sy01265_.wmf (3286 bytes)to Barbara Jacak's Spokesperson's Page

 

Customs

This document was last updated on Sunday, Aug. 19, 2007.

Like any large group, PHENIX has its customs and conventions that may not be apparent to newcomers. These various ways of doing business are not something that are rigidly written into the by-laws or publication policy; they are customs, policies, conventions (even traditions!) that can probably change more rapidly than I can update this web page.   Below are a few; if there are more you think should be listed, please let me know. You are also encouraged to consult the PHENIX FAQ archive maintained by Brant Johnson for answers to various commonly asked questions.

Meetings

Currently PHENIX has a major meeting each month, during a week called "Core Week". Core Week takes place during the week of each month containing the second Thursday (this designed to minimize overlap with various holidays, and to provide a simple way to remember the phase). Core Weeks are moved or shifted under exceptional circumstances (example: conflict with Quark Matter or APS meetings).

The current structure of Core Week has Tuesday mornings reserved for Computing/Analysis, Wednesdays for Detector Council Meetings, Thursdays for Physics Working Groups, and Fridays for plenary sessions. The plenary session each month provides an opportunity for the collaboration to approve new analysis results as PHENIX preliminary. There may also be status reports from members of PHENIX management, Physics Working Group Conveners, or other kinds of talks.

The June and December Core Weeks are extra-special in that

  1. There is a standing meeting of the Institutional Board in those meetings on Thursday afternoon.
  2. There is a dinner/picnic/celebration on Thursday evening.

In addition to these monthly meetings, there are weekly Analysis Meetings on Tuesday mornings, weekly meetings of the Physics Working Groups, and sometimes also meetings of subgroups on particular analyses. During data taking periods, there is a daily shift change meeting at 3:30pm in the counting house conference room, and a weekly planning meeting at the same location.

Data Analysis

Data analysis is performed by PHENIX collaborators around the world. Upon becoming a PHENIX member in good standing, a collaborators earns access to the PHENIX data. All analyses must be presented to and accepted by a Physics Working Group before they can be considered for PHENIX preliminary status and shown in public. Generally, it is necessary to discuss details of the analysis at several working group meetings to sufficiently explain the techniques and finalize uncertainties. For details on the procedure, please click on PHENIX preliminary.

Any PHENIX data shown in public must first be approved as preliminary by the collaboration.

We do have a custom to allow students and postdocs to present the results of ongoing analyses that have not passed the very high threshold required for "PHENIX Preliminary Data" designation, provided all of the following are met:
a) The presentation is in a contributed session, such as those of DNP, APS, JPS, etc.
b) The meeting does not publish proceedings or an archive of talks.
c) The results are compared with and shown to be consistent with existing PHENIX preliminary or final data. The comparison plot should be included in the talk. NB: this implies that "work-in-progress" is only possible when there exists an approved result to compare to.
d) The convenors of the relevant PWG(s) determine that all of the above criteria, and all other standard PHENIX analysis criteria have been satisfied. 

Such results should be labeled as "work in progress" on the relevant figures.

Only one version of a measurement, or plot of a result, can be made preliminary and shown in public. Any new version must be "final", which means in a paper submitted for publication. For details on the procedure for publishing results in PHENIX, please see publishing PHENIX papers and the PHENIX publication policy.

Speaking about PHENIX

It is the responsibility of the PHENIX Speakers'  Bureau to allocate talks on behalf of the collaboration at all conferences and workshops. The procedures for doing this include:

  1. The primary goal in allocating talks to PHENIX collaborators is to distribute speaking opportunities equitably.
  2. The PSB regularly seeks nominations for speakers from various organizations within PHENIX, such as the Physics Working Groups, Detector Council, Institutional Board, etc. In addition, any PHENIX member can express his/her interest in presenting a talk at any upcoming meeting by contacting a co-convener of a Physics Working Group, or by sending email to the PSB chair.
  3. If you are invited to talk about PHENIX results or represent PHENIX at an upcoming conference, you should inform the conference organizers about the PSB and its role in assigning PHENIX speakers to invited talks. Please forward the invitation to the PSB, so they may advise how to proceed. The PSB has provided the a policy statement clarifying their approach.
  4. As you might imagine, all talks are not created equal. Some, with the highest visibility, are relatively rare and need to be shared among the collaboration. Please see the policy statement for more details on how this is done in PHENIX.
  5. Consideration by the PSB for speaking opportunities reflects collaborators' contributions to all aspects of operating the experiment and analyzing the data. Service to the collaboration is always a good thing.

