Information for Current Licensees

2009 ACHWS Meetings

The Committee will be meeting on:

Wednesday, 02 December 2009;

Wednesday, 10 March 2010;

Wednesday, 7 July 2010;

Wednesday, 1 December 2010.

The Annual Licensee Meeting will be held in February 2010. Venue to be confirmed.

Licence Applications and Report Deadlines for 2009

Licence applications for all types of licences need to be submitted to the relevant heritage agency at least one month before the ACHWS meeting at which the application wishes them to be considered. This means licence applications for the 02 December 2009 meeting must be with the relevant heritage agency by 02 November 2009.

All licensee reports (survey, surface recovery and excavation licences, as well as some visitor licences issued for site monitoring) are due on 30 November 2009. Guidance on reporting is also included in the ' Guidance for Divers and Archaeologists' document (which can be downloaded from the Publications webpage).

Reporting

Licensee reports should be submitted to English Heritage at least one month before the ACHWS meeting they are due to be submitted to. The date for submitting the particular report on your work is included as part of the conditions on your licence, (although you will generally receive a letter from English Heritage two months before the report is due laying out submission deadlines). It's worth noting that reporting is a condition of all licences to survey, recover surface artefacts and excavate, but is also recommended for visitor licences.

Reporting should be as factual, impartial, independent and concise as possible. They should be typed or word processed and where possible a digital copy should be submitted. There is more detailed information available in the 'Guidance for Divers and Archaeologists' document concerning the nature of reporting required for each type of licence (which can be downloaded from the Publications webpage), but the following headings are a generic guide:

Site Name
Licence Type (including date issued, date report completed etc)
Authors
Summary of Project Design or Licence Application 'Details of Work Intended' (including Aims and Objectives)
Field Activities
Contact with Nominated Archaeologist
Post-Fieldwork Activities (e.g. conservation of finds or processing of survey data etc)
Site Plan(s)
Results and Conclusions (this should relate to Project Design Aims and Objectives or those mapped out in the Licence Application)
Potential for Further Work

Reports should be signed by both the Licensee and the Nominated Archaeologist.

Reports need to be as objective as possible, for submission to the ACHWS. Informed comment is important but should be confined to the substance of the Report. It should be noted that reports will be an 'open' part of the ACHWS's minutes (that is they will be available to the public) unless there is a specific and compelling reason for them to remain as 'closed'.

Where copyright remains with you (and save where confidentiality is justified), you will be expected to grant a non-exclusive licence authorising the use of the report, and any material within it, for non-commercial purposes including teaching, research and private study. In any case where confidentiality is required, this should be made clear in the report along with the reasons for such a requirement.

If you have any queries or concerns about the status, management or policing of a site, they should be addressed as appropriate to English Heritage or DCMS. These can then be addressed directly as they arise, not as part of the reporting process at the end of a licence's duration.

Project Archives

In addition to reporting to EH and ACHWS, licensees are required to submit a copy of their project archive to the relevant national archive (in England the National Monuments Record) in a medium acceptable to the recipient body. Any research information, material or data that results from work licensed on a designated site forms part of the national archive for that site. As such it should be available to others for non-commercial purposes including teaching research and private study.

Where copyright remains with you, you will be expected, on or before depositing the archive with the recipient body, to grant a non-exclusive licence authorising the use of the archive or any material within it for such purposes.