Advice for Authors

SCONUL Focus is the journal of SCONUL, the Society of College, National and University Libraries.  SCONUL Focus aims to bring together articles, reports and news stories from practitioners in order to generate debate and promote good practice in the national libraries and the university and higher education college sector. 

Contributions are welcomed from colleagues in all fields and at all levels: we merely request that the items contributed are concise, informative, practical and (above all!) worth reading.

Although we do not make strict stipulations about length we do recommend authors to consult a recent issue of SCONUL Focus to see if their approach seems in keeping with other published pieces.

SCONUL Focus is published in both paper and electronic versions.  The electronic version is on open access via the SCONUL Web site.  Any author who does not wish to have their article made available via the Web should let the Editor know.

The copyright in items published in SCONUL Focus remains the property of the author(s) or their employers as the case may be.  Items are accepted on the basis that SCONUL will normally expect to grant permission for the reproduction of articles, on paper or in other media, for educational/research purposes. This will include open access repositories, to which authors are encouraged to submit.   Authors should contact the Chair of the Editorial Board if they would like to discuss this policy.

A copy of SCONUL Focus can be supplied on request to a member of the Editorial Board or from SCONUL's office at 102 Euston Street, London NW1 2HA, e-mail: sconul@sconul.ac.uk.  An online version can be found at http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/newsletter 

Items should be submitted (preferably) via e-mail or on disk to your contact on the Editorial Board or Valerie Stevensonv.stevenson@livjm.ac.uk).

As well as text, we are also keen to publish images and would especially like to include author photos where possible.  Please either send prints or digital photographs (resolution 300 dpi or above) to your contact on the Editorial Board.

It is helpful if authors follow our house style when submitting their articles:

• Spelling in '–ise' etc. is preferred to '–ize'.
• Capitalisation is ruthlessly minimal.  In individual libraries it is usual to refer to 'the Library', 'the University',  'the College' etc.  Please resist this in our newsletter, unless there is any ambiguity use 'the library' etc.
• Spell out acronyms at their first occurrence.  Avoid 'HE' for 'higher education', which we prefer to write in full (the UK is the only country in the world to use the term, and our overseas readers are unfamiliar with the abbreviation HE).
• Please use single quotation marks, not double.
•  Web addresses should be written in full (including http://) and –where possible- be underlined for purposes of clarity.
• References should appear as numbered footnotes at the end of the article, in the following forms (we prefer not to reverse surnames and initials)

1 A.N.Author, Title of book, Place: Publisher, 2000, pp 23-6
2 P.B.Writer, 'Title of chapter or article', in Q.V.Editor, ed., Interesting articles about libraries, Place: Publisher, 2000, pp 262-3
3 B.M.Researcher, 'Title of article', Journal of pseudodocumentalism, 70 (2), 1989, pp 117-20

Anyone wishing to discuss possible articles or needing more information should contact:

Valerie Stevenson
Editor, SCONUL Focus
Academic Services Manager
Liverpool John Moores University
Aldam Robarts Learning Resource Centre
Maryland Street
Liverpool L1 9DE

Tel: 0151 231 3178
e-mail: v.stevenson@livjm.ac.uk

We look forward to hearing from you.