CAA Special Interest Groups

This initiative was introduced at the 2001 Conference

Draft rules for Special Interest Groups (for discussion)

1. CAA will enable and encourage the formation of Special Interest Groups (SIG).

2. A Special Interest is defined here as covering the archaeological application of an area of computer and/or quantitative methods that is relevant to, and compatible with, the aims of CAA and is of current interest to a significant number of CAA members.

3. The primary function of a SIG will be to form a focus for discussion, dissemination and organisation of activities relating to the Special Interest topic.

4. SIGs may be formed by a group of CAA members with the consent of the Steering Committee and subject to ratification by the CAA Annual General Meeting. The group proposing the formation of a SIG must include at least two CAA members who must demonstrate that they are able to coordinate the activities of the proposed SIG and that the proposed Special Interest is of interest to a significant number of CAA members. The proposal to form a new SIG must include a description of the Special Interest, an outline of the proposed activities of the SIG and details of how the SIG is to be organised within the terms of para 6 below.

5. All members of CAA will be entitled to membership of any SIG. Members of a SIG will be entitled to take part in any of the activities of the SIG.

6. The day-to-day running of a SIG will be in the hands of a convenor and one or more other SIG members who together will form an ad hoc SIG committee. The group proposing the formation of a new SIG will form the initial committee. Arrangements for appointing the convenor and other members of the committee will be discussed and determined by SIG members within one year of receiving Steering Committee approval for the formation of the SIG and must be submitted to the next CAA Annual General Meeting for approval.

7. SIG convenors and other committee members may use the name of CAA in dealing with other individuals and organisations, but should ensure that their actions are commensurate with the aims of CAA and do not bring the name of CAA into disrepute.

8. The full name of a SIG shall be of the form 'CAA xxSIG' or 'CAA SIGxx' where 'xx' is one or more characters conveying the primary topic of the SIG.

9. A SIG may be dissolved at any time, subject to the approval of the Steering Committee. The SIG committee should notify the Steering Committee of its intention to dissolve and should normally provide evidence that the dissolution is supported by a simple majority of the active members of the SIG.

Notes:
At the request of conference organisers, SIG convenors and other committee members will be expected to aid, advise and participate in the organization of SIG-specific sessions. They should also be prepared to act as referees and to locate other potential referees, both for the initial scrutiny of paper submissions, and for reviewing papers submitted for publication in conference proceedings and other CAA publications.

SIGs should make use of communication and dissemination methods provided for their use by CAA. CAA will ensure that SIGs have the opportunity to include material in its communications with members.

SIG Meetings may take any generally acceptable form, whether physical or virtual.

Interesting topics come and go, so should SIGs.

Proposal for the formation of a CAA Interest Group on the formulation of guidelines for the evaluation of digital publications in archaeology. 

This group will invite the participation of all those CAA members who are involved in digital archaeology and the production and dissemination of digital archaeological data and interpretation. It is especially interested, however, in the participation of those who carry out their activities in traditional Humanities academic contexts. The group will be established to seek ways to correct the longstanding Humanities assumption that digital publications, and in particular the on-line publication of digital primary data, is a less legitimate scholarly endeavour than the print publication of synthetic and interpretive work. It will concentrate first on establishing some basic guidelines for the peer evaluation of the quality of digital publications and datasets and their real and potential usefulness for other scholars, and on the development of strategies to ensure that digital archaeological resources are the subject of published reviews more often and for a broader audience. Having established common baselines for evaluation and review, the interest group will then generate written guidelines to be submitted to promotion committees and other traditional evaluators of academic and scholarly achievement. These guidelines will explain to these committee members and evaluators how digital archaeological publications differ from traditional formats, and how these publications are used and evaluated by the academic community they serve (one model is the formal document produced by the Archaeological Institute of America to explain the criteria on which Classical archaeologists should be evaluated for academic advancement: http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10466). 

In general and over the long term, this group will focus on strategies to diminish the scholarly stigma still attached to digital publication, and especially to the publication of datasets and primary data, in the traditional academic community, and especially in the Humanities. It will seek to foster better mechanisms for visible, public peer review of such publications and the dissemination of the results of such review.