TIBCS
BULLETIN EDITORIAL POLICY
Terms
"Editor"
means any individual, group, or business assigned the duties of
soliciting and collecting articles and advertisements for the
Bulletin. It also includes editing these items for language, style,
libel, and compliance with the applicable parts of this policy.
"Production
Manager" means any individual, group, or business assigned
the duties of performing the layout and producing camera-ready
files for printing. This includes working with the Editor to select
material for inclusion and the layout needs of the Bulletin.
"Publisher"
means any individual, group, or business assigned the duties of
printing or overseeing the printing of the Bulletin.
"Distributor"
means any individual, group, or business assigned the duties of
putting the Bulletin in envelopes and mailing the Bulletin.
The
TIBCS Executive Board (EB) may assign any one, some, or all of
the above roles, in any combination, to volunteers, contractors,
or employees/staff.
Deadlines
The
Executive Board (EB) will set publication dates for the Bulletin.
The Editor is responsible for developing deadlines for receiving
content for the Bulletin as needed to meet the publication dates.
Deadlines shall be announced publicly, as far in advance as possible,
preferably at the start of each year for the entire year.
Deadline
allowances may need to be made for financial statements.
All
submissions for the Bulletin shall be in electronic form unless
other arrangements have been made in advance with the Editor.
When
possible, authors should inform the Editor in advance that they
will be submitting an article and the approximate size of the
article, including any artwork/photographs.
Review
After
it is ready for press but before it is sent to the printer, the
Editor will provide a copy of the Bulletin to a person or persons
designated as reviewers by the EB. The Bulletin will not be printed
until after any changes requested by the reviewers have been made.
The Editor will take this review into account when setting deadlines
for the submission of content.
Content
Selection
Preference
will be given to proposed material in this order:
1.
Officer Reports
2. Committee Reports
3. Notices about Club business & other material as directed
by EB
4. Reports by other TIBCS members having some official standing
(e.g., Raffle Coordinator)
5. Regular columns (e.g., "The Scratching Post") and
features (such as "Pursuit of Perfection")
6. Articles submitted by TIBCS committees (including articles
by experts sought out and obtained by the committees)
7. Articles written by TIBCS members (the majority of the content
will be of this type)
Articles
that are one or more of the following types should be considered
for inclusion only after determining there is space & that
they add valuable content. Ideally no more than 15% of all Bulletin
content shall be of these article types:
(1)
not directly relevant to Bengals, cat breeding, or cats
(2) freely available on the internet; when an inserted link will
suffice.
(3) reprints of material previously published in the Bulletin
(4) anonymous fluff (e.g., “A Recipe for Kitty Litter Cake”)
General
guidelines for content are as follows:
The
Editor and Production Manager should attempt to balance the types
of article content so there is not a preponderance of any one
kind; so that an issue is not "health top-heavy" or
"humor top-heavy” for example.
"Theme"
issues of the Bulletin are acceptable if they are approved by
the Publications Committee or EB.
Articles
may include resources where specific products are available, as
long as any one product is not singled out.
When possible, avoid using cattery names in Bulletin articles.
Catteries and cats may be referred to by name within the context
of an article, or in a picture caption, only if it adds valuable
information, such as relevant names in a historical article. Repeated
or unnecessary naming which might appear simply as promotion,
will be rejected by edit. Authors names should not be accompanied
by their cattery names.
Length/Size
The
Bulletin will be limited to a maximum number of pages, set by
the EB.
There
are no arbitrary length restrictions on reports and articles.
It is more important to present information in enough depth to
be useful, than it is to have an arbitrary limit. In the case
of an article the Editor deems to be too long to be included in
a particular issue, the Editor will give the author the choice
of
(1) Cutting the article down to the size required by the Editor
or
(2) Having the article held to be printed in the next issue of
the Bulletin. Depending on the article, and with the approval
of the author, the Editor may also choose to print one part of
an article in one issue and the other part in the next issue,
but in general this is discouraged.
Some
officer reports may be different in length from others, depending
on time of year and the amount of business each has to report.
Letters
to the Editor (LTEs)
This
is basically a column written by the membership. As such, comments
by the Editor in it should be the exception rather than the norm.
Most LTEs do not require an Editorial reply.
