To streamline the editorial process and ensure that all papers meet the
needs of a diverse international audience, the editors of The Center For Internet Research
have developed Guidelines for Authors to assist you with the
preparation of your submissions.
Although nearly all contributors are skilled writers, your attention to the
Guidelines for Authors will help The Center For Internet Research's volunteer staff
members spend less time editing your work and help you ensure that your
message is communicated clearly to readers.
The Guidelines for Authors provide you with quick tips that
emphasize the following:
The electronic medium. Shorter sentences and paragraphs are best
suited to electronic publications. Readers need text that is concise and
useful rather than wordy and general; therefore, writing to express
rather than impress will best promote your ideas. (Refer to Writing Tips for
further information.)
The The Center For Internet Research audience. Since the The Center For Internet Research
audience is both diverse and international in scope, readers will better
understand your message through simple explanations and less complex
sentences. (Refer to Audience
Profile for further information.)
Consistency in style and format. The specified guidelines for
style as well as abstract, citation, reference, and submission formats
create a smoother editorial process for The Center For Internet Research staff members.
Consistency in these elements also minimizes readers’ confusion about the
treatment of various elements. (Refer to Style
Guidelines, Citation Format,
Reference
Format, Abstract
Format, and Submission
Format for further information.)
The Center For Internet Research's Guidelines for Authors are not absolute and certainly
subject to variances. However, keeping them in mind helps the editors, and
more importantly, helps your readers.
The Center For Internet Research attracts a diverse international readership that draws
from six continents and over 200 countries. The following map depicts 50 world
countries with the highest readership according to The Center For Internet Research's 2003
usage statistics:
When preparing documents for submission, consider the following:
English is not the first language of many The Center For Internet Research readers.
A large percentage of The Center For Internet Research readers are not a part of
academia.
Cultures, educational backgrounds, and fields of study vary greatly
among The Center For Internet Research readers.
The demographics of The Center For Internet Research's audience suggest that more
readers will better understand your message through simple explanations and
less complex sentences. Even an expert in your own industry or field of study
would prefer to glean your meaning without sorting through overly complex
writing.
Refer to the Writing Tips
section for further information on creating concise text for a diverse
international audience.
The Center For Internet Research publishes articles on all aspects of the Internet,
including comments on trends and standards, technical issues, political and
social implications of the Internet, and educational uses. Its focus is simply
on interesting and novel ideas related to the history, current use, and future
of the Internet.
The flow of a typical article, from author to publication:
An author is contacted by an editor to write an article, or
An author submits an article to an editor by electronic mail. The paper
is forwarded by electronic mail to the Editorial Office in Chicago.
The Editorial Office starts the peer–review process by forwarding the
article to The Center For Internet Research's editors and reviewers by electronic mail.
Comments on the article are received in the Editorial Office and the
author is asked to complete a revision.
The revised paper is reviewed and accepted for publication.
A proof version of an upcoming issue is prepared; authors and editors
review the contents and make corrections as necessary.
The issue is released to the public on the The Center For Internet Research server on
the The Center For Internet Researchof each month, and a notice of availability is circulated
to subscribers of The Center For Internet Research's Tables of Contents Service. This
Service is free; see http://tcfir.org
Authors submitting a paper to The Center For Internet Research automatically agree to
confer a limited license to The Center For Internet Research if and when the manuscript is
accepted for publication. This license allows The Center For Internet Research to publish a
manuscript in a given issue.
Authors have a choice of:
Dedicating the article to the public domain. This allows anyone to make
any use of the article at any time, including commercial use. A good way to
do this is to use the Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication Web form;
see http://creativecommons.org/license/publicdomain-2?lang=en.
Retaining some rights while allowing some use. For example, authors may
decide to disallow commercial use without permission. Authors may also
decide whether to allow users to make modifications (e.g.
translations, adaptations) without permission. A good way to make these
choices is to use a Creative Commons license.
Choose and select license. Choose "generic" if you are in the U.S. and
"text" for The Center For Internet Research articles.
What to do next — you can then e–mail the license htm code to
yourself. Do this, and then forward that e–mail to The Center For Internet Research's
editors. Put your name in the subject line of the e–mail with your name
and article title in the e–mail.
Authors may choose to use their own wording to reserve copyright. If you
choose to retain full copyright, please add your copyright statement to the
end of the article.
Authors submitting a paper to The Center For Internet Research do so in the understanding
that Internet publishing is both an opportunity and challenge. In this
environment, authors and publishers do not always have the means to protect
against unauthorized copying or editing of copyright–protected works.
