User Logistics

Proposal Process

LCLS experiments start with submitting a proposal. Each proposal is for one specific experiment and each proposal is valid for one scheduling cycle only. There is no limit to the number of proposals that can be submitted by a scientist or experiment team.

Proposals submitted to LCLS are peer reviewed and ranked by the LCLS Proposal Review Panel.

The next LCLS deadline to submit proposals for the AMO, SXR, XPP and CXI is April 1, 2010 (proposals must be received by 4:00 p.m. local time) to be considered for beam time during the Spring 2011 cycle).

Assignment of Beam Time and User Support Requests

The highest rated proposals are most likely to be offered beam time approximately one year after being submitted and selected.

The proposal spokesperson will be notified about beam time assignments by email and the schedule will be posted to the website.

The proposal spokesperson and/or their lead contact can log in to user portal to "ACCEPT TIME"; this acknowledges your plan to use the beam time allocation. "ENTER REQUEST" to alert us of who from your group will be onsite for this scheduled beam time. Add additional collaborators from the pull down list. Indicate their status by clicking the "Onsite" button or click the red 'x' circle if the individuals who are listed on your proposal will not be onsite for this experiment (FYI-Remote is only for SSRL crystallography users who will collect data remotely). You can also add new individuals by clicking on the "+" sign and completing the fields provided.

When planning your experiment and submitting your support request, please also alert us if you anticipate needing any special training or user support or if there are potential safety considerations which have not been cleared with the safety office.

Accommodations/Hours/Maps

Stanford Guest House

This comfortable and convenient housing structure is located on SLAC's campus. Guests have access to in-room, high-speed Internet access, a fitness center, a 24-hour reception desk, laundry facilities, free parking, complimentary tea and coffee, and a 24-hour gift shop. The Guest House offers single as well as shared rooms, but all rooms have their own bathroom, and at very reasonable rates. All rooms are non-smoking only. Please reserve accommodations using their on-line form.

If the Guest House is not available, additional accommodations may be made at local hotels/motels.

For longer term visits, please contact the User Research Administration office.

Gate Hours

Maps & Directions

LCLS User Check-In Procedures

All users must check in at the User Research Administration (URA) offices upon arrival. Users must complete relevant training and return all forms to User Research Administration, Building 120, Room 211, prior to going to the LCLS Near Experimental Hall (NEH) or starting any experiments. The URA office is staffed Monday-Friday from 8 am to 4 pm. Many steps can and should be completed prior to your arrival:

Log in to the user portal to provide or update your contact information and personal profile.
- If not a US citizen, please bring your passport, visa, and other relevant travel/immigration documents as URA is required to review and verify these. (Pre-approval is required for users from countries identified as State Sponsors of Terrorism.)
Complete Training

NOTE: We are seeing unpredictable behavior with the version 3 series of Firefox and Safari on SkillSoft (Mac and PC). The course will appear to perform normally but the final scores are not always posting. Please check your My Report link on the left hand side of your SkillSoft home page to verify that your training has been recorded. If possible, we recommend you use Internet Explorer on a Windows computer until we can verify this problem has been rectified. Please notify ESH Training if you encounter this problem.

� Courses are web based and should be completed before your arrival. Log in to https://slactraining.skillport.com/SkillPortFE/login/login.cfm, enter you system ID# (we will provide this after you register through the User Portal) and the password "slac2005". When the course is completed, credit for completing the course will be downloaded into the SLAC training database. There is a test at the end of each course, and a passing grade of 80% or better is required to receive credit.
- Course 101 - Cyber Security Basics
- Course 115 - General Employee Radiation Training (GERT)
- Course 219 - Environmental Safety and Health (EOESH).
Read the Access Guidelines; complete and return the agreement on the last page (this is an annual requirement).
Create a SLAC Computer Account.
- Step 1. Read the SLAC Information Resources Guide
- Step 2. Sign the Declaration Form
- Step 3. Complete the Applicant Information section (user sections coded in blue)
- Step 4. Fax completed forms to 650-650-4499 or email completed forms to jackie@slac.stanford.edu
If you need lodging during your visit, contact the Stanford Guest House to secure your reservations and identify yourself as a SLAC user for discounted rates:

For additional information on local accommodations and housing assistance, complete the housing questionnaire.

