LCLS Policies and Guidelines

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.

LCLS is in early start-up operations phase. The goals during this phase are:

achieving FEL performance goals,
commissioning the first instruments,
producing high-impact early science.

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.
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Policy on Installation of User-Supplied Endstations at LCLS

In the coming two years, LCLS is expecting to install and commission five complete new instruments: four hard X-ray (CXI, MEC, XCS, XPP) and one soft X-ray (SXR). The hard X-ray instruments are built to provide users with a complete instrument, including optics, diagnostics and an endstation which includes sample environments and detectors. The SXR instrument in contrast, is built without dedicated endstations which are expected to be provided by the users.

The hard X-ray endstations were designed under the principle that LCLS would provide a base set of equipment to which it would be possible for users to add components which may be required for their approved experiments. LCLS believes that the vast majority of experiments on LCLS can be accommodated by each of the instruments being built and assembled over the next two years.

The demands on LCLS resources in the coming two years are going to be extreme in order to turn on all five of the new instruments as scheduled. It will therefore not be possible for LCLS to support the integration of new user-supplied endstations in any of the hard X-ray hutches. New user-supplied endstations will only be supported on SXR if user proposals are approved by the LCLS Proposal Review Panel and they pass the LCLS Technical Feasibility Review. Endstations which have already been installed in AMO will continue to be supported on the AMO instrument.

LCLS still encourages the addition of small components to the existing LCLS instruments and will consider such additions proposed by users during the LCLS Technical Feasibility Review. However, removal of the existing LCLS endstations to be replaced by user-supplied endstations will not be considered by LCLS until all the new LCLS instruments are commissioned and resources become more available. It is expected that sufficient resources may be available around September 2012.

Therefore, no user-supplied endstations requiring the removal of existing LCLS endstations will be installed at LCLS in any of the hutches other than SXR for what is expected to be the next 3 calls for proposals, including the fourth call due on June 1, 2010. LCLS reserves the right to modify this policy based on the availability of resources and will update users on the possibility of integrating user-supplied endstations prior to future calls for proposals.

LCLS wishes to apologize for any inconvenience, real or perceived, this policy may cause to users. It is the belief of LCLS that this is a necessary course of action in order to deliver in a timely manner the high quality instruments promised to the user community.

LCLS strongly encourages prospective users to contact the LCLS staff scientists in charge of the instruments to discuss how the existing LCLS instrumentation can be used to allow their exciting new science to be performed.

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LCLS Policy For Providing End Stations to the SXR Instrument

This policy represents the agreement between LCLS management and all parties providing SXR end stations, including the SXR consortium, regarding general user access to the end stations.

LCLS is a general user facility with the overall mission to enable the best science proposed by users world-wide. In writing scientific proposals, users can access technical details about the SXR facility and available end stations on the SXR webpage and are encouraged to contact the SXR instrument staff if questions arise.

Selection of scientific proposals is based on peer review by the LCLS Proposal Review Committee (PRP) which ranks proposals on scientific merit. LCLS management assigns beam time based on these reviews, safety considerations and technical feasibility evaluations derived from consultation with SXR scientific staff. If necessary, SXR scientific staff solicits input from the teams who have built SXR endstations.

Because LCLS is a DOE funded general user facility, it is the goal of LCLS management, following DOE facility guidelines, to enable the best scientific experiments at LCLS, based on the peer-review evaluation system outlined above. Contributions of consortium members to the SXR instrument and end stations have been rewarded by early involvement of consortium scientists in planning and directing instrumentation, participation in the commissioning of the SXR facility, and by certain privileges outlined in an existing MoU.

Following the spirit and philosophy of the original agreement between the SRX consortium and LCLS management, it has been anticipated that after commissioning all facilities, including end stations, should be made available to general users with approved beam time. The following discussion is provided for particular scenarios that may arise:

All consortium built end stations are integrated into the SXR facility by the consortium in collaboration with LCLS staff. After installation, the end stations must be made available to all general users with approved proposals. It is understood that general user proposals must address and alleviate all concerns regarding contamination or damage to the equipment. Members of the team providing a given end station are expected to work closely with the LCLS staff to provide support to the general users. The end station support team will be part of published results following authorship principles established by high impact journals such as Nature, Science or PRL. LCLS will work to find a suitable schedule that fits both the needs of the general users and the end station builders for a given run. To enable efficient operation of the consortium operated user end stations, LCLS provides a comparable number of maintenance and commissioning shifts as for LCLS operated experimental stations.

After a consortium-built end station has been used during a run on LCLS, it may be moved away from LCLS until it is needed for subsequent LCLS user beam time. Because of LCLS�s investment of integrating a station into LCLS, all efforts should be made to make the station available for general users, even if the building team is not granted beam time during a scheduling period. Scheduling should avoid conflicts of end station use allowing for priority needs of end station owners. Transportation cost to and from LCLS, maintenance and repair cost, and potential travel expenses of the support staff, arising from end station use other than by the end station owners, will also be covered by LCLS. User support during the LCLS beam time follows the rules stated above.

