International Alliance for Regional Innovation and Standardization
Procedures for the Management of Alliance International Standards
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 These Procedures are formulated to meet the needs of international dissemination of innovation and standardization, to advance the internationalization of innovative standards, and to strengthen and regulate the procedures for developing and revising International Alliance for Regional Innovation and Standardization (hereinafter referred to as "the Alliance") standards.
Article 2 Alliance International Standards are standards developed, revised, and published by the Alliance, which may be voluntarily adopted by member organizations, branches, or other entities within and beyond the Alliance.
Article 3 The development and revision of Alliance standards shall follow these principles:
(1) Not contravening relevant laws or regulations of any country or region;
(2) Coordinating the relationship between Alliance standards and existing international standards to form a new, collaborative, mutually reinforcing, and synergistic international alliance standard system for innovation;
(3) Adhering to principles of openness, impartiality, and fairness, and developing Alliance international standards in a scientific, rigorous, and regulated manner.
Article 4 The numbering format for Alliance standards is "IARIS serial number – year of publication".
Article 5 Alliance standards shall be written and published in English and Chinese (for terminology standards, in English and the target language). In case of any discrepancy, the Chinese text shall prevail.
Chapter II Organizational Structure and Responsibilities
Article 6 The Alliance Secretariat is responsible for standard management and standardization development.
Article 7 The Alliance Secretariat establishes an International Standards Department, which is a functional department fully responsible for the Alliance's standardization development; and establishes a Standard Review Expert Committee, which is an advisory body responsible for providing consultation on standardization work and reviewing standards. As needed, the Secretariat may authorize the International Standards Department to organize domestic and international experts to form expert groups responsible for standard consultation and review.
Article 8 The main responsibilities of the International Standards Department are:
(1) Drafting the standard development plan;
(2) Organizing standard research;
(3) Organizing the development and revision of standards;
(4) Promoting standard implementation;
(5) Forming standard review expert groups.
Article 9 The main responsibilities of the Standard Review Expert Committee are:
(1) Undertaking commissioned evaluation or review of standards, and being responsible for the technical content and review quality of the standard texts;
(2) Providing advisory opinions on the development, revision, publication, and promotion of standards;
(3) Investigating and analyzing the implementation of standards.
Chapter III Procedures for Standard Development and Revision
Article 10 The development and revision of standards consist of seven stages: preliminary stage, proposal stage, drafting stage, consultation stage, review stage, approval stage, and publication stage. If an application is rejected or the previous stage is not completed, the next stage may not proceed.
Article 11 The standard development and publication cycle is 1 to 2 years. Under the fast-track procedure, the minimum development cycle is 3 months. Any standard project not published within 3 years shall be automatically withdrawn and requires a new application; under special circumstances, an extension of up to 6 months may be granted upon application and approval.
Section 1 Preliminary Stage
Article 12 The preliminary stage is the stage where a new work item is proposed. The proposer, based on thorough research on the feasibility and necessity of the project and an investigation of relevant domestic and international situations, submits a proposal for a new work item. (Note: The proposer engaged in standard development or revision shall have a high theoretical level and extensive practical experience in production, operation, scientific research, teaching, application, and other aspects of the relevant field.)
The International Standards Department may include preliminary work items that are not yet fully mature and cannot immediately enter the proposal stage in its work plan. These items include projects from strategic plans, emerging technology projects, etc. The International Standards Department shall periodically review and evaluate preliminary work items.
Section 2 Proposal Stage
Article 13 Proposals for new work items may be submitted by the following relevant organizations or individuals:
(1) Organizational members of the Alliance;
(2) Individual members;
(3) Branches;
(4) The Secretariat/Senior Expert Advisory Committee/Working Advisory Committee;
(5) Other standardization-related organizations and bodies.
Article 14 A new work item proposal includes the following:
(1) A new standard;
(2) A new part of an existing standard;
(3) A revision of an existing standard or part thereof.
Article 15 The proposer of a new work item shall, in principle, be the person in charge of the organization or body proposing the standard, and shall:
(1) Complete the "Application Form for Development/Revision Project Proposal";
(2) Provide a working draft for discussion, at minimum providing an outline of the working draft;
(3) Appoint a project leader.
Article 16 The procedure for proposing a new work item is:
(1) The International Standards Department conducts a formal review of the proposal, mainly examining: the "Application Form for Development/Revision Project Proposal", the draft (or draft outline), and whether at least five countries or regions (Note: Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR, and Taiwan region are counted separately) have experts willing to participate in the development or revision of the standard.
(2) After the formal review is passed, the International Standards Department distributes the "Application Form for Development/Revision Project Proposal" and the draft (or draft outline) to the relevant committees or standard proposal expert groups for review, and completes the "Voting Ballot for New Work Item Proposal". If a simple majority of the experts participating in the proposal review votes in favor, the new work item proposal is deemed approved.
If additional supplementary demonstration is required for the project, the proposal shall be resubmitted for consideration after such supplementary demonstration.
(3) After the new work item proposal is approved, it shall be filed by the International Standards Department and submitted to the Alliance Secretariat for deliberation. Upon approval, a project initiation notice shall be issued, and the proposal shall be publicly announced on the Alliance's official website www.iaris.org for one month.
Article 17 For standards that are technically mature and urgently needed by society, after the International Standards Department conducts a formal review of the project, the project may be submitted directly to the Alliance Secretary-General for discussion and approval.
Article 18 The proposal stage shall generally not exceed 2 months.
Section 3 Drafting Stage
Article 19 Identify the main drafters and form a drafting working group. The working group leader shall be the project proposer or the project leader.