Upon arriving at SLAC, show your photo identification to Security at the Main Gate and proceed to Building 120.
After verifying that your contact information is updated and safety training is completed, URA will issue a photo ID badge which will allow you access through the SLAC Security Gates. Badges must be worn and visible at all times. User badges are only valid during the current run cycle and must be returned to URA before you leave SLAC and return to your home institution.

LCLS visitors who have not completed training and received their own SLAC ID badge may only get a temporary escort-required ID badge from Security if they will be escorted by a SLAC staff member and if they have obtained approval from the Instrument Scientist and Floor Coordinator. Also inform URA when escorted visitors are at SLAC so we can track these people to the appropriate experiment/proposal and ensure that relevant safety requirements are met). Anyone who signs as an escort must:
- Take full responsibility for the safety of their visitor
- Go only to designated and authorized areas, and
- Remain within 'visual contact' of their visitor at all times (this means that visitors will only be permitted through Security Gates 17 or 30 if their escort is with them)
Note: The SLAC Security Gate 17 is only open Monday-Friday 6 am-10 pm. During other hours, pedestrians can enter through the turnstile at Security Gate 17. If this turnstile is not working, please try the alternate turnstile at Gate 16A beside the SSRL building 137. The other alternative is to drive to Sector 30 Gate and around the PEP Ring Road to reach SSRL or LCLS. Exercise caution as this road has limited lighting, signage, and shoulders—and deer are frequently seen in this area. If you have problems or need assistance, contact Security at 650-926-2551. For EMERGENCIES, CALL 911 OR 5555
Users must review the SLAC LCLS User Administration Safety Briefing. Instrument specific safety training and review of the NEH Hutch 1 User Safety Orientation Guidebook are also required for each visit before being granted access to the NEH and Beam Line.
A representative from each user group is required to complete the End of Run Summary at the conclusion of your experiment or shortly after you return to your home institution. This form is available on the user portal.
After data have been collected, analyzed and submitted for publication, inform URA and acknowledge the user facilities and funding agencies in each publication. Your help is needed to keep up-to-date publications listings for all peer-reviewed journal papers, book chapters, conference proceedings and theses based on work conducted here. These publication lists allow us to demonstrate the scientific achievements and productivity of users and of this facility.
Contact the User Research Administration if you have questions or need special assistance.

Safety Training

See details on User Safety.

Use Agreements

Fully executed Use Agreement(s) between Stanford University and the user's home institution (for all users physically coming to SLAC) must be completed prior to conducting experiments at LCLS. A single Use Agreement covers all experimenters from that institution. Collaborators who are not coming to SLAC do not require a Use Agreement. A Supplemental Use Agreement is required for experimenters wishing to perform proprietary or private sector research at LCLS. Use Agreement forms are available for downloading at: add link

Proprietary research is defined as that for which users request confidentiality of proposal, data and results for a certain period of time. This research follows the guidelines for implementation by the Stanford University Faculty Senate and is executed through a Supplementary Use Agreement for Private Sector Research for each individual research proposal submitted to LCLS. Private Sector Research is subject to the Department of Energy's full-cost recovery requirement for facility charges for the use of LCLS facilities and advance payment of those charges. The facility charges are established as a dollar rate for each shift of beam time.

Experimenters interested in conducting Private Sector Research should contact the User Research Administration Manager well in advance of the anticipated experiment as the legal procedures involved may take several months to finalize. All user institutions are required to complete the Supplemental Use Agreement for Private Sector Research in addition to the Standard Use Agreement.

Proposals for Private Sector Research must be reviewed for merit and to assure that all ES&H guidelines are met in accordance with standard LCLS policies and procedures. Sufficient generic information to enable external peer and Proposal Review Panel review should be provided in proposals. Proposals designated as private sector research will be maintained in confidence during the review process to the maximum extent possible.