There are some exceptions to the purview of the PSB that are worth noting:

  1. If you are personally invited to give a colloquium or seminar about PHENIX at some university or lab, by all means do so! You do not need to clear this talk with the PSB. However, please note that any PHENIX data you present should be data that has been cleared for release, in strict adherence to our Publication Policy. It's a nice courtesy if you inform PHENIX that you are giving this talk, and an even nicer one if you preview it to your colleagues. (Technically you don't need to do this if you are using previously approved transparencies, but an excess of courtesy is not a bad thing.)
  2. If you have been invited to give an overview talk about all RHIC experiments, or heavy ion physics, or the nature of the universe, again this is not something that needs to be cleared with the PSB. But the same caveats and suggestions as listed above apply.
  3. The issue of PHENIX talks versus general RHIC talks, big conferences versus small workshops, etc. is a complex one, definitely left to customs rather than by-laws. The Speakers' Bureau, in consultation with the Executive Council, has provided a policy statement to clarify this. 

Submitting Abstracts

You are strongly encouraged to submit abstracts describing your PHENIX work to any and all meetings that accept them (for example, annual meetings of DNP, APS, JPS, EPS, as well as specialty conferences such as CHEP). 

  1. If your abstract contains new data, then a very high threshold must be met for submission, following the entire set of careful procedures outlined in the Publication Policy. 
     
  2. We have a custom to allow students and postdocs to present the results of ongoing analyses,that have not passed the very high threshold required for "PHENIX Preliminary Data" designation, provided all of the following are met:

    a) The presentation is in a contributed session, such as those of DNP, APS, JPS, etc.
    b) The meeting does not publish proceedings or an archive of talks.
    c) The results are compared with and shown to be consistent with existing PHENIX preliminary or final data. The comparison plot should be included in the talk. NB: this implies that "work-in-progress" is only possible when there exists an approved result to compare to.
    d) The convenors of the relevant PWG(s) determine that all of the above criteria, and all other standard PHENIX analysis criteria have been satisfied. 

    Such results should be labeled as "work in progress" on the relevant figures.

  3. For those abstracts that describe sub-system performance or physics simulations, we have made a deliberate effort to create a more expedient process. You simply need to be sure that your abstract has been cleared with the appropriate  Detector Council member(s) AND/OR Physics Working Group(s) conveners. (The parenthetical "s" are for those instances where more than one DC member or PWG is involved; the AND/OR means that if there is any question, you need the AND, not the OR!). 

  4. Please don't forget to also inform the PHENIX Speakers' Bureau of your submission, since the bureau is expected to coordinate abstract  submissions. (The exception to this is the case of contributed abstracts for "10 minute" talks to DNP, JPS, etc., here the PWG convenors and/or Detector Council member(s) are charged with the necessary coordination. Further details are available in postings to phenix-p-l@bnl.gov .)

Note: It is not sufficient to post the abstract to the sub-system list with a note saying "I need to submit this in 24 hours; let me know if you see anything wrong." You must get the active agreement from the relevant DC and/or PWG conveners. Simple courtesy to them implies that you should give them several days advance warning; simple courtesy to all your PHENIX collaborators implies that you should post this to the list, not in a private communication.

The PHENIX Speakers' Bureau is expected to list upcoming PHENIX talks as well as coordinate abstract submissions. Abstracts submitted to conferences that cover physics topics or both physics and technical topics will be handled directly by the PSB. In the case of strictly technical conferences such as CHEP, the PSB may appoint a coordinator for a given conference to perform this task. In either case, please be sure to CC the PSB on your abstract submission.

Archiving your PHENIX material

Speaking on behalf of PHENIX carries with it certain responsibilities. Some are noted above in the section detailing the PHENIX Speakers' Bureau and the Publication Policies. Here are a few  more required steps.

  1. Post a preview of your talk in your p/draft/AppropriateSubdirectory...  area. 
  2. Announce the preview on the relevant list(s). phenix-p-l for general talks, or the appropriate Physics Working Group list for more targeted talks.
  3. Post the talk you gave in your publish/AppropriateSubdirectory... area.
  4. Post the proceedings (if any)  again in p/draft for review, then publish/... upon approval.
  5. Post to the talks database using the talk entry form.

Said differently: It is your responsibility to maintain all PHENIX talks, manuscripts, etc. that you have presented outside the collaboration in your /phenix/publish/YourName area (or subdirectories thereof). Again, posting these in a public area is subject to the rules of our Publication Policy. Similarly, any material internal to PHENIX (notes, talks, drafts) should be maintained in your /phenix/p/drafts/YourName area. Much more detailed guidelines are maintained by Brant Johnson. Please  make sure your contributions on behalf of PHENIX are made known to the PHENIX office!

Leaving PHENIX

Ideally, this doesn't happen! But of course in the real world it does occur. You may want to transfer some significant amount of your PHENIX files to your new job site. To accommodate this, your PHENIX account will remain active for some period of time (typically 30 days). After that, the material will be archived, and you account will be deactivated.

Link to By-Laws, Policies & Customs