author can be reclassified as an Editor.
Contributor
A person, in the context of an IETF document, who makes a contribution [RFC5378] during the lifecycle of an IETF document inclusive of Working Group Last Call and IETF Last Call. Such contributions may be used in part or whole and may or may not be acknowledged in the final document. The acknowledgment of contributions is the responsibility of Authors or Editors and can be done in the Contributors or Acknowledgements sections.
Working Group Chairs are strongly encouraged to assign at most three (3) Editors for each document adopted by the Working Group. The assigned Editors will take responsibility for the AUTH48 approvals process. That is, everyone listed in the front page should be included in the AUTH48 process (for example, copied on e-mails), but only the Editor(s) must approve the document before it can be published as an RFC. As implied by its name, the AUTH48 period must remain open for at least 48 hours, even if the Editor(s) has already approved.
In a situation where more than five (5) Authors and/or Editors are listed on the front page of an IETF document, strong justification should be provided to the Working Group Chairs. More than five (5) Authors and/or Editors may be listed in the front page at the discretion of the Working Group Chairs and the Responsible Area Director.
If the document is not the product of a Working Group, then the appropriate Area Director will designate the Editor(s), and decide over the appropriate number of people listed in the front page.
A Contributors section may be included as per section 4.11 of RFC7322. It is highly recommended that Contact details are included in the Contributors section so that due and clear attribution is made. Documents may still include an Acknowledgements section; this statement does not have any impact on that section.
Bibliographic references will use all listed Editors and Authors.
The content of this page was last updated on 2019-05-07. It was migrated from the old Trac wiki on 2023-02-17.