User Accounts

Why Have a User Account?

Each user group should have a user account to use to pick up miscellaneous items from the supply closet/stock room; order gases; send samples, dewars, or other equipment back to your institution, etc. To determine if you have a current SSRL user account or to open a user account, please read the information below and complete the User Account Form.

Establishing a User Account

The most common method of establishing a User Account is with a purchase order (PO). The PO should be made to SLAC (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) for the amount of estimated expenditures. Please do not include commercial Terms and Conditions; if the Terms and Conditions are preprinted on the form, they should be disclaimed. Please include a termination date on your Purchase Order. The suggested minimum amount to open a user account is $1000. Send the User Account Form and purchase order to:

Michelle Steger
SSRL/LCLS User Research Administration
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
2575 Sand Hill Rd., MS 99
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Tel: 650-926-3011
Fax: 650-926-8665
Email: steger@slac.stanford.edu

An alternative (and less favored) method is to establish a user account with a letter from the appropriate financial office of your home institution. The letter should include:

The amount authorized
The effective period of the authorization
A list of those authorized to incur charges
The billing address that will facilitate orderly approval and paying of invoices by your institution

Overhead

SLAC will add approximately 8% overhead to materials and supplies procured using a user account. If labor is involved, the indirect charge is 45% for users from DOE facilities and 46% for non-DOE users. In addition, the DOE Federal Administrative Charge of 3% of total costs will be applied to users from foreign institutions.

Sales Tax

California sales and use tax of 8.25% will apply to the price of all materials purchased and delivered in the state of California. The only exception to this ruling is when title of the purchased item is vested in the U.S. government. If your funding instrument includes this title clause, please include a copy of it with your purchase order or letter.

Invoices

Invoices for costs incurred by your proposal team will be submitted to your institution for payment.

Assistance

If you have any other questions related to user accounts, please contact:

Michelle Steger at 650-926-3011 or Natalie Cramar at 650-926-3648

Gases & Cryogenics

We anticipate providing a limited amount of standard gases to support LCLS experiments such as Argon, Helium, Neon, Nitrogen. If you anticipate needing other special gases or specific purity, please identify these here and contact the User Research Administration at least 4 weeks before your scheduled beam time to discuss how to procure these gases.

Computing: Accounts and Kiosk PCs

Accounts

LCLS users are encouraged to establish a group 'XU' computer account to access LCLS Near Experimental Hall (NEH) computing systems.

Proposal spokespersons or principal investigator (PI) will also need to establish an additional group account and complete the "Use of SLAC Information Resources Acknowledgement-Addendum" for their experiment team to access e-Logs of their scheduled experiment. Shared accounts require additional documentation and special approval. Shared accounts are only created and used to access experimental data for the purpose of copying the data to a home institution or external device. The PI who is the custodian of a shared account must:

ensure that only legitimate users have access to the shared account; and
maintain a list of individuals who have access to the shared account.

Additional "XR" computer accounts to access central UNIX, central WINDOWS or to access other SLAC Computing Resources require approval from the appropriate LCLS supervisor or manager.

Requests for SLAC computer accounts usually take at least 24 hours, so users are encouraged to complete training and provide documentation to User Research Administration at least one week prior to their anticipated arrival.

All persons using SLAC computer accounts are responsbible for:

completing course CS 101 Cyber Security Basics
understanding and complying with the terms outlined in the "Use of SLAC Information Resources"
completing and returning the "Declaration to be Signed by All Users of SLAC Information Resources" form
completing and returning the "SLAC Computer Account Form" form
Proposal spokespersons or principal investigator (PI) will also need to establish an additional group account and complete the "Use of SLAC Information Resources Acknowledgement-Addendum" for their experiment team to access e-Logs of their scheduled experiment.

