JACoW is based on an international collaboration in electronic publication of accelerator conference proceedings. Organization, membership conditions and requirements are set out in detail in a set of Terms of Reference.

JACoW policy is decided by a Steering Committee, composed of the past, current and future Chairs of the Scientific Programme Committees of the collaborating conference series'.

Requests to join the Collaboration are agreed by the Steering Committee. Membership is conditional on a commitment from each series that they will contribute to the site for at least three future conferences.

The persons or editorial boards with the responsibility for the publication of proceedings, known as "editors", of the past, current and future conferences in each series, members of the JACoW Collaboration, form the JACoW "Team". 

Team members new to electronic publication can take advantage of introductory "hands on" training in basic processing techniques during major JACoW events.

More importantly, and under the Terms of Reference, collaborating conference series' undertake to send their Team members, for past current and future events, to the Team Meetings organized towards the end of each year, rotating around Asia, Europe and the US. 

Team Meetings provide the opportunity for editors to pursue in greater depth all issues related to electronic publication, as well as the development of tools such as the Scientific Programme Management System (SPMS), and the scripts which pull all of the individual files of contributions together into the final publication package (JPSP).

Electronic publication is not trivial and to publish according to JACoW's high standards implies that editors receive adequate training, but also once their expertise is acquired, that they remain for a certain period in order to train new editors.

Since JACoW is based on good will, attendance at Team Meetings and participation in JACoW activities, is essential to maintaining high standards and continuity and to the success of the  entire venture. JACoW therefore reserves the right to exclude from publication any conferences not respecting this condition.