INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

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Introduction

The Journal of Information Technology is published quarterly. There are no page charges for submission or publication.

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Submission of manuscripts

All submissions for publication should be sent (as Word for Windows e-mail attachments) to:

Manuscripts should not be sent by mail. In extraordinary circumstances contact the Editorial Office first to discuss alternatives:

  • Editorial Office, Journal of Information Technology
    Templeton College
    Oxford University
    OX1 5NY
    UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1865 422755
Fax: +44 (0) 1865 422501

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Criteria for acceptance

In accepting work for publication, the Editors and reviewers give special weight to readability and interest value for a wide readership. All papers are reviewed by at least three expert referees as well as an Editor. The Editors' decision is final.

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Presentation

The Editors place great emphasis on a clear written style expressing a well-structured presentation of ideas.

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Preparation of manuscripts

Papers should be in English, double spaced and single sided on 8.5" x 11" or A4 paper with generous margins (at least 1" / 2.5cm). Emphasize any special points in a covering letter from the submitting author (see also Copyright). If submitting hard copy of the manuscript please submit four copies.

Every manuscript submitted should be clearly labelled as being either:

  • A research article
  • A review
  • A debate
  • A teaching case

The total number of pages should be listed.

Structure papers as follows: (a) Title page; (b) Title plus abstract on the next page (omitting author details); (c) Keywords; (d) Text; (e) References; (f) Figure and table legends; (g) Figures and (h) Tables.

Title page

On a separate title page list:

  • title and full names of all authors
  • corresponding author's name
  • full postal address
  • telephone
  • fax
  • email
  • suggestion for a short running title of no more than 40 characters (including spaces)
  • acknowledgements of research support along with grant numbers (if applicable).

Title plus abstract

Include, on a separate page, no more than 250 words that adequately describe the work and highlight its significance. The abstract should include only text. Avoid the use of abbreviations and references.

For the purposes of blind review, the title page with author details is stripped out by the Editorial Office, so this page is the first to be seen by reviewers.

Keywords

Include up to six keywords that describe your paper for indexing and for web searches. The more discriminating your keywords, the greater the likelihood that your article will be found and cited.

Text

Main headings should be typed in capitals, subheadings in lower case. Both types of heading should be underlined. Footnotes should be avoided.

Equations should be typewritten and with the number placed in parentheses at the right margin. Reference to the equation should use the form 'Eq. (3)' or '(3)'.

Supply computer program material as originals on separate pages. It will, wherever possible, be reproduced photographically to avoid errors. Palgrave house style is to set programs and program words in running text, 10 pt Courier New.

References

Avoid exhaustive lists of references. Indicate references in the text by the author's surname and date of publication in brackets and list the full reference in alphabetical order of author surname at the end of the paper. Double space references on a separate page. Cite all authors and write journal titles out in full. Online citations must include date of access. If absolutely necessary unpublished or personal work may be cited in the text but not listed in the references. Style and punctuation must be in accordance with the following examples:

  • Example of a journal article

    Keen, P. (1980) Decision Support Systems: Translating analytic techniques into useful tools, Sloan Management Review 21(3): 33-44.

  • Example of a chapter in an edited book

    Marti, J. and Zeilinger, A. (1985) New Technology in Banking and Shopping, in T. Forester, (ed.) The Information Technology Revolution, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, pp.350-358.

  • Example of book

    Zuboff, S. (1988) In the Age of the Smart Machine, London: Heinemann.

  • Example of conference proceedings

    Shneiderman, B. (1996) The Eyes Have It: A task by data type taxonomy of information visualizations, in IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages (Las Alamos, USA, 1996); Chicago: IEEE Computer Society Press. 336-343.

  • Example of website

    Kruskal, JB, Young, FW, Seery, JB. How to use KYST, A very flexible program to do multidimensional scaling and unfolding [WWW document] http://www.netlib.org/mds/kyst2a_manual.txt (accessed 13th January 2002).

Figure and table legends

Figure and table legends should be provided on a separate sheet, double spaced and numbered separately in order of appearance in the text. Legends and / or captions should be provided for every figure or image; these should be short, descriptive and should define any acronyms, abbreviations or symbols used. They should begin with a brief title for the whole figure and continue with a short description of each panel. The key should not be part of the legend.