General user end stations may also be proposed for installation on LCLS. Such plans need to be discussed with the SXR instrument staff prior to submission of a beam time proposal and must also be part of the submitted proposal. Due to the costly overhead of integration of a new end station to the LCLS system, the user must be willing to share the end station with other users with approved proposals. LCLS will develop a suitable schedule that fits both the needs of the end station builders and general users. Support and co-authorship in this case will follow the rules regarding consortium-built end stations stated above.

The intellectual property of a proposal (i.e. the exact experiment, or idea or samples used) does not need to be shared with any end station builder/owner in order to have access to that end station. A certain understanding on technical issues however does need to be established and coordinated through the SXR instrument scientists, preferable prior to submitting proposals. After being granted beam time, the intellectual property of the proposal needs to be shared with the entire support team.

In all cases, support provided by members of the end station team will merit co-authorship and the opportunity to engage scientifically on all resulting publications. This does not automatically include the PIs or owners of the instrument but requires their active contributions to the research, in accord with established authorship criteria. LCLS staff will be acknowledged according to LCLS policy.

All work should have the following acknowledgement:

"Portions of this research were carried out on the SXR Instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), a division of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and an Office of Science user facility operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy. The SXR Instrument is funded by a consortium whose membership includes the LCLS, Stanford University through the Stanford Institute for Materials Energy Sciences (SIMES), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), University of Hamburg through the BMBF priority program FSP 301, and the Center for Free Electron Laser Science (CFEL)."

LCLS Policy on Reporting Requirements and Acknowledgement Statements

All LCLS users are required to inform the LCLS User Research Administration (URA) office of accepted papers. Communicating with URA is necessary to ensure public awareness of LCLS science and continued facility funding. In addition, advance notification of publications amplifies media efforts (i.e. press releases and features).

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 (LCLS) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. LCLS is an Office of Science User Facility operated for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science by Stanford University."

LCLS scientists are also responsible for complying with SLAC SciDoc publication procedures.

Guidelines for Press Releases and Public Communications

To ensure effective communication, the collaboration should agree on a primary spokesperson (who generally is one of the corresponding authors) for each experiment with whom correspondence, questions and press should be coordinated.
Clear rules within the collaboration should be established to control when, where and how the research can be presented. These rules will be determined in part by a publication's embargo guidelines.
LCLS URA and communications contacts from all collaborating institutions 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.
If a press release or any public statement is to be issued, the following should be considered:
- Any public statement made by members of the collaboration must first be cleared for release by the spokesperson. The home institution of the spokesperson will lead the coordination of communications relating to the statement.
- The spokesperson's institution has the right to issue the first public communication, although other institutions may simultaneously release information based on the lead institution�s timeline. If the spokesperson�s institution does not wish to prepare information for public release but is comfortable with others releasing information, LCLS URA, working with SLAC communications, will coordinate that information release.
- The spokesperson�s institution�s communications office will draft the public communication and share it with the communications offices of all collaborating institutions at least one week prior to the planned release of the information.
- All institutions planning to issue a press release or public statement should inform the spokesperson and the spokesperson's office of communication.
- All press releases involving LCLS research must include the following LCLS boilerplate:
  "The Linac Coherent Light Source is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science-funded facility located at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. LCLS is the world�s first hard X-ray free-electron laser, allowing researchers to see atomic-scale detail on ultrafast timescales. The LCLS enables groundbreaking research in physics, chemistry, structural biology, energy science and many other diverse fields."
- A media contact from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory should be included along with any other institutional or scientific contacts. The contact should include the following information:
  Andrew Freeberg
  SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
  afreeberg@slac.stanford.edu
  +1-650-926-4359
- A reference to the scientific publication should be included to help journalists who receive different versions of the release from different institutions.

LCLS Proposal Review Process

LCLS proposal review and rating is carried out by the Proposal Review Panel (PRP). PRP members will base their ratings on peer reviews. LCLS management can help to facilitate the review process, but is not involved in selecting the reviewers.

The PRP consists of more than 50 international experts. 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.

Beam time allocation and user notification

The proposal spokesperson will be notified after the PRP meeting whether their proposal will be considered for beam time allocation. This notification will come from the LCLS director and will include the PRP comments. 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, the proposal spokesperson will be notified. This notification will include a statement by LCLS to justify this decision. The LCLS beam time schedule including the proposal title and name of the proposal spokesperson will be posted on the LCLS User web site.

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 may be 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. All deviations must be discussed with the instrument scientist. Questions may be directed to LCLS management or 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.