A presentation from the joint CILIP Information Literacy Group and Library and Information Research Group's Writing Research Proposals and Publication event.

1. Writing for Publication:
tips for aspiring authors
Angharad Roberts and Jane Secker
Editors: Library and Information Research & Journal of
Information Literacy
CILIP IL Group and LIRG

2. We plan to look at
• Where and what to publish
• The peer review process
• How your paper will be assessed
• The publication process
• Writing tips
• Writing in the Journal of Information Literacy and
Library and Information Research

3. Where to publish?
• Why publish in an academic journal?
• What is your story? Who is your audience?
• Read the author guidelines of journals
• Is your topic within scope of the journal?
• E.g. JIL focuses on information literacy NOT library skills,
libraries or teaching in general
• Library and Information Research has a clear focus on
research into practice in information and library services
• Peer-reviewed article? Shorter project report?
• Read previously published articles in a journal

4. What to publish?
• What stage are you at with your research? Could you
publish something based on your literature review,
findings from a pilot project, final project
conclusions?
• Writing by yourself or with a co-author?
• Consider writing conference reports, book reviews...
• ...or joining an Editorial team!

5. Articles for peer review:
• Need to be original – are you just telling a familiar story?
• Refer to the literature and place the work within a wider
context
• Evidence any claims made
• Follow academic convention in structure of the paper
• Have been carefully proof-read before submission,
especially if English is not your first language
• Are anonymised for peer review

6. Activity
Turning a short report a into peer-review
articles

7. JIL reviewers’ criteria
• 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!

8. LIR reviewers’ criteria
• Initial editorial review – within the scope of the
journal?
• Non-peer reviewed articles – more detailed editorial
evaluation.
• Free-text peer reviews covering:
• Suitability for the journal
• Originality / interest to audience
• Clarity
• Length
• Relevance to / implications for LIS practice

9. Peer reviewers recommend:
 Accept for publication without amendment (almost
never!)
 Revisions required
 Major revisions required followed by peer review
 Resubmit elsewhere
 Decline submission

10. What to do with reviewer comments
 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 why (can take
your article elsewhere!)
 Revise the paper and resubmit it, with a covering letter
detailing how you have addressed each comment
 If 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

11. Copyeditors’ advice
 Use the required template
 This also means
 Use the right font and size eg Arial 11pt for body text in JIL (if using
the template, this should be default)
 Number all section headings using the multilevel list option
 Format headings as per the style sheet
 Format your references using the journal’s required style
 For JIL that means the Harvard style as used by Cardiff University
 Remember 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

12. Copyeditors’ advice [2]
 Define all acronyms and abbreviations at first use
 Ensure all diagrams and images are copyright free and
acknowledge their source
 And specifically for JIL:
 Use British spellings
 Avoid 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

13. Once it is published
 Celebrate!
 Let everyone know
 Link using the DOI
 Add it to your
repository,
acknowledging where
published

14. Tips for aspiring authors
• Keep focused. Pin your central hypothesis or question by
your desk and make sure that everything you write is
directed towards supporting and answering that question
• Don’t worry about starting in the middle! Write up the
section which comes most naturally and work out from
there
• Practise (and reflect on) what you teach - finding the key
research, synthesising the literature, citing and referencing

15. Tips for aspiring authors [2]
• Find your place and space to think and write
• Break it down…. it’s like how you eat an elephant
• Present your ideas early and let them grow
• Writing is an iterative process, draft, redraft, draft again
• Find a good proof reader – a colleague, friend, family
member, but always get someone else to read it through!
• Become a peer reviewer, or a book reviews writer, but learn
to read critically to help you write critically

16. Activity [2]
Think about your next steps towards
getting published.
List up to 3 ideas about how you
could follow up from this session
and discuss in groups.

17. Further resources
• 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.ph
p?id=187
• JIL Author Guidelines.
http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL/about/submission
s#authorGuidelines
• LIR Author Guidelines:
http://www.lirgjournal.org.uk/lir/docs/lir-author-guidelines.
doc
• Nicholson, S. 2006. Writing your first scholarly article: a
guide for budding authors in librarianship. Information
Technology and Libraries 25(2) 108-111. Available at:
http://bibliomining.com/nicholson/firstarticle.htm

18. Further resources….
• Eve J (2008) Writing a research proposal: planning and communicating
your research ideas effectively, Library and Information Research,
32(102): 18-28
• Hall GM (1998) How to write a paper, London, BMJ Books
• Hinchcliffe LJ and Dorner J (eds) (2003) How to get published in LIS
Journals: a practical guide, Library Connect, pamphlet 2
• Huth EJ (1990) How to write and publish papers in the medical
sciences, Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins
• Murray R (2005) Writing for academic journals, Maidenhead: Open
University Press

19. Meet the Journal Editors
Journal of Information Literacy, Jane Secker
Library and Information Research, Angharad Roberts
Innovative Practice in Higher Education, Geoff Walton
New Review of Academic Librarianship, Graham Walton
Evidence based Library and Information Practice, Alison Brettle

20. Journal of Information Literacy
JIL 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.
2 issues per year (June and December) - no author processing charges

21. Library and Information Research
Research Into Practice in Information and Library Services.
Journal of the CILIP special interest group LIRG: www.lirgjournal.org.uk
LIR’s objectives include:
- To publish research in such a way that it is accessible to, and usable by, the LIS community;
- To encourage reporting of research by practitioners;
- To encourage reflective and evidence-based practice;
- To publish papers resulting from LIRG annual awards and prizes;
- To promote the use and understanding of quality research methods.
Open Access – no processing charges.
3 issues per year, including 1 special issue each year.
Digitised archive from 1993 onwards.

22. Innovative Practice in Higher Education
• Independent online journal (kindly hosted at Staffordshire University) - an opportunity for
colleagues in HE to share their work on innovation in teaching and learning
• Double blind peer reviewed publication
http://journals.staffs.ac.uk/index.php/ipihe
• One publication per year since 2011
• Joint managing editors:
• Chris Wakeman (University of Wolverhampton)
• Geoff Walton (Northumbria University)
• Topics include: tutoring, research, equality and diversity, internationalisation, classroom
innovation, widening participation, assessment and feedback, research-informed teaching,
information and digital literacy, teaching and learning processes
• Accepts long papers (up to 5,000), short papers and posters with audio

23. Evidence Based Library and Information
Practice
• EBLIP is an international open access, peer reviewed journal, published
quarterly, hosted by the University of Alberta Learning Services,
• The purpose of the journal is to provide a forum for librarians and other
information professionals to discover research that may contribute to
decision making in professional practice.
• EBLIP publishes original research and commentary on the topic of evidence
based library and information practice, as well as reviews of previously
published research (evidence summaries) on a wide number of topics to
help LIS practitioners use research in their practice
• http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/index

24. Publishes reviews, research, critiques and exemplar case studies on substantive topics relevant to those providing library
and information services to academic communities. Emphasis is placed on establishing the relevance and applicability of
theory and/or research for the academic library practitioner. The intention is to disseminate developments and encourage
discussion on the future role of academic libraries and their services
British Journal of Academic Librarianship : 1986 – 1994 (204 papers)
New Review of Academic Librarianship: 1995 –
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/racl20/current
• 406 papers as at summer 2014
• Three issues per year
• 2014 themed issue on ‘Special Collections in a Digital Age’ with Guest Editors Margaret Haines and Wayne Jones
(Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada)
• Double blind peer review

25. Thank you!