Figures

Number figures with Arabic numerals in order of appearance. If submitting hard copy, supply each illustration on a separate sheet, with the first author's name, figure number and the top of the illustration indicated in pencil on the reverse. Line drawings should be high-quality laser output (not photocopies).

When submitting artwork, reduction to the scale that will be used on the page is unnecessary. However, it should be borne in mind that figures will be resized to fit one or two column-widths (3.5" and 7" respectively) of the journal page, and the figure and its labelling should be clear and legible at this size. No figures should exceed 8.5" by 11" in size.

Rules should be no thinner than 1 point (0.36 mm) after size reduction. In graphs, a coarse pattern such as hatching should be used because shading and tints are liable to break up on the printed copy. Figures divided into parts should be labelled with a lower-case, bold a, b, etc in the top left-hand corner.

Minimum resolutions for scanned artwork are:

  • Black and white line illustrations (eg graphs): 600 dpi
  • Black and white half-tone illustrations (eg photographs): 300 dpi
  • Colour illustrations: 400 dpi (NB colour images should be split CMYK not RGB)

Colour figures can be reproduced at cost. Supply colour illustrations electronically in either TIFF or EPS format or as first generation 35mm colour transparencies. Colour prints are acceptable.

If submitting a hard copy of the manuscript, mark the first reference to a figure in the margin.

Tables

Number each table consecutively with Arabic numerals and double space them on separate pages. Avoid using vertical rules. Horizontal rules should be used only above and below column headings and at the bottom of the table.

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Electronic submission

Prepare initial submissions in accordance with the instructions above and send them as attachments to e-mail to the Editors.

A hard copy of the submission should also be posted to the Editorial Office. This will be used as a reference copy if any electronic files are corrupted in transmission. If the e-mail is mis-delivered, the hard copy will alert the Editorial Office to the submission.

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Accepted manuscripts

The electronic copy of the final, accepted manuscript should be emailed to the Editors together with the hard copy. The electronic copy must meet the following criteria:

  1. The electronic manuscript is the final accepted version.
  2. An identical double-spaced hard copy is sent to the Editors at the same time.
  3. All figures and tables are saved as separate files from the text.
  4. The paper is saved in its original application (e.g. Microsoft Word for Windows), also as RTF (rich text format) or Adobe Acrobat PDF if available, or as ASCII (plain) text.
  5. The files are clearly labelled with the journal title, author's names, paper title, contents and the application used.
  6. Sub-directories/folders are avoided, (keep the files at the top directory level).
  7. There is no automatic pagination. Manuscript pages should be numbered by hand on the hard copy version.
  8. The files are not compressed.
  9. There are double-line spaces between paragraphs; first lines are not indented.
  10. Double-line spaces are not used between items in lists.
  11. Journal style is followed for references, capitalization etc.
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To enable the Publisher to protect the copyright of the journal, authors must assign copyright in their manuscripts to the Publisher. All submitted manuscripts must be accompanied by a statement signed by all authors that the article is original, is not under consideration by another journal, has not previously been published elsewhere and its content has not been anticipated by any previous publication.

Authors will be entitled to publish any part of their paper elsewhere, provided the usual acknowledgements are given.

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Permissions

Authors must obtain permission to reproduce all maps, diagrams, figures and photographs. Generally it is also necessary to obtain permission for single passages of prose exceeding 250 words, or scattered passages totalling more than 400 words from any one work. Please supply the publisher with full information for all work cited, including author, date published, publisher and page references. Copyright extends to 50 years after the death of the author or 50 years after publication of a scholarly edition, whichever is the longer.

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Proofs

The corresponding author will receive page proofs, which must be carefully checked. Important changes in data are allowed but authors may be charged for excessive alterations in proofs. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours of receipt. If proofs are not returned within this time period the Editors will have the right to publish the article without alterations.

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Offprints

An offprint order form is sent with proofs; 25 free offprints are supplied to the principal author. Additional offprints may be ordered. Charges for reprints ordered at a later date are necessarily higher.

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Business matters

Business correspondence and enquiries relating to advertising, subscriptions, back numbers or reprints should be addressed to the Publishers at:

  • Palgrave Macmillan Journals
    Houndmills
    Basingstoke
    Hampshire
    RG21 6XS
    UK

Tel: +44 (0)1256 329242 Fax: +44(0)1256 810526