=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= EDline Vol. 5, no. 30 (6 August 2000) Editorial mailing list (digest version) Published by the Electric Editors =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Contents: Q & A [2ly] Abbreviated names for journals [2lz] Abbreviations preceding page numbers [Offshoot of [2lw] Space or no space after p.] [2ma] Book sales figures FYI [3fm] New publication: Writing for Change Business matters [4dq] Information about book packaging rates? [6] Just for fun [8] Administration =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ---[2] Q&A ----------------------------------------------------- ** [2ly] Abbreviated names for journals Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2000 From: Eddie Kent, eddiekent@supanet.com A client of mine, Oxford University Press no less, has asked for help with their Notes to Contributors. In particular they need an acceptable list of abbreviations of titles of scientific journals. The two publications they have always recommended haven't been available since Hooey entered Manilla and extensive searches on the web have failed to produce anything useful. --------------------- Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2000 From: Kathleen Lyle, Kathleen@klyle.demon.co.uk I have been working for the science and medical division of OUP regularly for many years and they have usually asked me to use unabbreviated titles of journals unless the authors have been (reasonably) consistent in their use of abbreviations - which is rare, as we all know. I don't think there is a comprehensive list that covers all subjects. Current Contents includes only the journals they analyse. There are subject-specific ones, such as Index Medicus and the AMS listing of mathematical journals covered in Mathematical Abstracts (if they still do it) but of course there are inconsistencies between them. I don't think OUP should encourage their authors or editors to use abbreviations at all, and I don't think they did in earlier editions of the style guide. --------------------- Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2000 From: Iwan Thomas, iwan@frame-uk.demon.co.uk CASSI (Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index) is an excellent reference for chemistry (and a large proportion of biology and physics) journals. It should be available at the libraries of most universities that have a chemistry department. I believe that CASSI lists journal titles, abbreviations, library holdings (at least for N. America), and CODENs (6-letter unique journal name codes). --------------------- Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2000 From: David Penfold, penfold@eps-edge.demon.co.uk < http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/JAS.htm > is entitled 'Journal Abbreviation Sources' and seems to list a large range of sites giving journal abbreviations, both general and subject-specific. It seems to be regularly updated; the last update is 29 July 2000. ----------------------- Date: Thurs, 3 Aug 2000 From: Ian Kingston, i.kingston@ntlworld.com Kathleen > I don't think OUP should encourage their authors or editors to > use abbreviations at all, and I don't think they did in earlier > editions of the style guide. In my time at OUP we recommended abbreviating according to the 'World List' (I can't remember its full title), which purported to give the titles of every published scientific journal. If I mention that (1) it didn't, (2) our copy languished on a high shelf gathering dust and (3) it was out of print, you can tell how much of a priority was given to using it. On the other hand, getting it removed from the style guide proved impossible. ----------------------- Date: Thurs, 3 Aug 2000 From: Geoffrey Palmer, gdp@lineone.net The "World List of Scientific Periodicals" was last published in its full, two-volume form in 1960, I think. I've heard reports of later updates, but I've never seen them. In the mid-1970s, Academic Press valued its copies so highly that it had the tattered original editions tidied up (i.e. the pages trimmed down to eliminate torn edges!) and rebound at great expense. During the 1970s, there was an explosion of new journals, many on topics never covered in the World Lists. As time went by, therefore, it became eminently sensible to use full journal titles instead. A good argument in favour of doing so is that most two-line reference list entries don't exactly fit the full two lines (or three lines, or whatever) -- in other words, adding those extra letters doesn't really add much to the length of the entire reference list. I got very tired of searching through the World Lists for journals that often weren't included, so I did my best to commit the "rules" of the abbreviation system to memory. If anyone wants to test my memory, you're welcome to send me some awkward recent journal titles for abbreviation! ----------------------- Date: Thurs, 3 Aug 2000 From: Kathleen Lyle, Kathleen@klyle.demon.co.uk Geoffrey Palmer writes > The "World List of Scientific Periodicals" was last published > in its full, two-volume form in 1960, I think. I've heard > reports of later updates, but I've never seen them. There were one or two updates in use during my time at OUP in the late 1960s, and our copy-editors did try to use them, but they too were hopelessly out of date. It was very labour intensive because almost every abbreviation had to be changed - authors hated the system, which was unfamiliar to all of them as far as I could see, and they often made a fuss about the changes. I still have on my shelf - in a very decrepit condition, because much used over the years - a small volume called "Abbreviated Titles of Biological Journals", issued by the Biological Council (3rd edn, 1968, price 12/6), described as "A list selected, by permission, from the World List of Scientific Periodicals with indications of the recommended abbreviations of the USA Standards Institute where these differ". It contains a wonderfully exasperated introduction from the editor P. C. Williams) describing the difficulties he encountered in the compilation, and ending