Kiosk PCs

The kiosk PCs in Building 950 have the following list of installed software:

Windows XP
Adobe Professional
AFPL Ghostscript/Ghostview
Citrix Client
Hypersnap
Internet Explorer
Java(TM)
Microsoft Office Professional
Microsoft .NET Framework
Mozilla Firefox
Quest PuTTY
Symantec AntiVirus
XWIN32
WinSCP

User Shipments

Page Contents

Shipping Equipment and Materials to LCLS
- Hazardous Material Shipments
- Getting Shipments through U.S. Customs
Instructions for International User Shipments

Shipping Equipment and Materials to LCLS

The following contact information should be included on all shipments to LCLS:

Spokesperson's Name and c/o Instrument Scientist (Christoph Bostedt or John Bozek)
LCLS/SLAC, Bldg. 950
2575 Sand Hill Rd.
Menlo Park, CA 94025
USA

If a contactnumber is required on carrier documentation, please use SLAC Shipping Sandra Pickrom's phone number: 650-926-4247.

Due to limited storage space, we request that your equipment and/or materials arrive no more than one week before needed for setup. SLAC does not assume any liability for your equipment or materials. COD packages cannot be accepted.

Hazardous Materials Shipments

Users should consult with a materials specialist at their home institution for instructions regarding the proper shipping and handling of hazardous materials. All hazardous materials, including radioactive materials, shipped to or from LCLS must be packaged and handled according to U.S. Department of Transportation regulations, or IATA dangerous good regulations (as applicable) if being shipped from overseas. Shipments that fail to comply with these federally mandated regulations will be returned to the user's home institution unopened.

For more Information and forms regarding transportation and handling of radioactive samples at SLAC, contact Zoe Van Hoover, LCLS Safety Officer.

Requestor must supply an MSDS for all hazardous materials in shipment.

Getting Shipments through U.S. Customs
The Stanford Board of Trustees has designated Schneider Logistics to act as SLAC's agent for customs purposes. Users are advised to contact this firm for information before sending equipment/materials through U.S. Customs.

Schneider Logistics
320 Beach Road
Burlingame, CA 94020

Feedback & Publications

User Feedback Encouraged

Feedback is an important part of the Integrated Safety & Environmental Management System (ISEMS). Users are required to complete an end of run summary after each scheduled experiment. The feedback provided by users will be used to address issues raised by users and to continually improve user resources and support. User feedback will be shared with LCLS management and scientific advisory committees. Users are also encouraged to contact the Users� Organization Executive Committee to share their suggestions or concerns. Complete end of run summary through the user portal.

Acknowledge and Inform us of Your Research Results and Publications

By contacting us when exciting results are about to be published, we can work with users and the SLAC Office of Communication to develop the story and to communicate user research findings to a much broader audience. As the first facility of its kind, it is extremely important that LCLS users share the results of their experiments through scientific presentations and papers. Users are required to inform the User Research Administration of each publication or thesis based, fully or partially, on work at LCLS. These publications are extremely important in presenting scientific achievements and productive use of the valuable resource of beam time.

Additionally, as members of the SLAC community, LCLS scientists have the responsibility for ensuring that any manuscript based on research conducted at SLAC which has been (or will be) submitted for publication outside of SLAC is also published as a SLAC Publication. Several help pages are available through InfoMedia to help authors meet reporting requirements.

All publications, and student theses, related to work fully or partially undertaken at LCLS should contain the following acknowledgement:

"Portions of this research were carried out at the Linac Coherent Light Source, a national user facility operated by Stanford University on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences."

LCLS Newsletters

LCLS Policies

LCLS Access Policy Overview

LCLS aims to attract diverse users and to enable a broad set of important science that takes advantage of its unique capabilities. With these aims in mind, LCLS has been designed to include six experimental stations with wide-ranging capabilities, a science-driven user program (PowerPoint Animated Presentation, press F5 to view presentation after opening file. Or download static PDF), and a staff dedicated to facilitating user experiments.

achieving FEL performance baseline goals as soon as possible,
commissioning the first instruments,
producing high-impact early science,
achieving a rapid and orderly transition to a general user program.

