Normas de estilo de publicación en Information Research

Normas de Estilo de la Publicación

Information Research: an international electronic journal attracts high usage - currently averaging more than 3,000 hits a month on the top page and, more than 200,000 hits a year on the site as a whole. Most papers attract several hundred hits a month and average more than 1,300 hits a year. Items appearing in the journal are now being cited in other, print publications and the journal is indexed in ISI's Social Science Citation Index, LISA and Information Science Abstracts.
Information Research is a fully refereed journal, although we also publish Working Papers, and we have an Editorial Board representative of all areas covered by the journal.
These Instructions to Authors are published so that submissions may be prepared to a standard format and style. A .pdf file is available for downloading and printing.
In addition, all authors should remember that the journal has an international readership - local acronyms or organizations, for example, need to be explained.

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1. Form of submission
1.1 Warning!
2. Layout
2.1 The abstract
2.2 In-text headings
3. In-text citations and bibliographical references
3.1 Citations
3.2 Bibliographical references
3.2.1 Books
3.2.2 Periodicals
3.2.3 Conference papers and proceedings
3.3 References to electronic sources
4. Index terms used

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1. Form of submission.
Papers should be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief, or to any member of the Editorial Board, electronically or on a 3" diskette in HTML or XHTML format, suitable for browsing with Netscape or Internet Explorer versions 4.0 or higher. With effect from Volume 9 No. 1, XHTML will be used and HTML files can be converted automatically. Any diagrams in the text should be converted to .gif or .jpg files and included in the files on the diskette or as additional attachments to the e-mail message. (Useful guides are:
Ian S. Graham, HTML 4.0 Sourcebook, Wiley, 1998.
Chuck Musciano and Bill Kennedy, HTML and XHTML: the definitive guide, (5th ed.) O'Reilly, 2002)
For general writing style, The Oxford guide to style. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, should be followed. However, the Economist Style Guide is also useful because a partial Web version of this guide is available.
An Information Research Style Manual is gradually being assembled.
An Evaluation Form is used to collect responses from referees. A copy is available here as a guide to the way your paper will be assessed.

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1.1 Warning!
DO NOT USE MicroSoft's Word program or its html editor Front Page to convert your word-processed document to HTML - these programs add a great deal of unnecessary coding, inflating the file by up to 200% and making the page unreadable in the intended way by older browsers. If you use this kind of conversion program, your paper will be returned for editing and this may delay publication.
I have provided a template for papers, which can be downloaded, and the easiest way to prepare your paper is to cut and paste the title, abstract, paragraphs, etc., into the template.
If possible, use an HTML editor, such as Homesite, or the excellent, free editor 1st Page 2000.
Word 2003 has a new feature, which allows you to save as Web page, filtered which uses much less Word-specific coding - if you find it difficult to use an HTML editor, you can use this feature, but please let the Editor know that you have done so.

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2. Layout.
Note that Information Research uses a style sheet, which fixes the style of paragraphs and headings; therefore, do not use any style features (such as font size or colour) in your own HTML code
The title, authors names and affiliations, etc., at the head of the paper should appear as follows:
Task dimensions of user evaluations of information retrieval systems
F.C.Johnson, J.R. Griffiths and R.J. Hartley
Department of Information and Communications
Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester, UK
2.1 The abstract
It is important to provide a full, informative abstract. Author abstracts are used by the abstracting journals and by ISI's citation indexes and they can be an important means of ensuring that your paper is found by searchers. A full abstract is also a useful means of encouraging searchers to follow-up and view your paper.
Consequently, an abstract of 150 to 200 words should be provided and Information Research uses structured abstracts, with effect from the January 2005 issue. The rationale for this change is derived from Hartley, J. (2003). Improving the clarity of journal abstracts in psychology: the case for structure. Science Communication, 24(3), 366-379. The common structure employed in many medical journals. is, Introduction, Methods, Analysis, Results and Conclusions. These separate sections should be named as in the abstract below:
Introduction. We report an investigation designed to identify the role of uncertainty in the information search process. Uncertainty has been proposed as key factor in driving the search for information and this study sought to operationalise the concept and relate it to the problem solving process of academic researchers.
Method. Pre-search, post-search and follow-up interviews were conducted with researchers at the Universities of Sheffield and North Texas. The actual search process, involving an intermediary, was also tape recorded. Transcripts of the interviews and of the search process formed the data for analysis.
Analysis. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were carried out on the data, which related to 111 individual researchers. Quantitative analysis employed the statistical package SPSS, while the qualitative analysis was carried out with the Atlas.ti program.
Results It proved possible to operationalise the uncertainty concept and to demonstrate that uncertainty declined through the problem solving process. Results are also presented an the relations between uncertainty and the models of information seeking proposed by Ellis, Kuhlthau and Wilson.
ConclusionUncertainty appears to have two dimensions: the 'objective', cognitive uncertainty resulting from a perceived lack of knowledge in a field the 'affective' uncertainty - the feeling of unease or anxiety caused by the cognitive lack.
This structure should serve the majority of papers that are submitted, but may require modification for, for example, more speculative, theoretical papers or for reviews of research.
I have placed on the site two papers dealing with structured abstracts by Professor Hartley.
2.2 In-text headings
Headings in the text should use the following HTML tags: Heading 2 for first level headings, Heading 3 for second level, and Heading 4 for third level. The heading, "References" at the end of the paper should be Heading 2. The style-sheet used by Information Research will ensure that the headings are produced as below and no additional coding is neededto specify, for example, font colour.
This is heading 2
This is heading 3
This is heading 4
Please note that other aspects of style, such as the font colour, etc., are set by the style sheet and should not be specified separately.

