1. Publication without tears:
tips for aspiring authors
Cathie Jackson and Jane Secker
Journal of Information Literacy

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

3. Scope
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.

4. 2007 onwards
Two issues a year (June, December)
Open access journal
Free to view and free to publish

5. JIL editors
Managing Editor:
Cathie Jackson
Editor-in-Chief:
Jane Secker
Book review editor:
Ian Hunter

6. Writing for a journal
• 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

7. 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

8. Exercise
Turning LILAC presentations or
project reports into peer-review
articles

9. • 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

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

11.  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
 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
What to do with reviewer
comments

12. Once accepted, the paper is
passed to copyediting
JIL copyeditors
Liz McCarthy Sharon Lawler Helen Bader Lisa Hutchins

13. Our copyeditors’ advice
 Use the required template
 In 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 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

14.  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
Our copyeditors’ advice [2]

15. Once it is published
 Celebrate!
 Let everyone know
 Link using the DOI
 Add it to your
repository, acknowledgi
ng first published in JIL

16. 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

17. 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

18. Useful 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
• 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