RFC Editor Individual Submission Policy

[Joyce Reynolds <jkrey@ISI.EDU>]

IESG:

The RFC Editor has documented its policy regarding delayed publication
of individual submissions.  We recently implemented this policy with
<draft-srisuresh-ospf-te> on May 28th.

Enclosed what we intend to post on our web pages and follow as our new
policy for publication of individual submissions.

Comments welcomed.

Joyce
(for RFC Editor)

=========================================================================

Delayed Publication of Individual Submissions

In addition to RFCs generated by the IETF process and approved by the
IESG, the RFC Editor publishes individual submissions that are
technically competant and relevant to the general subject area of the
series.  The RFC Editor has primary responsibility to determine
suitability for individual submissions, but the IESG does review them
to ensure they are not in conflict with any ongoing standardization
efforts in the IETF [RFC 2026].

The procedure has been that the IESG could recommend for or against
publication of an individual submission.  Although the RFC Editor
formally has the final decision, in practice the RFC Editor very seldom
goes against a Do Not Publish request from the IESG, and if they do,
they attach a prominent "IESG Warning! Hazard!" to the RFC.  The RFC
Editor is governed by the requirement that independent submission
publication must not provide an end-run around the standards process.

Recently, an increasing number of individual submissions have been for
publication of technical proposals that have been rejected by some
working group.  This raises a dilemma.  Archival documentation of
legitimate alternative ideas is generally a long-term benefit to the
community.  On the other hand, some users don't read warning labels, so
a competing idea published as an individual submission might gain
credence outside the IETF before the working group's work has
completed.

To balance these competing demands, the IESG and the RFC Editor have
developed the following modification to the procedure for reviewing
individual submissions.  This procedure is provisional; it may be
modified if it does not meet its objectives.

When the IESG determines that immediate publication of an individual
submission conflicts with an ongoing IETF working group activity, the
IESG may recommend to the RFC Editor "do not publish (DNP) at this
time" and cite the working group.  The RFC Editor will then delay
publication for an initial six-month period.  The author will be notified
that their document will not be published at present but they may
re-submit the document six months later.  (It is the author's
responsibility to retain a copy of the DNP email and include it with
subsequent submissions; i.e., the author holds the timer state.)

If the author does resubmit after six months, the same process will be
repeated.  The IESG can recommend "DNP at this time" a second time,
creating a second six-month delay.  If the author still wishes to
publish the document, it may be submitted a third time.  At this time,
the IESG may recommend an advisory note be added to the document, but
no additional "DNP at this time" delays will be accepted.  Thus,
working groups are protected from competing publications for up to one
year.  Note that the RFC Editor will include a prominent a warning
label in a published RFC, at the request of the IESG.