1. Cathie Jackson and Jane Secker
Journal of Information Literacy

2.  Introduction to the Journal of Information Literacy
 Where and what to publish
 The peer review process
 How your paper will be assessed
 The publication process

4.  JIL is an international, peer- reviewed journal that aims to
investigate information literacy in all its forms to address
the interests of diverse IL communities of practice. To
this end it publishes articles from both established and
new authors in this field
 JIL welcomes contributions that push the boundaries of
IL beyond the educational setting and examine this
phenomenon as a continuum between those involved in
its development and delivery and those benefiting from
its provision

6. 3%
4%
7%
Library staff
LIS staff and students
17%
Management
L&T Support staff
Other
69%

7. 1%
3% 8% University
3% FE college
School
13%
Research organisation
Business
72% Government

8.  Editor-in-Chief:
Jane Secker
 Managing Editor:
Cathie Jackson
 Book review editor:
Martin Wolf

9.  Read the author guidelines!
 Is your topic within scope of the journal?
 JIL focuses on information literacy NOT library
skills, libraries or teaching in general
 Peer-reviewed article or shorter project report?
 Read previously published articles in JIL

10.  Need to be original – are you just telling a familiar story?
 Refer to the literature and place the work within a wider
context
 Evidence any claims made
 Follow academic convention in structure of the paper
 Have been carefully proof-read before
submission, especially if English is not your first language
 Are anonymised for peer review

11.  Relevance to JIL – within our scope?
 Originality and interest to our audience – useful
contribution to knowledge or good practice?
 Title and abstract – appropriate wording and length and
informative?
 Methodology – appropriate?
 Use of literature and referencing – good analysis of
literature? Good referencing or signs of plagiarism?
 Clarity of expression and structure – clear exposition of
argument? Logical structure? Spell out acronyms, avoid
jargon!

12. Your turn

13.  Accept for publication without amendment (almost
never!)
 Revisions required
 Major revisions required followed by peer review
 Resubmit elsewhere
 Decline submission

14.  Make a list of all the actions needed of you. Can you address
them? If so, how?
 If you can’t, discuss this with the editors –say why
 Revise the paper and resubmit it, with a covering letter
detailing how you have addressed each comment
 If there were comments you didn’t implement, because you
couldn’t or because you disagreed with them, note them and
say why (you may want to discuss with us earlier in revision
process)
 Remember that addressing these comments may unearth
other suggested changes – several rounds of revisions may be
required

15. JIL copyeditors
Liz McCarthy Sharon Lawler Helen Bader

16.  Use the required template
 In JIL, this also means
 Use Arial 11pt for body text (if using the template, this should be
default)
 Number all section headings using the multilevel list option
 Format headings as per the style sheet
 Format your references using the journal’s required style
 For JIL that means the Harvard style as used by Cardiff University
 Remember to convert your EndNote references to text
 Ensure all in-text citations are given a full reference at the
end, and that all references are cited in the text

17.  Define all acronyms and abbreviations at first use
 Ensure all diagrams and images are copyright free and
acknowledge their source
 And specifically for JIL:
 Use British spellings
 Avoid footnotes – either incorporate information into the
text or list non-cited information and websites under
Resources and cited sources under References
 List author name, affiliation and email address for each
author, in the order given in the metadata, on the article
loaded for copyediting

18.  Celebrate!
 Let everyone know
 Link using the DOI
 Add it to your
repository, acknowledging
first published in JIL

19.  Gordon, Rachel Singer. 2004. The Librarian's Guide to
Writing for Publication. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press.
 HEA-ICS. 2007. Writing for publication
http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/events/displayevent.ph
p?id=187
 JIL Author Guidelines.
http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL/about/submissio
ns#authorGuidelines
 Library Success Wiki: Publishing and speaking.
http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Publishing_an
d_Speaking