with the following sentence: The usual reason for using abbreviations is the saving in paper and print. [a collaborator] ... wondered whether the saving was worth all the fuss and bother: why not print the titles in full? Certainly in my view the saving is piffling in comparison with the wastage involved in the ponderous prolixity of the papers that precede the lists of references. Hear, hear. ----------------------- Date: Thurs, 3 Aug 2000 From: David Penfold, penfold@eps-edge.demon.co.uk In my time at the International Union of Crystallography (1971-85), we used the World List, but also a very useful listing produced by the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), which gave a standard set of word rather than journal title abbreviations, e.g. it gave Crystallogr. for Crystallograph-y, -ic. It did give rise to the problem that it sometimes differed from the World List (Crystallography itself being a good example). The list was based on ISO 833-1974 (ANSI Z39.5 - 1974 and BS 4148-1970, 1975); see Maeve O'Connor, How to Copyedit Scientific Books and Journals, ISI Press, 1986, Chapter 6 References. (The ICSU site now carries no reference to this list; I have not checked the standards sites.) However, I entirely agree that full titles are the best solution. The only drawback is that, if authors use abbreviations, then identifying the correct journal is not always straightforward. ----------------------- Date: Thurs, 3 Aug 2000 From: Nancy Boston, nancyb@bostons3.demon.co.uk David Penfold writes > In my time at the International Union of Crystallography > (1971-85), we used the World List, but also a very useful > listing produced by the International Council of Scientific > Unions (ICSU), which gave a standard set of word rather than > journal title abbreviations, e.g. it gave Crystallogr. for > Crystallograph-y, -ic. It did give rise to the problem that it > sometimes differed from the World List (Crystallography itself > being a good example). The rules I use (based on the Bibliographic Guide for Editors and Authors - published 1974 by the American Chemical Society) specifically say that one-word titles should not be abbreviated, which would account for this exception. For journals that have appeared since my list was published I tend to use the "Agricola" list (mainly biological/agricultural subjects admittedly) on the internet if I can't work them out from ones I already know. > However, I entirely agree that full titles are the best > solution. The only drawback is that, if authors use > abbreviations, then identifying the correct journal is not > always straightforward. Really this should be the authors' responsibility, although I know it's often quicker and easier to find out the answer myself. ----------------------- Date: Thurs, 3 Aug 2000 From: David Penfold, penfold@eps-edge.demon.co.uk I agree with Nancy about one-word titles. Just to clarify, however; there is not (or did not used to be) a journal called Crystallography (although there is a Russian journal called Kristallografiya). The problem was that, if we followed one system, the IUCr journals were Acta Cryst. and J. Appl. Cryst., while, if we followed the other, they were Acta Crystallogr. and J. Appl. Crystallogr. This, of course, strengthens the case for putting them in full! ----------------------- Date: Thurs, 3 Aug 2000 From: Mark Hendy, markhendy1@compuserve.com Message from Geoff Palmer: > [...] As time went by, therefore, it became eminently sensible > to use full journal titles instead. [...] And anyway, "J. appl. Phys" always sounded more like the Bulmers house magazine... or a cue for the entry of Colonel Chinstrap in ITMA... Sheersh! +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ** [2lz] Abbreviations preceding page numbers [Offshoot of [2lw] Space or no space after p.] Date: Tues, 1 Aug 2000 From: Judyth Mermelstein, espresso@e-scape.net Yateen wrote: > The discussion about p. and space has prompted this query, > namely does the abbreviation always precede the page numbers > being cited? No, in some styles, a note might read # Freud, _Interpretation_, 47 or a reference citation might read # Smith, J.F. "Cortical stimulation of rodents with pointy objects", J. Perverse Psych. 37 (May 2000), 86-92. and there are plenty of variant styles. > Our house style is > > p. x or pp. x[en dash]y > > where x and y are the specific page number/s cited and xyz pp. > when the total number of pages in a document is given. > > However, I often see p. xyz also. Is this purely a matter of > style or is there some logic to it? The logic would be to facilitate reading: a citation would lead to "page XYZ" while a description in a bibliography might indicate that a particular monograph contains "XYZ pages"; hence, "p. XYZ" in the first case and "XYZ pp. (or "p.") in the second. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ** [2ma] Book sales figures [Cross-posted from LANGline] Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2000 From: Josephine Bacon, bacon@langservice.com Daniele Laruelle asked: > 1. Is there a way to find out how many copies a book has sold > in the US? What about the UK? > > 2. Can anyone give me a rough estimate as to how many copies a > book might sell on average in the US? As the author of books published in the UK and the US, it is impossible to say what sales will be, BUT they will be considerably boosted if the book is reviewed. It all depends whether the publisher is going to push the book. If you can, get hold of some copies at a low price and send them to people who will review the book for you, even if it is only on the Internet. Best to try in print. You need to be sure of getting your royalities, one of my publishers pretended he had lost my address, though I had an agent at the time who was pressing for payment. David Ibbetson then wrote: > An extremely muddy thought: In the back of my mind is that a > typical first printing for a Canadian novel is 3,000 copies and > that, the US population being ten times that of Canada, a > typical first printing for the US is 30,000. A sensible first printing for a novel in the U.S. is 