OASIS Policy on Normative References

[Harold Lockhart <hal.lockhart@oracle.com>]

The OASIS TC Process does not specify any constraints on normative references except to say that normative and non-references must be distinguished.

Best practice is for all normative references to be from a recognized Standards Development Organization and for the document to have reached the final or "final and waiting for implementations" stage in that organization. Recognized SDOs are usually non-profit organizations with an open membership and an open process for creating standards.

There is an agreement with ITU-T to submit completed SAML OASIS Standards to them. ITU-T does require that normative references be from an SDO. 

One possible approach if a document is not currently standardized is to copy the relevant sections into the OASIS Specification. 

Hal