1.3.6. Standardization Committees

If you have created your terminology case file as part of your role in a terminology standardization committee, you will distribute copies of it to the members of your standardization committee for study and comments. Sometimes the work of a standardization committee is restricted to decisions concerning terms in one or more languages, while in other cases definitions of the concepts involved are also standardized. Parallel or conflicting usage is often studied by terminology standardization boards or terminology approval boards which issue official language notices that inform the user community of the preferred terms.

These boards generally work within a company or a professional association at the national or international level, and are almost always composed of terminologists and subject-field specialists. Once all members have examined the file, the group meets to discuss the case and come to a consensus with regard to the validity of the term and, sometimes, its definition. In case of parallel or conflicting usage, the goal is to come to an agreement on the term to be retained to designate the concept in question.