Guidelines for Contributors
IPCRA members are involved in a vast range of disciplines in all areas of conservation, preservation, museums and heritage. We encourage members to publish interesting projects to help promote the practice of conservation of historic and artistic material in Ireland to internationally accepted standards; and to improve public awareness and understanding of the need for conservation in the bi-annual newsletter.
Submissions, following the Style Guidelines, can be emailed to ipcranewsletter@gmail.com
The following guidelines are provided to help prospective authors in the preparation of their manuscript, and to ensure smooth progress through the editorial production process. It is essential that all authors prepare their material in accordance with these notes.
If you wish for guidance before investing time in writing, you are encouraged to contact the publication team. Contributors may send an outline of their proposed article to the above email address or contact the team via the IPCRA chairperson in advance of submitting a full draft.
Editorial process
Queries and any necessary substantive changes will be referred to the author for approval. Where there is more than one author all correspondence will be through the first-named person. The author may be asked to make revisions to their article to increase clarity, accuracy or information. The aim of any revision and the editing process is both to make the article as helpful to readers as possible, and to do justice to the contribution of the work. It is a two-way process which takes time and effort, but the goal is to agree a draft which meets these aims. A great deal of time can be saved in the later stages, if authors ensure that the details specified in these guidelines are followed, and complete a copy of the checklist below when submitting final drafts. Final drafts are subject to minor editing for clarity and house style. If an article is not accepted for publication, reasons will be given to the author.
Copyright
Copyright remains with the author, however the author must secure permission to reproduce any material to which they do not own copyright, and all such material must be fully acknowledged in the text of their submission. It is recommended that the author secure permission to reproduce in writing if required.
Style Guidelines for Contributors
Format of submission
Submissions should be double-spaced in 12 point Times New Roman font (including endnotes), in English (UK standard spellings) in a Word processing document. Please include a title page with a word count. On separate pages contributors should include a 100-200 word abstract, and list of all images, tables and correlating captions. Please do not embed images, figures, or tables in the text or use the automatic footnote application in the word-processing package; this accompanying material should be put in separate files, and sent via email or on a CD.
Please also include a very short biographical note including title, position and place of work of each author in 50 words.
Length
The recommended word limit is 1,500-200 for longer articles and 500-1000 for short notices and book reviews. These word limits should include all notations.
Titles and headings
The main title should reflect clearly and succinctly the contents of the article. Capitalization is used only for the first letter of the first word unless proper nouns are used in the title, e.g. ‘Displaying the Wernher Collection: a pragmatic approach to display cases’. Sub-headings and sub-sub-headings in the text have first letter only capitalized. Sub-headings are also set bold (as in these guidelines).
Page Numbering
All pages, including captions, notes, etc., should be numbered in the lower right-hand corner. Pages should be numbered consecutively throughout the text, not by individual sections.
Illustrations / figures
Digital images should be submitted in TIFF and JPEG formats (at least 300-400dpi). Images should be saved as separate files; do not embed images in the text, as extracting them for publication greatly reduces resolution and quality.
Images submitted must accurately reflect the point being explained. Images must be intelligible in monochrome. If colour is essential this should be indicated by the author and the image may be published in colour at the discretion of IPCRA. Please ensure that images are of the highest possible quality, as poorly focussed, low contrast, or very dark pictures will not reproduce well and may have to be rejected. The Editor reserves the right to adjust illustrations.
Figures should be numbered consecutively, in the order of citation in the text, irrespective of whether they are black and white or colour photographs, graphs, or diagrams. Copyright permission will be needed for illustrations not in the copyright of the author.If images are to appear side by side on the page, they should still be submitted separately and their relative position indicated in the caption.
Tables
Tables generated electronically should be saved in a separate file and not embedded as objects in the text file. Tables are numbered consecutively, in the order cited in the text, in a separate sequence from that of the figures.
Capitalisation
Capitals should be used only for the initial capital of first word and for first letter of all proper nouns. The same applies to titles split by either a colon or a full stop. Capital letters should be used with restraint.
Do not use capitalization for art historical/cultural movements such as 'surrealism' or 'realism'. Job titles should be lower case - for example, curator of the National Gallery of Ireland.
Capitalize proprietary names. Names of chemical elements and compounds are not capitalized: alum, methyl cellulose, tri-ammonium citrate, xylene (exceptions are certain organic compounds containing a nitrogen atom, e.g. N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone).
Style
Language should be clear and accessible, avoiding jargon. Avoid personal pronouns, we, our, us and you. No full stop in BBC, UK, USA, Washington DC, PhD, UV. Scientific and technical terms should be explained and presented in a manner that is accessible to the non-specialist.
Acronyms and abbreviations
Acronyms and abbreviations must be spelled out in full in the first instance e.g., ‘Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI)’ or ‘Fourier transform infrared (FTIR)’. Thereafter, the acronym only can be given.
Measurements
Metric units of measurement are abbreviated and given in figures, e.g. 8 mm, but given in full when referred to generally, e.g. ‘measurements were taken in millimetres’. Dimensions with spaces so 14 x 45 cm. Areas in sq. m. Height before width and height before width before breadth for three-dimensional items. Note cm not cms for centimetres. Imperial or other units of measurement should only be used if appropriate to the subject (e.g. when quoting a historical reference).
Numbers and dates
Spell out numerals up to a hundred, then use figures: 'in her twenties' not 'in her 20s'. Thousands with comma - so £4,000. Dates should be expressed as in '15 November 2001'. Limit use of hyphen e.g 'the seventeenth century' not 17th century but 'seventeenth-century Europe'.
Foreign words, Latin words and phrases
Set in italic, e.g. circa (also its abbreviation c.), en route, funori, tour de force. Ensure correct accents are used where appropriate. Foreign words assimilated into English or which have a technical meaning do not need italics, e.g. catalogue raisonné, chiaroscuro, impasto, pentimento, putto, oeuvre, recto, verso.
Notation
Use endnotes only, not footnotes. Endnotes should as short as possible and are primarily for cited references, supplementary information, e.g. Health and Safety, references to unpublished information. Do not use Latin abbreviations in endnotes (ibid, op. cit., etc). Do not use the automatic footnote application in a word-processing package. Personal communications should be dated.
References
No separate bibliographies; please incorporate all references into endnotes. Cite full name of author/editor (not initials if possible), book title in italics, place of publication but not publisher, date of publication, x vols, page reference but do not use 'p' or 'pp' for specific page references.
Materials and suppliers
Where a trade name is used, it should be given a capital letter and be followed after its first mention with its chemical name or description in brackets e.g. Paraloid B-72 (polyethyl methacrylate-co-methyl acrylate). Trade marks and registered names should be given the appropriate symbol, in superscript. Give manufacturers details of any commercial products cited.
Format of captions
A caption must be supplied for each figure and table. Captions may include relevant information or highlight details of the image. Do not duplicate information already in the text. Captions should be listed on a separate page. If applicable, acknowledgement of copyright must be included with each caption.
Author checklist:
• Text
• Summary/abstract
• Tables
• Illustrations/figures
• List of Figure captions
• List of Table headings
• List of materials/suppliers
• Biographies for each author
• Full contact details for the corresponding author