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Morning all, During last Summer the Institute of Field Archaeologists (IFA) invited comments on a review of their 'Standards and Guidance' documents. These cover ethical procedures for various areas of archaeological practice (currently desk-based assessment, field evaluation, excavation, watching brief and building investigation and recording). William Kilbride at the Archaeology Data Service and I suggested to the IFA that it would be useful to have clearer references to work on establishing and promoting national data standards in the heritage sector. The IFA have now invited specific comments from us by the end of February, with a view to issuing revised standards during Summer 2001. As well as pushing our own agenda, this move would be supported by the IFA 'Code of Conduct' which includes at principle 3 that "The archaeologist shall conduct his/her work in such a way that reliable information about the past may be acquired, and shall ensure that the results be properly recorded". To help William and I put our comments together, can I invite FISH list folk to contribute any thoughts they have on how data standards might best be referred to in the IFA standards? You can view the standards documents on the IFA web site at http://www.archaeologists.net/standards/standards_index.html Thanks for any comments - I'd be grateful if they could be posted to the list please, so that we can generate some discussion. Edmund Lee FISH Coordinator ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------- Find out more about FISH, the Forum on Information Standards in Heritage at its email discussion group at www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/fish/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------