Membership Acceptance Procedures

Purpose of the Acceptance Procedures

GDNet is the umbrella title for the series of ambitious online information initiatives being developed by the Global Development Network (GDN). It serves as the electronic voice of GDN and as a key tool in its capacity-building and communication efforts. GDNet has been set up to provide a new way of communicating research knowledge, to help link researchers together, and to support their work. It complements and supports the activities of the GDN programme as a whole, which operates in a decentralized way through a series of regional networks.

GDNet provides the means to building an integrated GDN community, and managing and promoting online services to GDN members. Through individuals and organizations databases, hosting members’ profiles, managed by and made available through GDNet, the initiative offers a showcase to research organizations that are working to raise their reputation and profile or are newly-established (especially those in low and middle-income countries). It is therefore important to define a set of acceptance procedures to direct the implementation process inline with the overall GDN membership strategy.

The purpose of the membership acceptance procedures is to:

• Clarify the types of individuals and organizations that GDN is aiming to support
• Establish eligibility criteria for making use of the various online services that will be made available to GDN members through GDNet
• Explain the expectations and requirements associated with qualifying for subsidized services, such as access to online publications, funding opportunities, etc. several of which will require a clear specification of which individuals are entitled to have access1
• Provide the GDNet editorial team with guidance on how to deal with borderline cases. These acceptance procedures build on the experience gained during the GDNet Pilot Phase, where a wide range of views were canvassed and various practical approaches tried out. They will be reviewed from time-to-time by the GDNet Steering Group to ensure that it is adequate to fulfil its intended role and to keep up with the experience and ambitions of GDN as it evolves. They should be read in conjunction with the GDNet Editorial Policy, which provides guidance on the kinds of research documents that GDNet is aiming to include on the GDNet knowledge base.
  

Guiding principles

The guiding principles for the membership acceptance procedure are:

• Be inclusive as possible, while maintaining the focus of GDN and fostering a sense of community among the researchers it is designed to serveIncorporate specific capacity-building function so organizations that are newly established or working to raise their reputation and profile (especially those in low and middle-income countries) are encouraged to join GDN and take advantage of GDNet services
• Support the work of the GDN regional networks and their member organizations, but to also to be open to individuals and organizations who are not currently members of these network
• Making subsidized services available to researchers in developing countries subject to resources availability.
  

Registration for Organizations

The types of organization and their staff eligible for registration are:

• Research institutes
• Dedicated research units within universities and other institutions
• Think tanks which undertake policy-related social and economic research.
  

To register eligible organizations will have to undertake the following activities:

• Submit an organizational profile.
• Demonstrate active involvement in research (provide sample publications).
• Publicise GDN to researchers within their own organization
• Nominate a staff member to act as point of contact for GDN communications an supply their contact details to the GDNet implementation team.