<link rel="Stylesheet" href="DPSstyles.css" type="text/css">

<h2>Information Science Discussion Papers Series: Author Guidelines</h2>

<p>These guidelines are for authors intending to submit a paper to the
<EM>Information Science Discussion Papers Series</EM>. While these
guidelines are not binding, it would be helpful if authors could adhere to
them as much as possible.</p>

<p>The current coordinator of the series is Nigel Stanger. Please <A
HREF="mailto:dps@infoscience.otago.ac.nz">contact him</A> if you have any
questions about these guidelines or the series as a whole.</p>


<h3>Purpose of the <EM>Series</EM></h3>

<p>The <em>Discussion Paper Series</em> is intended as a semi-formal
vehicle for staff and/or students in the department to publish research
in a timely manner. Papers typically reflect work in progress and may
not include final results. Many papers that appear in the series are
early versions of papers that are later published in conferences or
journals. If you have recently submitted a conference or journal paper,
we encourage you to forward a copy to the <A
HREF="mailto:dps@infoscience.otago.ac.nz">series coordinator</A> for
inclusion in the series.</p>

<p>The papers are sent to a selection of Information Systems departments at
several universities in New Zealand, Australia and Asia. Copies are also
archived in the Hocken Library, and where possible posted electronically on
the Department&#8217;s web site. Papers published in the series reflect the
research effort of the department, and due care should therefore be taken
in their production.</p>


<h3>Formatting</h3>

<p>We do not enforce a particular style on authors; many of the papers
submitted to the series have also been submitted to conferences or
journals, and must therefore adhere to the style requirements of the
particular conference or journal. However, it would be helpful if authors
could adhere to some basic formatting guidelines wherever possible.</p>

<p>Please use &#8220;standard&#8221; fonts such as <FONT
FACE="Times">Times</FONT>/<FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Times New
Roman</FONT>, <FONT FACE="Palatino">Palatino</FONT>, <FONT
FACE="Arial">Arial</FONT>/<FONT FACE="Helvetica">Helvetica</FONT>, <FONT
FACE="Symbol">Symbol</FONT> (Symbol) and
L<sup>A</sup>T<sub>E</sub>X&#8217;s Computer Modern, in the size range
10&#8211;12pt. Do not use non-standard fonts unless absolutely necessary,
as this may complicate the production process.</p>

<p>Leave at least a 2.54cm (1 inch) margin around the body text, and ensure
that margins are suitable for double-sided printing.</p>

<p>Include page numbers if possible, centered at the bottom of the page.
(It may be possible to add these later if you submit the original source
file(s) of your paper&#8212;see below.)</p>

<p>Please check your paper for grammar, spelling, correct cross-references,
etc. If possible, get someone else to read the paper before submitting it.
Most papers are not checked before publication.</p>


<h3>Length</h3>

<p>There are no length restrictions as such, but we would prefer papers to
be less than thirty pages in length, as larger papers are unwieldy to deal
with. Particularly large documents could possibly be published as a
departmental technical report instead.</p>


<h3>Submitting a paper</h3>

<p>You may submit papers in either hard copy or electronic form. We prefer
electronic form so that the papers can be downloaded from our web site.
Please email electronic submissions to the <A
HREF="mailto:dps@infoscience.otago.ac.nz">series coordinator</A>. Hard copy
papers should be given directly to the coordinator (Nigel Stanger). If you
are submitting in electronic form, please use one of the following formats
(in descending order of preference):</p>

<h4>PDF</h4>

<p>PDF is the most preferred format. However, there are some things you
need to be aware of when generating a PDF file. First, if your paper
contains bitmapped images, please <EM>disable</EM>
&#8220;Downsampling&#8221; of colour and grayscale images, as this can
render your images illegible. In Acrobat Distiller, these options can be
disabled in the &#8220;Compression&#8221; section of &#8220;Job
Options&#8221;. You do not need to disable downsampling of black and white
images, as these are downsampled to a much higher resolution of 300dpi.</p>

<p>Second, if you use L<sup>A</sup>T<sub>E</sub>X to produce your paper and
use the Computer Modern fonts, you must generate the PDF file using
PostScript versions of these fonts, or the PDF produced will be unreadable
on screen. This problem can be avoided by using one of the alternate font
packages, such as the <TT>times</TT> or <tt>palatino</tt>.</p>

<p>If you are unsure about any of the above, please submit your original
document(s) instead.</p>


<h4>L<sup>A</sup>T<sub>E</sub>X</h4>

<p>If you produced your paper using L<sup>A</sup>T<sub>E</sub>X, you are
welcome to submit the source (preferred) or the DVI file (or both).</p>


<h4>Other formats (word processor, HTML, etc.)</h4>

<p><em>If there is no other option</em>, submit your original document(s)
in whatever format you produced them in. Currently we can handle MS Office,
WordPerfect and HTML documents. It may be possible to handle other formats,
but nothing is guaranteed.</p>

<p>Note that original document formats can often require considerable
additional work in order to render them suitable for publication, which is
why this is the least preferred option. Word documents in particular seem
to cause all sorts of difficulties.</p>