Cathie Jackson and Jane SeckerJournal of Information Literacy

Publication without tears: tips for aspiring authors

Introduction to the Journal of Information LiteracyWhere and what to publishThe peer review processHow your paper will be assessedThe publication process

We plan to look at

I want to find out

more about …

ScopeJIL is an international, peer- reviewed journal that aims to

investigate information literacy in all its forms to address the interests of diverse IL communities of practice. To this end it publishes articles from both established and new authors in this field

JIL welcomes contributions that push the boundaries of IL beyond the educational setting and examine this phenomenon as a continuum between those involved in its development and delivery and those benefiting from its provision

2007 –Two issues a year (June, December)

Gold open access journalFree to view, free to publish

JIL readership survey 2011 (121 responses)

69%

17%

7%

4% 2%

Library staff

LIS staff and students

Management

L&T Support staff

Other

72%

13%

3%

3%1% 8%

University

FE college

School

Research organisation

Business

Government

JIL readership survey 2011 (122 responses)

Editor-in-Chief: Jane Secker

Managing Editor: Cathie Jackson

Book review editor: Martin Wolf

JIL editors

Read the author guidelines!Is your topic within scope of the journal?

JIL focuses on information literacy NOT library skills, libraries or teaching in general

Peer-reviewed article or shorter project report?Read previously published articles in JIL

Writing for a journal

Need to be original – are you just telling a familiar story?Refer to the literature and place the work within a wider

contextEvidence any claims madeFollow academic convention in structure of the paperHave been carefully proof-read before submission,

especially if English is not your first languageAre anonymised for peer review

Articles for peer review:

Relevance to JIL – within our scope?Originality and interest to our audience – useful

contribution to knowledge or good practice?Title and abstract – appropriate wording and length and

informative?Methodology – appropriate?Use of literature and referencing – good analysis of

literature? Good referencing or signs of plagiarism?Clarity of expression and structure – clear exposition of

argument? Logical structure? Spell out acronyms, avoid jargon!

JIL reviewers’ criteria

Your turn

Peer reviewers recommend:Accept for publication without amendment (almost

never!)Revisions requiredMajor revisions required followed by peer reviewResubmit elsewhereDecline submission

Make a list of all the actions needed of you. Can you address them? If so, how?

If you can’t, discuss this with the editors –say whyRevise the paper and resubmit it, with a covering letter detailing

how you have addressed each commentIf there were comments you didn’t implement, because you

couldn’t or because you disagreed with them, note them and say why (you may want to discuss with us earlier in revision process)

Remember that addressing these comments may unearth other suggested changes – several rounds of revisions may be required

What to do with reviewer comments

Once accepted, the paper is passed to copyediting

JIL copyeditors

Liz McCarthy Sharon Lawler Helen Bader

Use the required templateIn JIL, this also means

Use Arial 11pt for body text (if using the template, this should be default)

Number all section headings using the multilevel list optionFormat headings as per the style sheet

Format your references using the journal’s required styleFor JIL that means the Harvard style as used by Cardiff UniversityRemember to convert your EndNote references to text

Ensure all in-text citations are given a full reference at the end, and that all references are cited in the text

Our copyeditors’ advice

Define all acronyms and abbreviations at first useEnsure all diagrams and images are copyright free and

acknowledge their source

And specifically for JIL:Use British spellingsAvoid footnotes – either incorporate information into the text or

list non-cited information and websites under Resources and cited sources under References

List author name, affiliation and email address for each author, in the order given in the metadata, on the article loaded for copyediting

Our copyeditors’ advice [2]

Once it is publishedCelebrate!Let everyone knowLink using the DOIAdd it to your repository,

acknowledging first published in JIL

Gordon, Rachel Singer. 2004. The Librarian's Guide to Writing for Publication. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press.

HEA-ICS. 2007. Writing for publication http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/events/displayevent.php?id=187

JIL Author Guidelines. http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL/about/submissions#authorGuidelines

Library Success Wiki: Publishing and speaking. http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Publishing_and_Speaking

Useful resources