Most of the FEL performance baseline goals have already been met and exceeded. Parameters are updated frequently. Instruments are being built and commissioned, and the user science program has begun. LCLS access and proposal review policies have been posted to describe in detail the process that LCLS management uses to review, select and schedule experiments.

LCLS Policy on Duplication of Effort

A new LCLS proposal to work in areas previously studied by others will be weighed considering this factor.

LCLS Policy on Significant Deviation from Proposed Research in a Rated Proposal

It is recognized that, occasionally, some deviation from the original proposed research may occur during the course of an experiment. Deviation from the proposed work that follows either from a new idea arising from the research or from new information since the proposal was submitted is acceptable assuming it does not cover material in a rated proposal from another user group or material that has been discussed commonly and is in the public domain. Deviations or questions should be directed to the User Research Administration Manager.

LCLS Policy on Instrumentation Development

Although most of the proposals active at LCLS are for experimental work aimed at producing significant new scientific results or technological applications, LCLS also welcomes proposals for testing and developing scientific instrumentation, particularly when the instruments are likely to have impact on the developing field.

LCLS Policy on Reporting Requirements and Acknowledgement Statements

As the first facility of its kind, it is extremely important that LCLS users share the results of their experiments through scientific presentations and papers. Users are required to inform the User Research Administration of each publication or thesis based, fully or partially, on work at LCLS. These publications are extremely important in presenting scientific achievements and productive use of the valuable resource of beam time.

All publications, and student theses, related to work fully or partially undertaken at LCLS should contain the following acknowledgement:

"Portions of this research were carried out at the Linac Coherent Light Source, a national user facility operated by Stanford University on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences."

Guidelines for collaboration, publications and press of LCLS experiments

The collaborations that perform experiments at LCLS are in many cases larger than those of typical synchrotron experiments. It is also likely that experiments performed at LCLS will lead to publications in high-impact journals that might attract significant public interest. In addition, in the early phase the contributions from LCLS staff will probably go beyond that of routine beamline support, and justify co-authorship of resulting publications. Although there is no reason to expect that the collaborations will not be aware of or follow the common ethics rules of collaborative research, the potential risk of problems is somewhat enhanced under all of these circumstances. We have therefore put together some guidelines and reminders that the collaboration should establish before the start of experiments. Furthermore, the collaboration should agree in advance on a primary spokesperson for each experiment with whom correspondence, questions, and press should be coordinated. The principle investigator(s) takes responsibility that these following guidelines are observed.

Establishing authorship. Ideally, the authorship of a potential publication should be established before the experiment is carried out. However, the author list on the proposal might not be the same as on the publication as the scope of the work and/or the individual contributions might not be correctly anticipated when a proposal is submitted. If the contribution of a person not listed on the proposal justifies co-authorship that person as well as all other collaborators should be informed as early as possible. This should also be done if a person listed on the proposal will not be a co-author. If there are questions or disagreements about co-authorship of LCLS staff, LCLS management should be contacted as early as possible.
Presentation of the research. Clear rules within the collaboration should be established to control where, when, by whom, to whom, and to what extent the research can be presented. This is particularly important for unpublished work because some journals are very strict with regards to previously presented results. All authors should be informed in advance if anyone in the collaboration plans to present the work.
Publication and press. LCLS and SLAC communications as well as the communications groups from all collaborating institutes should be informed as soon as a paper has been accepted for publication, or if there is a strong indication that it will be accepted. All communications groups will coordinate with each other and with the authors if, how, and when the press will be contacted in conjunction with a publication (e.g. a press release, news article, science highlight, etc). Requests for information, interviews, quotes for news articles, etc. should be referred to the primary spokesperson for that experiment. Authors who are contacted by the press in conjunction with a publication or press release should inform all co-authors and should make their best effort to acknowledge everyone.
Acknowledgments. Besides the particular acknowledgment of persons or groups that were helpful in carrying out the research the following standard acknowledgment should be given in all publications (provided they allow acknowledgments): �Portions of this research were carried out at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. LCLS is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences.�

LCLS Proposal Review Process

LCLS proposal rating is carried out by the Proposal Review Panel (PRP). PRP members will base their ratings on reviews by external experts and can act as reviewers. Users are asked to provide names of three potential reviewers (or reviewers who should be excluded due to conflict of interest). The PRP will decide which external reviewers will be selected, they might not be those suggested by the users. LCLS management can help to facilitate the review process, but is not involved in selecting the reviewers.

