11. Frontmatter of an IEEE draft standard

11.1 General

The frontmatter of an IEEE standard is informative, meaning it is not officially part of the standard. Drafts should contain a frontmatter and main text, and follow the style outlined in this manual. The frontmatter and body of the draft are paginated with Arabic numerals, e.g., 1, 2, 3, etc. Frontmatter elements required in the draft prior to going to ballot are as follows:

Designation (see 11.2.1)
Title of the standard
Introduction
Draft copyright statements

A statement titled, “Important Notices and Disclaimers Concerning IEEE Standards Documents” (liability, translations, official statements, comments on standards, laws and regulations, copyrights, photocopies, updating of IEEE Standards documents, errata, and patents) is also required. These are included in the IEEE SA templates or can be obtained by contacting the IEEE SA content publishing staff. These shall not be altered. See Annex B for an example.

11.2 Required frontmatter elements

11.2.1 Draft labeling and designations

All drafts shall be clearly labeled to reflect their status as unapproved. The title of the document shall start with the word Draft. The term IEEE shall not be used in a title until a standard is approved by the IEEE SA Standards Board. The draft designation and the date of the draft shall appear in the upper right corner of each page of the draft. The designation and date shall not be combined. See Annex B for examples of appropriate draft labeling.

The IEEE standards designation shall be structured as IEEE Pxxx/DXX, where xxx represents the specific designation and XX is a number that represents the specific draft version of that document. Draft versions shall be maintained, and are most important during a ballot; the draft number should be updated as least as often as the document is modified and/or recirculated.

Go to https://development.standards.ieee.org/myproject/Public/mytools/init/parnum.pdf for information on obtaining a designation.

11.2.2 Draft copyright statements

All IEEE drafts are obligated to carry statements of copyright. The following information shall appear on the first page of every IEEE Standards draft (please note that <20XX> shall be replaced with the current year of distribution):

Copyright © 20XX by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Incorporated
Three Park Avenue
New York, New York 10016-5997, USA
All rights reserved.

This document is an unapproved draft of a proposed IEEE Standard. As such, this document is subject to change. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK! IEEE copyright statements SHALL NOT BE REMOVED from draft or approved IEEE standards, or modified in any way. Because this is an unapproved draft, this document must not be utilized for any conformance/compliance purposes. Permission is hereby granted for officers from each IEEE Standards Working Group or Committee to reproduce the draft document developed by that Working Group for purposes of international standardization consideration. IEEE Standards Department must be informed of the submission for consideration prior to any reproduction for international standardization consideration (stds-copyrights@ieee.org). Prior to adoption of this document, in whole or in part, by another standards development organization, permission must first be obtained from the IEEE Standards Department (stds-copyrights@ieee.org). When requesting permission, IEEE Standards Department will require a copy of the standard development organization’s document highlighting the use of IEEE content. Other entities seeking permission to reproduce this document, in whole or in part, must also obtain permission from the IEEE Standards Department.

IEEE Standards Department
445 Hoes Lane
Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA

The following information shall appear on every page of the draft, at the bottom of the page:

11.2.3 Open Source draft statement

All Open Source and documentation developed by a Standards Committee or Working Group that has not been approved by the IEEE SASB shall include the following disclaimer:

Disclaimer

This Open Source repository/documentation contains material that may be included in, or referenced by, an unapproved draft of a proposed IEEE Standard. All material in this repository/documentation is subject to change. The material in this repository/documentation is presented “as is” and with all faults. Use of the material is at the sole risk of the user. IEEE specifically disclaims all warranties and representations with respect to all material contained in this repository/documentation and shall not be liable, under any theory, for any use of the material. Unapproved drafts of proposed IEEE standards shall not be utilized for any conformance/compliance purposes.

11.3 Title

Per 4.2.3.2 of the IEEE SA Standards Board Operations Manual, the title on the draft document shall be within the scope as stated on the most recently approved PAR.

All titles of IEEE drafts shall start with the word Draft, followed by

“Standards [for]” when the standard specifies mandatory requirements.
“Recommended Practice [for]” when the standard provides recommendations.
“Guide [for]” when the standard furnishes information.
“Trial-Use (Standard, Recommended Practice, or Guide) [for]” for when the document will be published for a limited period of time.

