Editorial Policy, Standards and Output Planning

May 2001

Many CSOs have editorial policies and standards for print publications but very few have editorial policies for Web publishing. CSOs should maintain quality control over their print and electronic publishing through a process of peer review and formal editing of their documents. However, while quality control mechanisms are important, these procedures need to recognize the "immediacy" of the Web. In many organizations, Web publishing has forced a complete streamlining of print publishing procedures to meet the increasing demand for speed. Committees are frequently abolished in favour of clear lines of accountability between individuals.

Guidelines for authors

Editorial guidelines that apply to printed documents or publications should also apply fully to electronic documents for these types of items:

• electronic versions of printed documents;
• any documents which would be considered an official publication; and any
• organizational policy or procedures documents.

An editorial policy for online publishing might cover the following

(Adapted from the IISD Electronic/Print Publishing Policy and Procedures and the ICIMOD editorial guidelines for print)

Document submission

• Documents should be listed in advance on the publications pipeline to give the Web manager/team time to plan to process the document

Approvals

• The project director or coordinator should approve the document (content, accuracy, references, etc.) before it is put on the publications' pipeline.
• The Web site steering committee will decide whether a publication needs to be edited by the editorial department or whether it needs minor editing, which can be done by the Web manager and by whom the peer review should be done.
• The editorial department will have the right to send back a document or reject it in case of incorrect/invalidated facts and figures, or spelling, etc. even though the document may have been approved by the project coordinator/director.
• The editorial department will have the right to ask for clarifications and additional facts/information from the author if necessary.
• Exceptions:
  • Minor changes to existing Web pages (fixing broken links or typos, adding links, corrections) and brief time sensitive announcements do not need to go through the formal process for approval.
  • Records submitted to databases (measurement and indicators, publications database, maps database, etc.) do not need to go through the formal process for approval.
  • Short project updates and short articles need the approval of the steering committee and the project coordinator/director but do not require peer reviews.
  • Relevant papers or articles prepared by other organizations or persons not belonging to the CSO require the approval of the steering committee and the project coordinator/director but do not require peer reviews.

Editing

• The editorial department will edit the document first.
• The final complete version of a document will be handed to the Web manager/team.
• The layout and style of the html version of the document will be decided by the Web manager.
• The print publications department will decide the layout of a pdf file. All necessary graphics, tables, etc., will be provided to the Web manager/team in electronic format, but may be further processed as necessary. An equivalent text should be provided for every non-text element. This includes: images, graphical representations of text (including symbols), image map regions, animations (e.g., animated GIFs), applets and programmatic objects, ascii art, frames, scripts, images used as list bullets, spacers, graphical buttons, sounds (played with or without user interaction), stand-alone audio files, audio tracks of video, and video.
• The clearest and simplest language appropriate for a site's content should be used. In case of some technical documents, simplification and editing may be done to make it Web friendly before the document is placed on the Web. The Web manager will decide this after consulting with the project coordinator/director.
• The Web manager may also use only selected key sections of some technical documents, after consultation with the project coordinator/director. In such cases, contact information should be provided in case the reader wishes to order and read the entire document.

Final validations

The Web manager will check the correct ISSN and ISBNs (which are different for print and online versions) for the documents before placing them online.