JeSLIB Article Preparation Guidelines

Contents




Journal Policies

The Journal of eScience Librarianship (JeSLIB) editors have established policies for editors, authors, and peer reviewers. Authors should read the journal's policies and these Article Preparation Guidelines carefully prior to submitting a manuscript.

Article Types

Commentaries present viewpoints or interpretations on library and information science topics and cover important or timely topics of interest to the journal readership. Commentaries should not exceed 2000 words and must include a narrative abstract of no more than 250 words.

Curatorial Connections Column submissions present viewpoints or interpretations on the art and science of curation. These can include contributions that describe technical solutions, case studies and practical examples, emotional labor and ‘soft skills’ work, and everything in-between. Columns should aim for 2000 words and must include a narrative abstract of no more than 250 words. This column is a partnership with the Data Curation Network.

Data in Action articles describe library and information science research datasets with the aim of increasing visibility and transparency, supporting their reuse, and promoting reproducible research. A Data in Action article is purely a description of research data and should not contain any analyzed results, discussions, interpretation of data or conclusions. Only articles describing datasets determined to be in JeSLIB’s scope will be considered. Datasets must be deposited in a secure repository, as specified in the Data Sharing policy, prior to submission. Authors must use and follow the instructions in JeSLIB’s Data in Action Article Template to write this type of article. Data in Action articles should not exceed 1,000 words and must include an abstract of no more than 250 words.

eScience in Action articles should include a title page, a narrative abstract of no more than 250 words, and text of no more than 2,000 words. This category of article is intended for the presentation of short, focused, and innovative projects, where substantial preliminary and novel results are of importance to the journal readership but not substantial enough in content to warrant a longer presentation. Submissions for eScience in Action undergo an anonymous peer review process.

Full-Length Papers should include a title page, a structured abstract of no more than 250 words (see below), and text of no more than 5,000 words. Full-Length Papers undergo an anonymous peer review process.

Letters to the Editor should not exceed 900 words and should include no more than 1 table or figure and no more than 10 references. Letters to the Editor are reviewed internally by the editors.

Reviews, including products, tools, and books should not exceed 900 words and should include no more than 1 table or figure and no more than 10 references. This category of article is intended to inform readers about new tools and resources that are relevant to librarians engaged in eScience activities. Reviews are reviewed internally by the editors.

Video Articles present or describe projects of interest to the journal readership. Videos should be no longer than 10 minutes duration. Videos must be accompanied by a transcript and include a narrative abstract of no more than 250 words. The corresponding transcripts and narrative abstracts will be copy edited for clarity and readability. Video Articles are typically reviewed internally by the editors. In some instances video articles may be subject to anonymous peer review, in which case the authors will be asked to ensure that the video transcript contains no information about their identities.

Peer Review Process

All submissions are subject to review and publication at the discretion of the editors. Submissions within scope will be reviewed by at least two reviewers. On completion of this process, usually within 6-8 weeks, the editors will notify authors of their decision and provide review guidance or additional editing if deemed necessary. Authors are encouraged to write in a style that is clear and concise, and use visuals and references as necessary to document statements. Two excellent resources for clear, plain writing are the Plain Language Action and Information Network and the Hemingway Editor App.

JeSLIB uses an anonymous peer review process, which means that the identities of the authors are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process. To facilitate this process, authors should make every effort to ensure that the manuscript (or video article transcript designated for peer review) contains no clues to the authors' identity. The manuscript or video article transcript itself should not include authors' names, institutional affiliations, contact information, funding statements, or acknowledgements. This information should be included in the cover letter and/or entered into the submission system during the submission process.