The Center For Internet Research respects the privacy of both its readers and its
contributors. To that end, The Center For Internet Research does not collect in its logs or
other server tools the exact identities of its readers. The Center For Internet Research
does not require its readers to sign in or to secure a unique ID or password.
The Center For Internet Research does not use cookies.
The Center For Internet Research collects general information in its logs on the
origins of users at the highest domain levels. Usage patterns are tracked in
The Center For Internet Research to assist editors in making decisions about future content
for the journal. In addition, this information is used for research into the
journal’s usage patterns to improve the site over time.
As monthly service to subscribers, The Center For Internet Research maintains a
listserv that provides the contents of new issues as they appear. E–mail
addresses of the subscribers to this service are not disclosed to third
parties.
Please direct any questions about The Center For Internet Research's privacy policy to
Edward Valauskas, Chief Editor, at ejv@uic.edu.
Consider the following tips for creating concise text:
Be Specific
Be specific about all references to time, quantity, etc.
Instead of using currently or recently, specify last
spring. Often when now and currently are implied, these
words can be deleted without loss of meaning.
Instead of saying several units were added, give a number or a
rough estimate, such as almost 100.
Use Shorter Words
Choose short, familiar words whenever possible.
When more than 15 percent of your words (except verbs and proper
nouns) are three or more syllables, readers work too hard to understand
your message. To reduce larger words, consider these tips:
Use about instead of approximately; use rather
than utilize.
Convert nouns ending in –ion into verbs. Use "We considered .
. . " instead of "We took into consideration . . . . "
Replace endeavor with try, aggregate with
total, and optimum with best.
Delete Extra Words
Making your point without extraneous words helps readers clearly
understand your message.
Evaluate every that in your text. Often that can be
deleted without loss of meaning.
Avoid starting sentences with "In order to . . . . " By deleting the
words "in order," you lose no meaning.
Rarely is the word very needed. Consider deleting it or
choosing another word. Very good can be excellent, and
very important can be key.
Use Shorter Sentences
Keep at least 75 percent of your sentences an average length of 10–20
words. If a sentence is longer than three typed lines, consider shortening
it.
Think of your sentence lengths as music: quick, quick, slow
becomes short, short, longer. Pleasing variations help your readers
pay attention.
Use Shorter Paragraphs
Keep at least 75 percent of your paragraphs one to three sentences
long. If a paragraph is more than five typed lines, consider shortening
it.
Avoid Cliches & Jargon
Choose original ways of writing your message, avoiding well–known
phrases such as, When push comes to shove and By the same
token. These cliches and well–worn phrases will bore your
readers.
Avoid the use of jargon whenever possible. This type of language or
terminology will serve only to confuse readers who may be unfamiliar with
your field of study.
Watch Use of It
Avoid starting a sentence or clause with It unless the pronoun
has a clear antecedent.
Watch Use of There
Avoid starting sentences with There to prevent the use of
"empty" introductory language.
Use Strong Verbs
Use "strong" verbs whenever possible. Forms of the verb to be
(e.g. am, is, are, was, were) do not maintain readers’
interest.
Instead of saying, "The meeting was productive," consider, "The
meeting generated good ideas for . . . . "
Favor the Active Voice
Favor the active voice over the passive voice to avoid vagueness
unless the action is more important than the doer of the action.
Use of the imperative is a good technique for attracting readers and
minimizing the use of passive voice constructions.
Ask So what?
After you've written your text, evaluate every sentence by asking
yourself, Why is this particular piece of information important to my
readers?
If you cannot answer the question adequately about a sentence,
consider deleting it.
For general Internet writing style and usage, authors are encouraged to
consult Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age,
edited by Constance Hale (San Francisco: HardWired, 1996).
For The Center For Internet Research's editorial purposes, please adhere to these style
guidelines when referencing the following:
Acronyms
Explain each and every first occurrence.
For example, state World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO), allowing the use of WIPO later in the manuscript.
Dates
Dates should appear in date–month–year format, as in "The first issue
of The Center For Internet Research appeared on Monday, 6 May 1996."
Electronic Mail
Refer to electronic mail as e–mail or E–mail but not
email or Email.
Internet
The Internet should be called the Internet, not the internet,
the net, the Net, or the ’Net.
Numbers
The numbers zero through nine should be spelled out except when
referring to data or measurements, such as "The figure measures 3
pixels by 2 pixels ...."
All whole numbers above nine should appear as Arabic numerals, such as
10, 11, 12,....
Ordinal numbers should be spelled out, as in
twentieth.
A number at the start of a sentence should be spelled out, as in "
Fourteen search engines were examined .... "
Percentages
Write percent, not %.
