From d890589ae2c3b4915c1404736671d156b44a915d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Nicola Soranzo Date: Thu, 28 May 2026 11:57:58 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Clarify roles and terminology in conventions document Updated terminology and clarified roles within the ELIXIR framework. --- pages/style-guide/conventions.md | 37 ++++++++++++++++++++++---------- 1 file changed, 26 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-) diff --git a/pages/style-guide/conventions.md b/pages/style-guide/conventions.md index 502805a..b720fad 100644 --- a/pages/style-guide/conventions.md +++ b/pages/style-guide/conventions.md @@ -20,22 +20,22 @@ When you're drafting and you're unsure ("is it 'open source' or 'open-source'? I | **ELIXIR Europe** | The parent organisation, when context needs disambiguation | No hyphen. | | **ELIXIR Hub** | The central coordination office of ELIXIR Europe | Hosted at EMBL-EBI in Hinxton, UK – not part of ELIXIR-UK. | | **Node** | One of the 23 national nodes; ELIXIR-UK is one | Capitalised when it's the formal entity ("the UK Node", "our Node"). | -| **Head of Node** | The role | Capitalised. ELIXIR-UK has joint Heads of Node. | +| **Head of Node** | The role | Capitalised. ELIXIR-UK currently has two joint Heads of Node. | | **Steering Committee** / **Management Committee** | Governance groups | Capitalised. | | **Coordination Office** | The team running ELIXIR-UK day-to-day | Capitalised. | | **All Hands** | The annual community meeting | Capitalised. Full form: "All Hands meeting". | ## Naming our community and audiences -Picking the specific noun is usually clearer than reaching for the catch-all. None of the "consider instead" terms below are banned – use them when they're genuinely the right word – but most of the time a more specific noun does more work. +Picking the specific noun is usually clearer than reaching for the catch-all. None of the "consider instead" terms below are banned – use them when they are genuinely the right word – but most of the time a more specific noun does more work. | Prefer when you can | Consider instead of | Why | |---|---|---| | **member** / **community member** | "stakeholder" | Members belong to the community; "stakeholder" is a useful catch-all in formal governance contexts but rarely clearer in editorial copy. | -| **researcher** / **data steward** / **trainer** | "user" (in most contexts) | Use the specific role unless you're literally talking about service usage statistics. | +| **researcher** / **data steward** / **trainer** | "user" (in most contexts) | Use the specific role unless you are literally talking about service usage statistics. | | **partner** | "stakeholder" | When referring to a collaborating organisation. | | **funder** | "stakeholder" | When referring to UKRI, BBSRC, MRC etc. | -| **service** | "tool" or "platform" (when imprecise) | An ELIXIR-UK Service is a formal designation. Don't dilute the term. | +| **service** | "resource", "tool" or "platform" (when imprecise) | An ELIXIR-UK Service is a formal designation. Don't dilute the term. | | **an ELIXIR-UK service**, **a service endorsed by ELIXIR-UK** | "ELIXIR-UK's [service]", "our service" | We endorse services; we don't own them. Avoid possessive constructions that imply ownership. | ## FAIR and data terms @@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ Picking the specific noun is usually clearer than reaching for the catch-all. No | Term | Form | Notes | |---|---|---| | **FAIR** | Always all-caps | Stands for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable. Spell out on first use in formal documents. | -| **FAIRification** | One word, capital F | The process of making data FAIR. | +| **FAIRification** | One word, capital FAIR | The process of making data FAIR. | | **FAIR-aligned** | Hyphenated as adjective | "a FAIR-aligned policy", "data that is FAIR-aligned". | | **FAIR data** | No hyphen | "FAIR data management", not "FAIR-data management". | | **dataset** | One word | Not "data set". | @@ -90,16 +90,31 @@ Acronyms that come up often: | Acronym | Full form | Notes | |---|---|---| +| AHM | All Hands Meeting | | +| BBSRC | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council | | +| CDR | Core Data Resource | | +| DMP | Data Management Plan | | +| ECR | Early Career Researcher | | +| EoI | Expression of Interest | | +| EOSC | European Open Science Cloud | | | FAIR | Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable | | +| FG | Focus Group | | +| HDR UK | Health Data Research UK | Always written with a space, never hyphenated. | +| HoN | Head of Node | | +| LLM | Large language model | Lowercase when spelled out. | +| MRC | Medical Research Council | | +| NC | Node Coordinator | | | RDM | Research data management | Lowercase when spelled out. | -| TRE | Trusted Research Environment | | +| RIR | Recommended Interoperability Resource | | +| RPO | Research Performing Organisation | | | SDE | Secure Data Environment | | -| HDR UK | Health Data Research UK | Always written with a space, never hyphenated. | +| SIAB | Scientific and Industry Advisory Board | | +| TC | Teleconference | Usually a Zoom meeting. | +| TeC | Technical Coordinator | | +| TrC | Training Coordinator | | +| TRE | Trusted Research Environment | | | UKRI | UK Research and Innovation | | -| BBSRC | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council | | -| MRC | Medical Research Council | | -| EOSC | European Open Science Cloud | | -| LLM | Large language model | Lowercase when spelled out. | +| WP | Work Package | | ## Word forms