Within the manuscript or video article transcript, follow these additional guidelines for anonymous peer review:

  • Replace any information in the abstract and text that would identify the authors, including institution names and URLs, by substituting words such as: [institution name hidden for review].
  • Limit citations to your previous work to papers that are relevant for those reviewing the submitted paper. If it is necessary to cite your own work, cite papers published by the authors in the text and in the reference list as follows: ‘[Anonymous, 2015 – hidden for review]’. Use the third person to refer to work the authors have previously undertaken, e.g. replace any phrases like “as we have shown before” with “… has been shown before [Anonymous, 2015 – hidden for review].”
  • Make sure figures do not contain any affiliation related information.
  • Name your files with care (do not include author or institution names in the file names) and ensure that Microsoft Word document properties are also anonymized.
  • If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be required to put back in information that was hidden for peer review (references to the authors, their institutions, self-citations, etc.) before final copyediting can take place.

Manuscript Preparation

For guidelines on Data in Action articles, see Data in Action Article Preparation. For guidelines on Video Articles, see Video Article Preparation.

  • Submissions must be made in English.
  • The manuscript must be submitted as a Microsoft Word file or a Rich Text Format (RTF) file.
  • Follow instructions to prepare the manuscript and files for anonymous peer review
  • Per the Data Sharing policy, authors of Full-Length Papers and eScience in Action articles must deposit the de-identified data associated with the manuscript in a secure repository and have a permanent identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). JeSLIB’s article submission process includes a Data Availability field to enter this information.
  • Double space the entire manuscript, including abstract, body, references, tables, and legends
  • Use left justification only, so that the right margin is ragged
  • Number pages consecutively, beginning with the abstract
  • Use a standard font (such as Times New Roman or Helvetica)
  • Use font size 12 points (for tables as well as text)
  • All articles must be accompanied by an abstract. Full-Length Papers and eScience in Action articles should include an abstract following the Medical Library Association guidelines for creating a structured abstract. If this list of headings is inappropriate, variations are permitted. The abstract should not include institutional affiliations or other clues to the authors’ identity.
  • Each component of the article should be included in one single file and begin on a separate page, as follows: abstract, body text, references, appendices
  • Prepare a separate cover letter to introduce your manuscript to the editors and include article title and author identification information. This information will be entered in the "Comments to the Editor" field on the submission form. See Cover Letter guidelines below.

Data in Action Article Preparation

  • Submissions must be made in English.
  • Datasets must be deposited in a secure repository, as specified in the Data Sharing policy, prior to submission.
  • Authors must use and follow the instructions in JeSLIB’s Data in Action Article Template and submit the manuscript as a Microsoft Word file or a Rich Text Format (RTF) file.
  • Double space the entire manuscript
  • Use left justification only, so that the right margin is ragged
  • Number pages consecutively, beginning with the abstract
  • Use a standard font (such as Times New Roman or Helvetica)
  • Use font size 12 points (for tables as well as text)
  • All articles must be accompanied by an abstract
  • Each component of the article should be included in one single file
  • Prepare a separate cover letter to introduce your manuscript to the editors and include article title and author identification information. This information will be entered in the "Comments to the Editor" field on the submission form. See Cover Letter guidelines below.

Video Article Preparation

See Data Science Programs in U.S. Higher Education: An Interview with the Authors for an example of a published video article.

  • Videos must be no longer than 10 minutes duration.
  • MP4 is the preferred video file format.
  • Videos must include closed captions to make content accessible for viewers. Some recording methods that enable captioning are: Zoom, Google Slides, and YouTube.
  • Videos must be accompanied by a transcript and include a narrative abstract of no more than 250 words.
  • Video articles are typically reviewed internally by the editors for both content and video production quality. In some instances video articles may be subject to anonymous peer review, in which case the authors will be asked to mask their identities in the video transcript and abstract as specified in Peer Review Process. Authors are encouraged to mask their identities in the video transcript, abstract and file names for the initial submission in case peer review is needed.
  • The transcript should include descriptions of visuals that are present within the video. This is helpful to the editors and possible peer reviewers.
  • The transcript must be submitted as a Microsoft Word file or a Rich Text Format (RTF) file.
  • Double space the entire transcript, including abstract, body, references, tables, and legends
  • Use left justification only, so that the right margin is ragged
  • Number pages consecutively, beginning with the abstract
  • Use a standard font (such as Times New Roman or Helvetica)
  • Use font size 12 points (for tables as well as text)
  • All transcripts must be accompanied by an abstract. If the list of headings at Medical Library Association guidelines for creating a structured abstract is inappropriate, variations are permitted. The abstract should not include institutional affiliations or other clues to the authors’ identity.
  • The transcript and abstract should be included in one single file and begin on a separate page, as follows: abstract, transcript, references, appendices
  • Prepare a separate cover letter to introduce your manuscript to the editors and include article title and author identification information. This information will be entered in the "Comments to the Editor" field on the submission form. See Cover Letter guidelines below.
  • During the Submission Process, upload the transcript as the primary manuscript and the video file in the section for data and figures.

