Quality Assurance Requirements
As a trinational environmental organization responsible for providing information of the highest quality to the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, and to decision makers and the public-at-large, the CEC must apply rigorous quality assurance standards to its information products. CEC staff, working groups, and consultants must be aware of these standards and adhere to them.
Quality Assurance Policy and Procedures: Publications and Information Products, to be found on this webpage, had its genesis in the Council mandate to a tripartite Expert Group on Scientific Integrity and Quality Assurance to prepare a Draft Quality Management Framework that would “insure scientific integrity and quality assurance for all projects, activities and publications” disseminated by the CEC. That Framework forms the basis of the present Quality Assurance Policy and Procedures document (below), which applies to all:
- Scientific and technical products, such as specialized reports, maps, and geospatial data;
- Information products disseminated outside the CEC, such as reports;
- Information products that support CEC decision-making, such as Council documents; and
- Data and information management activities, such as databases.
Guidelines and Assistance for the Preparation of CEC Documents
Quality in information products begins with planning, methodology, and analysis but continues through the preparation of the actual report or product that transmits the work to the relevant audience. To aid with this step, the CEC has prepared language style guides (for the three languages of the CEC), a Microsoft Word report template and Guidelines for CEC Documents and Information Products (which will be found useful in drafting reports of various types for the CEC).