The initial letter of each word in the title (except prepositions) should be capitalized.

“IEEE” shall not be placed at the beginning of the title.

Example:

Draft Standard for the Application and Testing of...

When an IEEE standard covers a limited range of quantities, such as voltage, current, power, and size, the numerical limits of the ranges covered shall be included in the title, scope, or purpose, wherever it first appears. The use of non-quantitative terms (such as high and low, large and small, wide and narrow) should be avoided. Abbreviations should be avoided in titles of standards, except in the case of units of measurement (kV, mm, etc.). However, if such use is warranted, the policy stated in 12.5 shall be followed.

11.4 Abstract and keywords

The inclusion of an abstract and keywords in IEEE standards allows the documents to be referenced in a wide range of bibliographic environments, thereby increasing their utility, visibility, and availability to the public. An abstract and keywords shall be included immediately following the title page of each standard. Abstracts should be based on the scope and purpose of the standard as indicated on the PAR. Abstracts should be no longer than 15 lines, and should be written in the passive voice. Keywords should highlight key terms and phrases from the text of the draft standard, and should specify the designation number of the project.

11.5 Participant lists

At a minimum, a roster of the officers and members of the working group that developed the document shall be provided by the working group. Individuals or entities that also contributed to the preparation of the document may be included in addition to the working group list (permission from entities shall be received prior to including the names in the draft).

In the working group roster, full first names are preferred over initials. Titles (Dr., Ms., P.E.) shall not be included with proper names.

The list of voting members of the balloting group is added by IEEE SA content publishing staff during the publication process. Only the balloters (individuals or entities) who vote (approval, disapproval, or abstention) are listed in the standard. The following paragraph shall be placed in the frontmatter of all IEEE drafts, above the list of voting members of the balloting group, and shall reflect the type of ballot that was conducted (individual or entity):

The following members of the <individual/entity> balloting committee voted on this standard. Balloters may have voted for approval, disapproval, or abstention.

More information regarding the Standards Board and its members can be found at:

https://standards.ieee.org/content/ieee-standards/en/about/sasb/index.html.

11.6 Introduction

An introduction should give the history of the standard, a description of its purpose, and, if the standard is a revision, an explanation of the principal changes from the previous edition. The introduction should also explain the document structure for multipart standards or for documents within a family of standards. An introduction is not an official or normative part of the proposed standard and shall not contain requirements or recommendations; therefore, the following statement shall appear in a box above the text:

This introduction is not part of IEEE Pxxx, title of draft.

11.7 Permissions list

Permissions shall be obtained for all material reprinted or excerpted from other sources. The list of permissions should appear in the standard, under a flush left header titled, “Acknowledgments,” in the following format. This segment should appear after the introduction.

Acknowledgments

Permissions have been granted as follows:

Portions of this standard reprinted with permission from Avaya, IETF RFC 2108 Definitions of Managed Objects for IEEE 802.3 Repeater Devices using SMIv2,© 1997.

Portions of this standard reprinted with permission from Microsemi Corporation, IETF RFC 3621 Definitions Power Ethernet MIB, © 2003.

Portions of this standard reprinted with permission from Avaya, IETF RFC 3621 Definitions Power Ethernet MIB, © 2003.

Portions of this standard reprinted with permission from the Hewlett-Packard Company, IETF RFC 3635 Definitions of Managed Objects for the Ethernet-like Interface Types,© 2003.

NOTE—Requests for special acknowledgments that do not include permissions shall be directed to the IEEE SA content publishing staff.

11.8 Table of contents

A table of contents listing the main clauses (identified by one digit) and the first series of subclauses under each clause (identified by two digits) should be supplied. The next series of subclauses (identified by three digits) may be included when deemed appropriate by the IEEE SA content publishing staff and the working group. The table of contents should be generated automatically and should be frequently updated as the draft evolves. Lists of tables and figures are normally not included in the table of contents, although particularly lengthy documents might warrant their inclusion. Only the appropriate clauses, subclauses, and normative and/or informative annexes should be listed. See the example of a draft standard in Annex B.