The fledgeling standard - developed by the buy-side and sell-side firms which comprise the RIXML consortium - is available for public comment at a new Web site www.rixml.org. It is intended to provide a structure for classifying research in a way that will enable users to define specific sorting, filtering, and personalisation criteria across all research publishers.

"The release of an initial RIXML specification reflects a broad consensus within the industry on what needs to be done to facilitate the process of electronic research distribution," says RIXML steering committee co-chair David Seibert of T Rowe Price. "RIXML will enable sell-side research publishers to tag any piece of research content, in any media format, with enough information for buy-side firms to create customised filters that truly put an intelligent throttle on the fire hose of information currently being distributed. In addition, the advanced level of tagging and access to individual research elements allows for a new generation of alerting mechanisms, enhanced user interfaces, and delivery to mobile devices."

Feedback received during the 30-day comment period will be reviewed by RIXML.org and will be incorporated into the current specification or addressed in subsequent releases, says Seibert.

The formal RIXML specification Version 1.0 is expected to be released after the comment period for use in proof-of-concept trials with research producers and institutional users. Longer-term, RIXML.org is considering developing standards for other categories of investment research, such as debt, foreign exchange and commodity securities.

In a bid to broaden support for the initiative, the organisation has also created a new associate membership category enabling other buy-side and sell-side firms and third-party solutions providers to contribute to standards and technical committees.

"Since our formal launch announcement last October, a number of firms have expressed interest in joining RIXML.org from across the industry," says standards committee co-chair Chris Betz of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. "The creation of an Associate Membership category will enable us to broaden both the number and types of firms participating in the future development of the standard, while at the same time acknowledging the seminal contributions of our founding buy-side and sell-side members."