Awareness and empowerment as a "must" for open access: sharing experiences in the creation and development of the "Nancy Style" to guarantee quality in document production and distribution

** BACKGROUND – The debate on Grey Literature (GL) has now a very long tradition going from uncertainty and confusion, in the last century, to new certainties and appraisal in the open access era. This implies the general acquisition of the awareness of the importance of GL as a fundamental primary source of information, hence the necessity to empower authors and issuing organization to guarantee quality both in the production and diffusion of GL. During the last international conference on GL held in Nancy in 2005, the proposal for the adoption of an ad hoc style was discussed and most welcome by the grey community. This led to the creation of the Grey Literature International Steering Committee (GLISC), which issued, in March 2006, the Guidelines for the production of scientific and technical reports (freely available from www.glisc.info) informally known as "Nancy Style". ** GOAL – The paper will point out some key points in the creation of the Guidelines with the objective to exploit and further develop them at best, according to the aims for which they were created and keeping pace with technologies and Internet requirements, mainly as regards open access and metadata. In particular, as promoters of the Guidelines and members of the GLISC, the experience of working with national and international realities will be reported to reflect on the importance of: a) creating a useful reference document applicable to different realities and contexts, b) investigating on the strategies to promote the adoption of the Guidelines involving authors and issuing organizations, c) keeping alert on the evolving necessities of the information market. Research method – The major points of discussion and difficulties encountered for the creation of the Guidelines will be analysed to reflect on the selection process required to reach consensus at international level, even within a small group of experts within a specific field. During the working process, leading to the Guidelines, the authors of this study came in touch with other standards, guidelines, house styles, etc. Comparisons will be made with such documents in view of a future updating of the Guidelines. In particular, the recent ANSI Z3918 standard on the production of scientific and technical reports (released in 2005) will be compared with the present "Nancy Style", and new items for a possible integration will be proposed. ** RESULTS – Traditionally editorial rules and ethical considerations were disregarded in the production of GL with negative implications on its quality. The Guidelines represent a basic step to improve quality in the different stages of GL production in view of a wider circulation. The results obtained after the first period of their use will be given with the expectation that they contribute to create the right awareness for a responsible production and diffusion of GL. Thus, the Guidelines shall be regularly updated with shared consensus to respond to the changing environments and host the most qualified expert advice. The members of GL community should promote their diffusion mainly within GL issuing organizations that are less aware of existing standards regulating GL production and distribution.Includes: Conference preprint, Powerpoint presentation, Abstract and Biographical notes, Pratt student commentaryXAInternationa