Cover Letter

Prepare a separate cover letter to introduce your manuscript to the editors and include article title and author identification information. This information will be entered in the "Comments to the Editor" field on the submission form. The cover letter should include the following:

  • Title of submission
  • Author(s), with each author's highest academic degree or professional certification
  • Institutional affiliation for each author, with city, state, and country
  • Name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address of the author responsible for correspondence
  • Clearly state the purpose of the paper and its expected contribution
  • Funding statements and/or other acknowledgments
  • Any previous presentation of the data or findings in a preliminary report or abstract

Terminology

In preparing manuscripts and transcripts, spell “e” words based on the following examples:

  • eScience is transforming librarianship.
  • There are multiple opportunities for continuing education in eScience.
  • If the word is treated differently in a proper name, follow the namer’s conventions.
  • “e-Science Center”
  • “eScience Institute”

Tables, Charts, Figures and Illustrations

Tables and charts:

  • Include tables and charts where they should appear in the text (not at the end of the file)
  • Number tables and charts in the order in which they are cited in the text
  • Provide a descriptive title for each table and chart
  • When possible, the files used to create tables and charts (e.g., Excel files) should additionally be submitted as supplemental files to be processed for publication

Figures and illustrations:

  • Do not include titles and legends in illustration files
  • Number figures in the order in which they are mentioned in the text, and provide a brief but descriptive caption (legend) for each figure
  • Includes figures and illustrations where they should appear in the manuscript (not at the end of the manuscript file)
  • All artwork (figures, photographs, and illustrations) should additionally be submitted as supplemental files to be processed for publication
  • The required format is EPS, JPEG, PNG, or TIFF with the following resolutions: 1,200 dpi for line figures (e.g., graphs), 600 dpi for grayscale figures (e.g., photographs), and 300 dpi for color figures 

References

References must follow the 16th or 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, Author-Date system. Authors are requested to check all references for completeness, including authors, year, volume number, and pages for journal citations. It is imperative that authors check to be sure that all references mentioned in the text are listed in the reference section. Where available, DOIs (digital object identifiers) for the references must be provided and hotlinked in the Word document. Please include the entire URL, e.g. https://doi.org/10.7191/jeslib.2014.1063. Use the free DOI lookup on CrossRef's website to check your citations. If no DOI is available, include the URL in the citation.

Acceptance

Once an article is accepted for publication, authors will be required to put back information that was masked for peer review (references to the authors and their institutions, self-citations, etc.) before final copyediting can take place. All manuscripts and video article transcripts undergo reformatting by the Managing Editor to fit the design layout agreed upon by the journal's Editorial Board. Video files will be edited to add opening and closing slides.

Corresponding Author Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to submit the article and all related files (appendices, data, tables/charts/figures/illustrations, media, etc.) and be prepared to receive and comply with all communications from the editors. Revisions should be uploaded in the online system in a timely fashion and must also include a separate document, uploaded as a supplementary file, outlining the changes that have been made and point-by-point replies to each of the reviewers’ comments. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure all listed authors are aware of the submission process and approve the final article for publication.