5,000. Don't forget that a large proportion of the U.S. population is non-English speaking and another large proportion is illiterate. They have one of the lowest book-buying percentages in the world. You can sell more poetry, for instance, in terms of actual books in Ireland than you can in the whole of the U.S. ---[3] FYI ----------------------------------------------------- ** [3fm] New publication: Writing for Change Date: Mon, 31 July 2000 From: Firoze Manji, firoze@fahamu.org fahamu and Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) are pleased to announce the publication of: Writing for Change: An Interactive Guide to Effective Writing, Writing for Science and Writing for Advocacy This interactive CDROM shows you how to communicate your ideas to others. Only when people appreciate the quality and significance of your ideas can you begin to persuade them to bring about real, positive change. Researchers, campaigners, scientists, fundraisers, project managers, social activists and people who train writers will benefit from the unique combination of three sets of writing skills. The CDROM covers: EFFECTIVE WRITING: CORE SKILLS These are the basic skills you need for all kinds of effective writing: - deciding on what you want to say and to whom; - assembling the evidence and organising your ideas into an outline; - writing the first draft using a simple structure; - editing the document to make it clear, using straightforward sentences and simple words. WRITING FOR SCIENCE Building on the core writing skills, Writing for science covers additional specialised skills such as: - choosing the most appropriate journal; - following the conventions for presenting scientific information; - responding to the comments of referees; - correcting proofs. WRITING FOR ADVOCACY Advocacy involves persuading people to take the action you want. This section is about: - adapting your core writing skills for lobbying or campaigning documents; - producing articles, leaflets, newsletters, pamphlets, press releases and posters. WRITING FOR CHANGE is full of practical examples and exercises that you can apply to your own working experience. Writing for change contains examples from the field of international development and practical exercises that can be used by people who train writers. A resource centre contains training materials and links to related websites. Site maps and a printed users' guide make it easy to follow. "I can honestly say it is one of the best training programmes I have seen. It is very well set out and easy to navigate. It also follows a logical progression, there were no missing steps, and it went into sufficient detail to provide concrete, practical guidance. I was never left thinking, 'But how exactly would I do such and such?'" -- Sarah Atwell, World Vision Put together by a team of experienced trainers, the CDROM can be used - by individuals working on their own; - with a group in a training workshop; - as a handy reference tool. WRITING FOR CHANGE has been developed, designed, and published by fahamu, in collaboration with Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Writing for change is published in Europe by fahamu, in North America by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and in the rest of the world by both fahamu and IDRC. How to order your copy Customers in Europe should order from fahamu. Customers in North America should order from IDRC. Customers in other regions of the world may order from fahamu or IDRC. To order from fahamu: fahamu, 38 Western Road, Oxford OX1 4LG, England, UK. Tel: +44-(0)1865-436446; Fax: +44-(0)7920-245166 email: info@fahamu.org You can order online at: < http://www.fahamu.org > Price: UK Pounds 20, ISBN: 0-9536902-1-0 To order from IDRC: IDRC, PO Box 8500, Ottawa, ON, Canada Tel: +1-613-236-6163; Fax: +1-613-563-2476 email: pub@idrc.ca You can order online at: < http://www.idrc.ca/booktique/index_e.cfm > Price: CA$45.00, ISBN: 0-88936-932-1 ---[4] Business matters --------------------------------------- ** [4dq] Information about book packaging rates? Date: Tues, 1 August 2000 From: Christine Heilman, paraselene@excite.com I'm the editorial director of a small packaging company that's been producing continuity card series for the past four years, and I've unexpectedly been given an opportunity to quote for producing some highly illustrated non-fiction books. Unfortunately, I don't have a very clear idea of the going rates for book packaging! Can anyone point me toward a helpful source of information? ---[6] Just for fun -------------------------------------------- Words about book-lovers, no. 4 bibliotaph (BIB-lee-uh-taf) also bibliotaphe, noun A person who caches or hoards books. [Biblio- book + Greek taphos burial.] "Leon Henry Vincent's essay on Gautier in The Bibliotaph, and Other People, 1898, is worth consulting." -- Theophile Gautier, Salem Press, Jan 1, 1974 --- Many thanks to Ruth Warrens (ruth_anthony@compuserve.com) for submitting this short series. -- IDB +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Units of measurement, no. 11 16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling ---[8] Administration ------------------------------------------ EDline provides the opportunity for an online discussion of matters editorial and editorial business. To post to the mailing list via ListBot, use the following address: ee_edline@listbot.com For digest subscribers, please post your EDline messages to: bywater@zetnet.co.uk Topics might include areas such as Grammar, Spelling, American English or Punctuation. Messages should be pertinent to the basic premise of the list; they may be withheld, or redirected if more pertinent to one of the other mailing lists. The spelling and grammar of messages will *not* be corrected, but some editing of length may be undertaken. The sections of the EDline digest are as follows: [2] Q & A -- questions and answers [3] FYI -- items of general interest [4] Business matters -- items of a business nature [5] Bookmarks -- useful Web pages [6] Just for fun -- time for letting hair down! 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