Resouce: FAQs
Title: Expert Policies for ESTME Week-March, 2004
Information: What are the "Expert Policies for ESTME Week"?
Expert Policies for ESTME Week
Please note the following definitions of terms used in the policies below:
Answer - factual information or conceptual explanations based primarily on the knowledge and skills of the individual expert providing the answer; preferably also contains citations to other reliable sources for confirmation or additional information on the topic
Response - referrals to authoritative and/or high quality information sources relevant to and specifically targeted to the question as asked; information as provided may or may not include an "answer" to the question as posed
Students will receive either an answer or a response to their question in the shortest turnaround time possible (typically within 24 hours). The only exception to this policy would be in the event of abuse of service (see below).
Experts will be required to complete an online expert registration form.
Experts will be encouraged to complete at least one practice question prior to the beginning of ESTME so that any questions or technical issues may be resolved in advance. Joyce Wheatley will work directly with experts to provide job aids for the use of the question answering software and to provide practice questions for this purpose.
Experts interested in volunteering their time and expertise will be expected to agree prior to the beginning of ESTME to the approximate number of questions they expect to be able to answer either per day or during the entire week (assuming that this number of questions in their area of expertise is available).
Experts will be encouraged to agree to answer at least 3 questions during ESTME Week.
Experts will be solely responsible for the correctness, objectivity, and completeness of the answers. Neither the National Science Foundation nor the ESTME service administration team will review answers for quality, correctness, objectivity, or completeness.
Experts will receive any thank you messages, feedback or follow-up sent by users. In particular, any questions or comments on the quality, completeness, or relevance of the information provided by an expert will be referred to that expert directly. The expert will then exercise his or her own professional judgment as to whether any follow-up response (clarification, correction, etc.) to the student is warranted. Neither the National Science Foundation nor the ESTME service administration team will justify, clarify, or correct answers provided by volunteer experts.
Experts will not be expected to provide answers to questions requiring an opinion on any moral, ethical, legal, medical, or controversial topics. Questions of this type will receive a referral response from the ESTME service administration team. These responses will include either a referral to the patron's own doctor or lawyer, or a balanced collection of resources from reliable, authoritative sources intended to provide scientific information upon which a student might base his or her own opinion.
Abuse of Service / Inappropriate Questions
The following situations would constitute an abuse of this service; the ESTME service administration team would intercept these questions and respond to the student with information about the scope and intent of the ESTME service.
* Repeated instances of the same user submitting the same or very similar question
* Comments or questions wholly unrelated to the activities or topics of ESTME
* Comments or questions containing offensive language
Questions about the policies outlined above should be directed to Blythe Bennett at blytheb@vrd.org
Category: NSDL Expert Training