Article 20 The working group shall incorporate the latest scientific and technological achievements from various countries, combine practical experience, and hold various seminars and discussion meetings to ultimately form a working draft. At the same time, a "Drafting Description" shall be prepared.
Article 21 After filing by the International Standards Department, the working draft, drafting description, and relevant attachments are distributed to relevant branches or expert groups for review. Feedback on the review shall be provided to the International Standards Department within 15 working days. Upon signature by the branch director or the expert group leader, the drafting stage is concluded. The standard draft then enters the consultation stage as a committee draft.
Article 22 The drafting stage shall generally not exceed 10 months.
Section 4 Consultation Stage
Article 23 The consultation stage mainly adopts online public consultation to seek broad opinions from all parties, including producers, consumers, administrators, researchers, etc.
The materials for the consultation stage include: the committee draft text, the drafting description, and relevant attachments. The committee draft shall be completed in the prescribed format, and all materials shall be submitted in both English and Chinese (for terminology standards, in English and the target language).
Article 24 The consulted entities or individuals must complete a "Single Ballot Voting Form" and respond with their comments before the consultation deadline. Failure to respond by the deadline shall be deemed as no objection. The period for online public consultation shall generally be 30 days.
Article 25 The International Standards Department collects and organizes comments from all parties to form a "Summary of Comments" and feeds it back to the drafting working group. The working group revises the committee draft based on the collected comments and completes a "Summary of Comments Processing Form". When all technical issues are resolved, the standard draft, as a consultation draft, is filed with the International Standards Department, and the consultation stage is concluded.
Article 26 The consultation stage shall generally not exceed 5 months.
Section 5 Review Stage
Article 27 The review stage takes the form of a meeting review, with the main purpose of coordinating interests of all parties and reaching consensus on technical content.
The materials for the review stage include: the consultation draft text, the drafting description, and relevant attachments. All materials shall be submitted in both English and Chinese (for terminology standards, in English and the target language).
Article 28 The International Standards Department organizes relevant experts to conduct the review based on the standard's content. Fifteen days before the review, the meeting materials shall be distributed to the relevant experts. At the conclusion of the meeting review, the experts complete a "Draft Voting Ballot". The number of experts participating in the meeting review shall be odd. The review is approved if at least two-thirds of the votes cast are in favor and the number of negative votes does not exceed one-quarter.
Article 29 The drafting working group prepares a meeting review summary, synthesizes and analyzes the experts' comments, revises the consultation draft accordingly, completes a "Summary of Comments Processing Form", and submits it to the International Standards Department.
Article 30 The revised standard draft becomes the final draft international standard, is filed with the International Standards Department, and the review stage is concluded.
Article 31 The review stage shall generally not exceed 5 months.
Section 6 Approval Stage
Article 32 The International Standards Department conducts a formal review of the submission materials for the final draft international standard. If the formal review is passed, the International Standards Department submits the draft to the Alliance Secretariat for deliberation and decision on whether to submit it to the Alliance Council for voting.
The materials for the approval stage include: the final draft international standard text, the drafting description, and relevant attachments. All materials shall be submitted in both Chinese and English (for terminology standards, in Chinese and the target language).
Article 33 Council voting may be conducted by meeting or by correspondence. The focus of review is on whether there are any major principle issues and whether the work procedures have been followed. Upon voting by the Council, the standard is approved as an Alliance organizational standard if at least two-thirds of the valid votes are in favor and the number of negative votes does not exceed one-quarter.
Article 34 The approval stage shall generally not exceed 2 months.
Section 7 Publication and Release
Article 35 The Alliance Chairperson signs the announcement for the release of the Alliance International Standard. The announcement is in both English and Chinese and is published on the Alliance's official website.
Article 36 Alliance International Standards may be jointly published by the Alliance and other relevant organizations.
Article 37 Alliance International Standards shall be uniformly organized for publication in printed form by the International Standards Department, and the copyright shall belong to the Alliance.
Section 8 Review (Stability Assessment)
Article 38 After implementation, Alliance International Standards shall be periodically reviewed by the International Standards Department in light of developments in relevant fields. The review period shall generally not exceed 5 years.
Article 39 The review may be conducted by meeting or by correspondence. Upon completion of the review, a "Review Conclusion Form" shall be completed.
Article 40 The results of the review shall be handled as follows:
(1) For an Alliance International Standard confirmed to remain valid, its serial number and year number shall not be changed.
(2) For an Alliance International Standard requiring revision, it shall be proposed as a revision project. The proposal procedure follows Section 2 of Chapter III. The serial number of the revised Alliance International Standard remains unchanged, and the original year number is replaced by the year of revision.
(3) For an Alliance International Standard confirmed as no longer necessary, it shall be withdrawn. The number of a withdrawn standard shall not be reused for another standard.
Article 41 The review results shall be announced on the Alliance's website.
Section 9 Fast-Track Procedure
Article 42 For standard projects that have a good research foundation, receive financial support, are urgently needed by society, or for national standards, industry standards, local standards, association standards, or enterprise standards that are technically mature and suitable for domestic and international promotion, after passing the proposal review, they may enter the corresponding review process as a "consultation draft" or "final draft international standard" based on their level of maturity.
Article 43 Branch standards of the Alliance may, after completing a one-year trial period, prepare a "Trial Implementation Report" and directly enter the subsequent Alliance International Standard review process as consultation drafts.
Chapter IV Supplementary Provisions
Article 44 These Procedures for the Management of International Standards of the International Alliance for Regional Innovation and Standardization shall be interpreted by the International Alliance for Regional Innovation and Standardization.
Article 45 These Procedures shall take effect as of the date of their publication.