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3. In-text citations and bibliographical references
With effect from Volume 9 No. 1 the journal uses the style of the APA publication manual (5th ed.), with some slight variations to conform to general UK style. These variations are noted, where appropriate, below. This style is widely used and the standard packages for managing bibliographical references, such as EndNote and Reference Manager make it available as one of the output styles.

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3.1 Citations
Citations in the text should be according to the "Harvard" or "author/date" system, e.g.:
The sample used in this study did not obey the principles of statistical sampling, but the principles of maximum variation sampling, as defined by Patton (1990) and those of theoretical sampling, as defined by Strauss & Corbin (1990), i.e., sampling on the basis of concepts that have proven theoretical relevance to the evolving theory.
or, for example,
Kling had frequently written about the need for a better understanding of how people work before improved productivity from new information technologies can be expected. (Kling 1987, 1991; Iacono and Kling 1987). He observed, '...it is common for organizations to underinvest in the support for helping people effectively integrate computerised systems into their work'. (Kling 1996: 302)
Note that no comma is used after the cited author's name, and that the page number for a quotation follows a colon, without the use of p. or pp.
Note - Personal communication
Personal communications are cited only in the text and not in the list of references;
Where the author's name and publication date of the item appear as part of the discussion, it is not necessary to cite in the way shown above. For example: "In 1990, Patton defined the principle of 'maximum variation sampling'", would not require any additional citation of the form: "In 1990, Patton (1990) defined...".
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3.2 Bibliographical references
The corresponding references should be set out as below. Please note that only the first word of a title should be given an initial capital letter:
3.2.1 Books
Book with one author
General form: Author's name. (Year). Title of book. (Edition). Place of publication: Publisher.
Patton, M.Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. (2nd. ed.). London: Sage.

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Book with more than one author
Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques. London: Sage.
Note: variation from APA - a word following a colon is not capitalised in English punctuation other than in a list.

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Book with editor(s)
General form: Editor's name. (Ed(s).). (Year). Title of book. (Edition). Place of publication: Publisher.
Gibbs, J.T. & Huang, L.N. (Eds.). (1991). Children of color: psychological interventions and minority youth. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
Bruce, C.S. & Candy, P. (Eds.). (2000). Information literacy around the world: advances in programs and research. Wagga Wagga, NSW: Charles Sturt University.
Note: variation from APA - page 217 of the APA Publication manual gives a list of cities that do not require a state abbreviation (in the USA) or a country name because they are recognized publishing centres. This is followed generally in Information Research but no place of publication in the UK requires the addition of a country name. Thus, one uses: 'Oxford: Oxford University Press' not 'Oxford, England: Oxford University Press'; nor do major cities in other countries, for example, Canberra, Melbourne, and Sydney in Australia [Perth would be Perth, WA to distinquish it from Perth in Scotland], or Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada, Riga in Latvia, Vilnius in Lithuania, Warsaw in Poland, etc.

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Article in a book
Wilson, T.D. (1994). Information needs and uses: fifty years of progress? In B.C. Vickery (Ed.), Fifty years of information progress: a Journal of Documentation review (pp. 15-51). London: Aslib.

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Dictionary entry
Literacy. (1996). In Chambers 21st century dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers.

