OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic

Meeting of the Intersessional Correspondence Group to Manage Preparation and Publication of the Intermediate Assessment 2017 and the Quality Status Report 2021 (ICG-MAQ)

Secretariat: 14 July 2016

Post Meeting Note: Finalisation Checklist for Indicator Assessment Leads

Date: Thursday 4 August, 2016

To: Indicator Assessment Leads

From: ICG-MAQ

Finalisation Checklist for Indicator Assessment Leads (MAQ’s 13 step guide to finalisation)

This note has been prepared by ICG-MAQ for all Indicator Assessment Leads contributing to the Intermediate Assessment 2017. The checklist provided within this note combines feedback received at both OSPAR 2016 and CoG(1) 2016, alongside general points that have arisen throughout the drafting process. This checklist complements existing guidance for the IA 2017, including the “assessment sheet guidance” and the “recommendations and guidance for indicator leads from MAQ (4) 2015”1.

During the finalisation process Indicator Assessment Leads should ensure that they have considered each question presented in Table 1 below.

Table 1 Finalisation Checklist

No. Question Tick

1. Have you adhered to your word counts throughout the brief sections?

2. Have you considered the layout of the A4 two page summary sheets?The A4 two page summary sheets will be made using the brief content (in your assessment sheet template). Word counts for each brief section are absolute. The number of images and figures that can be included will be dependent on the size of the figures provided, for example if you have a detailed graph with small text, this will need to be clearly readable so could potentially take up 50% of one A4 page. This is fine, but this means you will have less space for text.

3. Have you remembered who your audience is for each section?

The brief sections are for non-scientists, the language used should be easy to understand for a person with no background in science. Consider each word used, is this something that a member of the public would be able to understand? You can still use technical terms but they need to be explained, e.g. demersal (living close to the floor of the sea) and pelagic (relating to the open sea) communities; and

The extended sections are intended for a more technical / scientific audience and can be as in depth as you like, however they still need to be fully explained throughout. I.e. if you mention EUNIS, it needs to be introduced as ‘The European Nature Information System

1 http://www.ospar.org/work-areas/cross-cutting-issues/intermediate-assessment-2017-resources

(EUNIS) database’ and explained as if a person has never heard of it before.

4. Have you avoided assumed knowledge throughout?

The reader may be new to OSPAR and not have existing knowledge of projects and work streams. Therefore everything must be written in full or briefly explained (as appropriate), in brief and extended versions. All acronyms should be outlined fully when used for the first time in an Assessment Sheet.

5. Have you considered how the assessment will be presented in its online form?

All extended sections will be minimized until expanded by the user, but once expanded the text will immediately follow the brief text above it (i.e. avoid direct repetition).

6. Do the sections build upon each other and tell a coherent story?

7. Have you checked your key message?It should be the ‘headlines’ of the assessment, what are the main conclusions? What is the most important thing for a reader to take away from your work?State the outcome of the assessment – not just a description of the indicator.Make the first sentence a ‘hookline’, i.e. interesting and attractive to entice the reader to read on and find out more from the rest of the assessment.Ensure continuity between key messages and conclusions sections.Move any contextual information to the background section, e.g. an explanation of the substance, or description of a contaminant’s source.Provide an overall message for the whole OSPAR Maritime Area.Do highlight the key implications for marine life, in simple terminology. For example, concentrations or abundance was at levels below that likely harm to marine life.(Source OSPAR Summary Record (OSPAR 16/20/1, §3.21).

8. Have you avoided using references within the brief sections?A link / signpost to all extended content will be included on each of the A4 two page summary sheets. This will be done as a standard by the Secretariat.

9. Have you been consistent with terminology throughout the assessment?

10. Have you described your indicator assessment correctly as an ‘indicator Assessment’ throughout the assessment sheet?The indicator is the ‘thing’ that we have agreed as OSPAR to assess as it is representative of the state of the marine environment. The document you are producing to go in to the Intermediate Assessment 2017 is an assessment of that indicator. Therefore when talking about the assessment sheet presented, it should not be called the ‘indicator’, but the indicator assessment.

11. Have you provided the Secretariat with the raw data behind all of your graphs and figures?This is necessary if the Secretariat needs to re-draw these graphs/ figures in the design and layout stage of production.

12. Have you provided the Secretariat with high quality versions of the figures / images to be used within your assessment (and labelled them clearly)?

13. Have you completed the metadata table?

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