Issues in Science and Technology
Librarianship

Instructions for Authors

Instructions for Book Reviews: see below

Purpose: ISTL publishes substantive material of interest to science and technology librarians. It serves as a vehicle for sci-tech librarians to share details of successful programs, materials for the delivery of information services, background information and opinions on topics of current interest, to publish research and bibliographies on issues in science and technology libraries, and to communicate in more depth than the STS-L mailing list.

Please see our current call for papers.

Please contact one of the following people for more information:

Editor:	Andrea Duda	duda@library.ucsb.edu
Book Reviews:	Norma Kobzina	nkobzina@library.berkeley.edu
Conference Reports:	Flora Shrode	shrode@aztec.lib.utk.edu
Journal Reviews:	Nestor Osorio	c60nlo1@wpo.cso.niu.edu
Science and Technology Sources on the Internet:	Liz Brown	ebrown@mail.mse.jhu.edu

Future Issues and Deadlines:

Please query the editor (duda@library.ucsb.edu) before submitting an article.

Issue	Publication Date	Deadline
Winter 1999	March 1999	February 8, 1999
	Theme: GIS and libraries
Spring 1999	June 1999	May 1, 1999
	Theme: Electronic journals in sci-tech libraries
Summer 1999	August 1999	July 25, 1999
	Theme: General topics
Fall 1999	November 1999	October 15, 1999
	Theme: To be announced

Submission of Articles:

Length: Because we are a web-based journal, length is very flexible. In general, articles of about 2000 words seem to work well; however, if you need more space to describe your ideas, feel free to write a longer article.
Format: Please see the guidelines below for the format for citations and bibliographies.
HTML: Please do not mark up your paper in HTML. You can send it either as ASCII text or as an attached e-mail file. We will mark it up and format it in a standard style.

Layout of Article:

Title
Author(s) including title(s) and institution(s)*
Abstract
Body of Paper
References

References:

References should be cited in the text in the following form:

Smith (1982)
Smith (1982a,b)
Smith (1983, 1984)
Smith and Jones (1984)
(Smith & Jones 1984)
(Smith 1984)
(Smith 1984; Jones 1987)
(Smith et al. 1988) for more than 2 authors

At the end of the paper references should be listed alphabetically in the section entitled References in the following standard form, giving journal titles in full. Please italicize or underline titles of books and journals.

Lancaster, F.W. 1972. Vocabulary Control for Information Retrieval. Information Resources Press, Washington, D.C.
Markham, J.W. & Hagmeier, E. 1982. Observations on the effects of germanium dioxide on the growth of macro-algae and diatoms. Phycologia 21(2):125-131.
Starr, S. 1982. Databases in the marine sciences. Online Review 6(2):109-125.
Webster, J. 1994. Endangered information: searching the grey literature in the Pacific Northwest. In: Preserving the Past, Looking to the Future: Proceedings of the 19th Annual Conference of the International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers (ed. by J.W. Markham & A.L. Duda), pp. 119-135. IAMSLIC, Fort Pierce, FL.

Citing Internet Sources

Scott, D., et al. 1997. Internet Based Collaborative Learning: An Empirical Evaluation. AusWeb97 Conference Program and Papers. [Online]. Available: http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/proceedings/donscott/index.html [December 6, 1997].

For examples of other formats for citing Internet resources see A Brief Citation Guide for Internet Sources in History and the Humanities.

Illustrations

If your paper includes illustrations please provide them on disk or provide a URL or FTP location where they may be retrieved. Copies of the files will be retained on the UCSB Library's web server. Please include written copyright permission for reproduction of the illustrations from copyright holder or other appropriate person(s).

GUIDELINES FOR ISTL BOOK REVIEWS

Here are some guidelines to follow in doing the book review; these are things to include, if appropriate.

In general these are to be descriptive and evaluative reviews, designed to make readers aware of new books in the field, for use as a selection tool.

Purpose of the book--who is the intended audience, and what is the general scope and subject area. Is it designed as a textbook (generally we're not reviewing those but may be worth mentioning)? Is it a handbook, bibliography, guide to the literature?

Organization--include information about bibliographies, indexes, appendices if available. Any special features should be mentioned.

Comparison to other publications on the same subject and within a similar time frame.

Authority--any information about the author or editor, and previous works by them if known.

Length of review--no specific limits but probably within the range of 350-500 words would be normal. Feel free to use examples from the text to support your evaluation, so this may make it a bit longer.

Review editor will consult on any changes necessary before submitting it to ISTL for final publication. Reviews should be sent (fax, e-mail, or hard copy) to:

Norma Kobzina
Bioscience and Natural Resources Library
2101 VLSB #6500
UC Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-6500
Fax: 510-642-8217
e-mail: nkobzina@library.berkeley.edu

Reminder: be as open as possible about the evalutation--both positive and negative comments are appropriate.

Last modified: March 31, 1998