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Encyclopedia entry
Harnad, S. (2002). Electronic journal archives. In International encyclopedia of information and library science (2nd. ed.) (pp. 174-176). London: Routledge.
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3.2.2 Periodicals - general notes
Separate names with a comma, and an ampersand (&) before the last author.
Dates: Journals, use (Year). Magazines with no volume number, use (Year, Month). Daily newspapers, use (Year, Month, Day)
Titles: article titles - capitalize first word in titles, and proper names.
Journal titles: capitalize all words except articles and prepositions.
Issue numbers: include in all cases. (APA suggests inclusion only for journals without continuous pagination, but this complicates sub-editing.)
Pages: newspapers, use p. for one page, pp. for two or more pages. For journals and magazines do not use p. or pp. before page numbers.
Article in a journal or magazine with volume number and continuous pagination.
General form: Author's name. (Year). Title of article. Title of journal or journal, volume number, part number, page numbers.
Henshaw, R., & Valauskas, E.J. (2001). Metadata as a catalyst: experiments with metadata and search engines in the Internet journal, First Monday. Libri, 51(2), 86-101.

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Article in a journal or magazine paginated by issue.
Watson, R.T., Akselsen, S., Evjemo, B., & Aarsaether, N. Teledemocracy in local government. Communications of the ACM, 42(12), 58-63.

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3.2.3 Conference papers and proceedings
Unpublished papers, delivered at conferences take the form:
Dervin, B. (1983) An overview of sense-making research: concepts, methods and results to date. Paper presented at the International Communications Association Annual Meeting, Dallas, Texas.

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Papers published in conference proceedings take the form:
Egghe, L.L., & Rousseau, R. (1990). Citations and citers' motivations. In Leo Egghe & R. Rousseau, (Eds.), Introduction to informetrics: quantitative methods in library, documentation, and information science (pp. 211-227). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers.

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Papers published in regularly published conference proceedings are treated as papers in a journal and take the form:
Hirsh, S.G. (1996). Complexity of search tasks and children's information retrieval. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science, 33, 47-51

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3.3 References to electronic sources.
The Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. 5th edition gives the following guidance.

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Electronic magazine, journal or newspaper article.
Use the same form as for a print publication. However, Web journals, etc., commonly do not have page numbers, unless they are .pdf format versions of a printed journal. Follow the bibliographical reference with information on the date of access and the URL of the paper as below. Note that the URL is also used as a link from the cited item.
Allen, D. (1995). Information systems strategy formation in Higher Education Institutions. Information Research, 1. Retrieved 17 August, 2003 from http://informationr.net/ir/1-1/paper3.html
Note: variation from APA - the international order of elements for dates is used, i.e., day, month, year, rather than the APA recommended US practice of month, day, year.

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Individual documents on Web sites take the form:
Author/Corporate author name. (Date) Title of file. Retrieved (Access date) from URL. For example:
Sveiby, K.E. (2001). Frequently asked questions.. Retrieved 16 July, 2001 from http://www.sveiby.com.au/faq.html
Note: if a date is not available use (n.d.)

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Chapters or sections in an Internet document take the form:
Sawicki, M. (2001). Edmund Husserl (1859-1938). In The Internet encyclopedia of philosophy. Retrieved 24 October, 2002 from http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/h/husserl.htm
If a document is part of a large and complex Web site, identify the host organization and the relevant programme or department before giving the URL for the document. For example:
Brick, J., Collins, M. & Chandler, K. (1998). An experiment in Random-Digit-Dial screening . Retrieved 17 August, 2003 from US Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement Web site: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs98/98255.pdf

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Personal e-mail messages
E-mail messages sent from one person to another should be treated as personal communications: they are cited as 'personal communication' in the text, but do not appear in the reference list.

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Messages posted to electronic discussion lists take the form:
Koehler, W.C. (2002, October 21). Who do we use to educate LIS students - a teaser. Message posted to Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum, archived at http://listserv.utk.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0210&L=jesse&F=&S=&P=14084

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For other kinds of electronic documents, or further examples, see the APA Manual or its Web site at http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html or any one of a number of sites that provide guidance on the use of the APA style. For example: the APA style crib sheet at http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html, or A guide for writing research papers based on styles recommended by the American Psychological Association at http://webster.commnet.edu/apa/apa_index.htm

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4. Index terms used.
We are attempting to standardise the choice of keywords used in the appropriate meta-tags and in the subject index, in order to help authors to select the most appropriate terms. A list of the terms currently used in the subject index is available and authors are asked to select their keywords from this list, whenever possible. If no suitable keyword can be found, please suggest appropriate terms and the Editor will make a final decision.