Information
for Contributors
All
contributions welcome
The
HTCG Newsletter welcomes all contributions related to plant tissue culture. These may be
in the form of a text article (with or without images), an image with caption, a block of
images with captions perhaps illustrating a workshop, a link to a video with brief content
description, etc. Article length should be
limited to 2,000 word or less. Larger articles may be serialized. Short contributions that
we can use to fill gaps in the pages are very welcome.
The
subject matter may be a protocol for home plant TC, illustrations of TC, instructions for
building equipment, technical information about active chemicals, plant propagation,
workshop activities, teaching at school level or even up to university level, sources of
difficult-to-find items, syllabuses involving plant TC, etc. Letters to the Editor and
responses are welcome too. Basically the contribution should interest a number of members
and be less ephemeral than a post on the listserv.
Where
do I send it?
Send
the file or group of files htcgsubmissions@hometissueculture.org
. You will receive an acknowledgment from the submissions editor (Toni Annable) and be
asked to complete and return a simple copyright license to publish (for legal reasons).
The contribution may appear in the next issue of the Newsletter or be held over to a
subsequent issue. Rarely, a contribution might be declined if it does not fit our aims or
might be considered offensive.
You
may be asked to make changes to the contribution, such as shortening it or giving more
data. The editors may also make some changes to the English of the contribution for
consistency, legibility or to fit in an available space; or resize or omit an image.
How
should I prepare my contribution?
We
can probably handle almost anything you produce, but the easiest is to prepare and send a
text article using MS Word or OpenOffice. We can edit these easily, and they
show your layout intent. Use a single column and insert images where you want them. The
Newsletter uses a 10-point sans-serif font (like this sheet) so it is a good idea for you
to prepare the article the same way (so you can see what it looks like). Arial, Helvetica
and Calibri are suitable fonts.
Images
can be sent in almost any format, but those used on the Web are preferred: JPG (or JPEG)
and PNG. Bit-mapped images such as TIF tend to be huge and will have to be converted. If
you reduced an image to put in an article, please send us the unreduced version as well.
Images should be captioned and credited.
It is
a good idea to use a consistent naming scheme for your files, using your name or initials,
for example SmithPalmArticle.doc, SmithPalmFig1.png, etc. The submissions editor has to
handle a lot of files!
Other
matters
The
Newsletter is intended to be read online, not printed. Please feel free to include
hyperlinks in your article, for example Newsletter #1,
or ‘Newsletter #2 at http://www.hometissueculture.org/htcgnewsletterDec2009.pdf’ if the link is really, really important and
must be visible (and not too long). Hyperlinks might point to references or MSDSs, or
images or videos elsewhere.
Images
cost us nothing except disk space and download time, so give some thought as to whether
your contribution could use a couple of good images. You might be interested in the
history of a common phrase: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words.html.
Because
some people do want to print the Newsletter and read it off-screen, we will be producing
it in a paginated form using the pdf format rather than producing an html
(web) document. Anyone can read the pdf format using the free Adobe Reader.
Off-line readers won’t
have access to underlying hyperlinks, of course.
We
discourage printing unless necessary, because it consumes trees and adds to the CO2
load of the planet. However we recognize that some people
prefer printed text.All the newsletters will also be archived on the HTCG
web site, so nobody need keep a folder of the old newsletters printed. They will be
available to consult for as long as the HTCG is.
Please
be courteous and kind to all our volunteers who produce the Newsletter. They are giving
their time and effort for free. Above all, please give us your contribution, if not now,
then in the future when your project comes to the right point. Anyone’s contribution is valuable, newbies included
lest we forget. With best wishes from all the HTCG Newsletter team.
Arthur Sale,
co-editor HTCG Newsletter |