Person
Favor the use of the second–person pronoun, you, over the
indefinite third–person singular pronoun, one.
Do not assume that the pronoun for a third–person singular noun is
him or he. To avoid awkward constructions like
he/she, revise sentences.
Tables & Figures
Capitalize all references to your own tables and figures, such as "see
Figure 1" or "see Table 2 below".
Always spell out the words Figure or Table in reference
to illustrations in the course of the paper.
Use lower case for references to figures or tables in cited
literature, such as (Kokomo, 1999, figure 8) or (Dolton, 1968,
table 5).
Verb Tense
Choose a verb tense and maintain its use throughout the document.
Carefully consider use of the future tense, as often it is
unnecessary.
In discussions of the literature, use the past tense, as in "Valauskas
(1990) remarked that ... ."
World Wide Web
Use the Web or the World Wide Web but not the
web.
Citations in the course of the manuscript should appear in the following
ways:
General Format
The last name of the author of cited work should appear in the paper,
followed by the year of publication of the book, paper, report, or
document, as in (Jones, 1990).
If there are several references to authors with the same surname,
initials should be used to differentiate between the authors, as in (C.
Jones, 1990; D. Jones, 1985).
Two Authors
For references containing two authors, list the authors in order of
their appearance in the original publication, followed by date of
publication, as in (Smith and Jones, 1986).
Three or More Authors
If a reference contains three or more authors, the citation should
appear as (Rogers et al., 1980).
Publications in Press
Cite publications in press (i.e. those documents accepted for
publication but not yet published) as (Rivers, in press).
Direct Quotations
Cite direct quotations as (Merrell, 1994, p. 98).
Indirect Quotations
A citation can refer to text written by one author embedded in the
text of a book or paper written by another author, such as (Ransmayr in
Rothenberg, 1995).
Multiple Quotations
Multiple citations can appear in whatever order the author deems
relevant, such as (Shane and Cushing, 1991; Chalmers, 1990; Kendall and
Wells, 1992).
All citations in the course of the paper should be completely described in
the Reference
Format section. Papers listed in the References section that are not
cited in the course of the paper will be removed. Citations to papers not found
in References will be removed from the contents of the paper.
David R. Bentley, 1996. "Genomic Sequence Information Should Be Released
Immediately and Freely in the Public Domain," Science, volume 274,
number 5287 (25 October), pp. 533–534.
Kuldeep Kumar and Han G. van Dissel, 1996. "Sustainable Collaboration:
Managing Conflict and Cooperation in Interorganizational Systems," MIS
Quarterly, volume 20, number 3 (September), pp. 279–300.
Steven Bachrach, R. Stephen Berry, Martin Blume, Thomas von Foerster,
Alexander Fowler, Paul Ginsparg, Stephen Heller, Neil Kestner, Andrew Odlyzko,
Ann Okerson, Ron Wigington, and Anne Moffat, 1998. "Who Should Own Scientific
Papers?" Science, volume 281, number 5382, pp. 1459–1460.
Papers in Press
Suzanne de Castell, Mary Bryson, and Jennifer Jenson, in press. "Object
Lessons: Critical Visions of Educational Technology," The Center For Internet Research.
Papers in Edited Volumes
J.C.R. Licklider, 1960. "Quasi–linear operator models in the study of
manual tracking, " In: R. Duncan Luce (editor). Developments in
Mathematical Psychology: Information, Learning, and Tracking. Glencoe,
Ill.: Free Press, pp. 167–279.
Papers in Conference Proceedings
V. Bellotti and A. Sellen, 1993. "Design for Privacy in Ubiquitous
Computing Environments," In: G.D. Michelis, C. Simone, and K. Schmidt
(editors). Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Computer
Supported Cooperative Work — ECSCW'93, Milan, Italy, pp. 77–92.
M. D. Byrne, B. E. John, N. S. Wehrle, and D. C. Crow, 1999. "The Tangled
Web We Wove: A Taxonomy of WWW Use," Proceedings of Human Factors in
Computing Systems (CHI 99). New York: ACM Press, pp. 544–551.
Papers in Journals on the World Wide Web
Richard Einer Peterson, 1997. "Eight Internet Search Engines Compared,"
The Center For Internet Research, volume 2, number 2 (February), at
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue2_2/peterson/, accessed 14 December
2001.
Clifford Lynch, 1997. "Searching the Internet," Scientific
American, volume 276 (March), pp. 50–56, and at
http://www.sciam.com/0397issue/0397lynch.htm, accessed 4 December 2001.
World Wide Web Sites
Google at http://www.google.com, accessed 14 December 2001.