The PRP will consist of 14 members each serving two years with the possibility of a one year extension. As we are establishing the PRP process and start the phasing in and phasing out of new members, both the number of PRP members as well as the time they serve might slightly deviate from these numbers. The PRP meets twice a year at SLAC for two full days, and we will establish these meeting dates well in advance.

Calls for proposals will be publicized about six months before the PRP meeting date with a deadline for submission three months before the PRP meeting. After due deliberation, the PRP will provide LCLS management with a rank ordered list of proposals. Only proposals that fall within the top percentage considered for beam time will be ranked.

PRP Guidelines

At the beginning of the PRP meeting LCLS will give an update to the PRP members concerning the status of the machine and the instruments. LCLS management will provide the approximate number of experiments which can be accommodated within the available beam time. This number will be compared with the number of proposed experiments to establish the top percentage of proposals that will be allocated beam time. The remainder of day one and day two will be used by the PRP for the review and ranking of the proposals. This evaluation of proposals by the PRP will be held in closed session, however at the discretion of the PRP chair one ore more representatives from LCLS management without voting rights can be invited. The PRP can also request input from LCLS scientists with regards to technical issues and feasibility. LCLS will make an effort to have the relevant scientists available during the PRP meeting.

The suggested evaluation scheme follows a two step scheme but the exact procedure of pre-ranking and ranking is left to the discretion of the PRP chair:

PRP members will form subgroups, each corresponding to a different research field. LCLS will provide a list of research fields to the PRP as of October, 2009 the following fields have been chosen: biology, AMO, MEC, hard condensed matter, soft condensed matter, chemistry, methods & instrumentation. Each group will review and rank the proposals for its assigned research field, independently from the other groups. This ranking for each field is relative (e.g. first, second, third, etc.). Each group establishes the number of proposals that fall into the top percentage plus an additional margin for proposals that are at the limit. (For example, if the top percentage is 10% and a field has 35 proposals, the top three or four would make the cut, and the group should rank at least the top 5 proposals. However, it is up to each group to suggest if additional or less proposals of their respective fields merit presentation to the whole PRP. This can be an issue in particular if a field has received very view proposals.) Proposals outside of the margin presented to the whole PRP do not need to be further ranked.
After the rankings by field the full PRP meets for the combined evaluation of these preselected proposals. At the end of this second round of evaluation the PRP gives the ranking for all experiments which should get beam time. In addition, the PRP ranks several additional proposals as �backup� in case one or more of the selected proposals cannot be allocated beam time because of safety, technical or financial reasons. Once the PRP

Each proposal should be accompanied by the comments from the external experts and by a short statement from the PRP justifying the ranking, or why they did not fall within the top ranked proposals.

Beam time allocation and user notification

All PIs will be notified shortly after the PRP meeting if or if not their proposal will be considered for beam time allocation. This notification will come from the LCLS director and will include the PRP statements and comments from external experts. Even if a proposal is considered for beam time allocation it is not yet guaranteed beam time! LCLS management will work out which of the suggested proposal will receive beam time based upon the PRP ranking as well as safety, technical, feasibility, strategic, machine, and scheduling issues. Upon approval of the schedule by the LCLS director, all PIs of those proposals who are considered for beam time allocation will be notified if or of not, when and how much beam time has been allocated. This notification will include a statement by LCLS to justify this decision. The LCLS beam time schedule including the name of the PI will be posted on the LCLS User web site.