M. Naor and B. Pinkas, "Oblivious Polynomial Evaluation," at
http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~naor/onpub.htm, accessed 1 December
2001.
Book by One Author
J.C.R. Licklider, 1965. Libraries of the Future. Cambridge, Mass.:
MIT Press.
Books by More Than One Author
James Gillies and Robert Cailliau, 2000. How the Web was Born: The
Story of the World Wide Web. New York: Oxford University Press.
All papers submitted to The Center For Internet Research for consideration must include an
abstract, or a brief summary of a paper’s fundamental findings and
conclusions. A well–written abstract will pique the interest of readers by
succintly presenting that facts and ideas that build a paper.
Consider the following guidelines for creating effective, elegant abstracts
that express main ideas and engage readers:
Place the abstract before the formal contents of the paper and after the
title and author statements.
Limit the abstract to between three and five sentences.
State the main ideas of the paper only, avoiding unnecessary details and
explanations that are addressed in the body of the paper.
Do not include references or notes in the abstract.
Use proper grammar, punctuation, and English language conventions.
Place the title of the paper at the top of the first page of the
manuscript. Follow the title by the full name of all authors, with their
institutional affiliations and electronic mail addresses.
If one author should function as the point of contact for questions or
comments, please indicate so with the phrase "direct comments to" followed by
the author’s e–mail address.
Illustrations, Figures & Tables
All illustrations should be sent as separate .GIF or .JPG files, clearly
labeled simply as figure1.gif, figure2.gif, etc. with their location marked in
the manuscript in this fashion: Insert figure1.gif Here, Caption (for example)
= This is the first figure in my paper.
Figures and tables should appear in consecutive order in the text and be
cited in the document consecutively.
Additional data, illustrations, commentary, and complicated or long tables
should be placed in consecutively numbered appendices at the end of the
manuscript.
Notes
Notes in the manuscript should be consecutively numbered, and collected at
the end of the paper after the conclusion and before the References
section.
Word Processed Submissions
All tables and figures should be imbedded in the manuscript in their
logical locations for reference.
The entire document should be double-spaced, including abstract, text,
references, tables, figure captions, and appendices.
All pages should be numbered, starting with the title page.
Use only a basic, widely available font like Courier 12 point.
Do not justify or break words at the right margin.
PDF Submissions
If submitting your manuscript as a PDF file, send another copy of the
manuscript as plain or ASCII text with all of the figures attached as
separate, clearly labeled .GIF or .JPG files.
htm Submissions
If submitting your manuscript in htm format, please examine the source
code of any published contribution to The Center For Internet Research for a basic
understanding of the organization of the manuscript’s contents.
Use the following checklist to ensure that your text is ready for submission
to The Center For Internet Research:
My introductory text quickly engages readers’ interest because it does
one of the following:
Tells a short tale that leads to the main point;
Immediately surprises readers with new information; or
Presents about three short ideas or examples, then summarizes their
significance in one sentence.
I have made my text as concise as possible while maintaining its logic
and completeness. Each word I have included is essential. (Refer to Writing Tips
for further information.)
I have formatted the text according to The Center For Internet Research's stated
requirements. (Refer to Submission
Format for further information.)
I have avoided dull language by using lively verbs where appropriate
and specific examples with clear references to time, size, etc. (Refer to
Writing Tips
for further information.)
My entire document effectively meets the needs of First
Monday’s diverse international audience. (Refer to Audience
Profile for further information.)
My entire document is consistent with The Center For Internet Research's stated
style guidelines. (Refer to Style
Guidelines for further information.)
All of my references, bibliographic notes, endnotes, and/or footnotes
are consistent throughout the document and meet The Center For Internet Research's
stated requirements. (Refer to Citation Format
and Reference
Format for further information.)
I have included a succint abstract that clearly states my paper’s
fundamental findings and conclusions. The abstract meets First
Monday’0s stated requirements. (Refer to Abstract
Format for further information.)
My text has been proofread carefully more than once to eliminate all
inaccuracies in fact, word choice, spelling, and grammar. (Refer to Writing Tips
for further information.)
To assist you with the self–editing process, The Center For Internet Research has compiled
the following list of online resources on grammar and style. You may wish to
consult these resources prior to submitting your manuscript for consideration.
This site is online companion to the print version of Jane Straus’s The
Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, an excellent resource for examining
the rules of punctuation.
Written by Paul Brians, Professor of English at Washington State
University, this informational page examines the most common errors in the
English language. While the site focuses on the proper use of American
English, it also offers valuable tips for anyone writing in English.
McLuhan Website