No
Editorial response should be made to:
• Compliments
• Thanks
• Opinions
Editorial
replies to LTEs should be limited to the following:
1. Brief apology for inaccuracies in previous issues
2. Brief explanation of editorial policy if required
3. Direction of the readers to related material published in the
same issue as the letter: especially to direct the reader to the
location of a retraction if a retraction is required.
If
an LTE contains a question about an article, the author of the
article---not the Editor---may reply or rebut briefly.
The
Editor will edit an LTE only
• To remove libelous content (as defined by US law)
• For length
• For grammar, spelling, etc.
If
an LTE is edited for content, the Editor will give the author
the opportunity to approve the changes. If the author does not
agree with the Editor's changes, the LTE will be omitted.
Inaccuracies
and Retractions
Simple
errors and inaccuracies (e.g., a wrong name on a picture) may
be corrected by acknowledging and correcting the error on the
same page as the LTE column.
Retractions,
when required by an author or when the EB feels the matter warrants
a retraction, shall be printed in the same approximate position
and prominence as the original information. All errors and inaccuracies
must be addressed in the issue immediately following the issue
in which the error or inaccuracy was published or discovered,
whichever comes first.
Advertisements
that were not presented correctly will be reprinted
without additional charge in the next issue of the Bulletin.
Submission Process
The
Editor shall solicit and coordinate articles, accompanying art/graphics,
and advertising from the membership. Authors are encouraged to
submit pictures or artwork with their articles. No anonymous submissions
will be accepted. All non-advertising text content must have a
byline, source, or credit line.
Officer
reports will be submitted directly to the EB and will be reviewed
by the EB. The EB will then submit them in their final form to
the Editor.
Committee
reports will be submitted directly to the Second Vice President
(i.e., the Coordinator of Volunteers) and will be reviewed by
the Second Vice President. The Second Vice President will then
submit them in their final form to the Editor and to the EB.
Notices
about club business will be submitted in final form to the Editor
by a member of the EB. If a member has a notice that should go
in the Bulletin, the member must submit the notice to a member
of the EB, who after review will submit it in its final form to
the Editor.
If
the editor receives article(s) related to an active committee’s
area of interest, the article will be forwarded to that committee
for review prior to publication. In particular, if the following
committees are active, they will review related articles before
publication
• All health-related articles shall be reviewed and approved
by the Health Committee prior to publication.
• All legal, legislative, and regulatory-related articles
shall be reviewed and approved by the Legislative Committee prior
to publication.
Editing
TIBCS
does not have a preferred Style Guide. The Editor may use any
standard Style Guide.
The
Editor may not alter the content of a report or article (although
regular light editing is part of his/her responsibility). The
Editor may however suggest that the author make content changes.
Most
non-advertising content will require only a Light Edit or copyediting.
However, there may be some material that requires a heavier level
of edit.
Use of Color
Color
pages shall be used only for paid color advertisements and for
graphics in which it is important to showcase or make a point
about the colors of the cats pictured, or as dictated by the printing
process.
The
covers shall be in color.
Advertising
Classified
Advertising:
• Available to members for kittens or cattery related items.
• Lines of text only, charged by the number of lines.
Marketplace Advertising:
• Business card-sized ads
• Limited to businesses, items or services (other than cats)
owned by members.
• Text with graphics or photos allowed.
Display Advertising:
• Available to anyone, including non-members.
• All content allowed, including opinion or campaign ads
(subject to US libel laws)
• Non-members pay a higher price premium.
• Submitted camera-ready, and properly sized, otherwise
returned to advertiser for correction.
• Must be clearly identified as a paid ad, if it is not
obvious.
• B&W ads for Bengal or related Congresses (e.g. "Spotted
Cat" ) are half price.
ALL Advertising:
• Advertising is not altered by the Editor.
• Potentially libelous or inappropriate ads are reviewed
by EB. Failing review, the ad is returned for changes. The required
changes must be made prior to publication.
• Any ad containing grammar/spelling mistakes are corrected
by advertiser prior to publication.
• A cat used in an advertisement (e.g. Studs & Promising
Kittens spread) is not used on the covers of the same issue.
• Advertising prices are set by EB and printed in each BB
issue.
• Editor is responsible to insure all ad payments are received
prior to publication.
• Any businesses co-owned by a non-member pay non-member
advertising rates.
• Display or Marketplace advertisements which contain a
copyright notice, must limit it to the following: Copyright ©
Designer Name
• The EB may reject an advertisement by majority vote.
Photographs & Illustrations
No
photograph of a person may be printed without prior approval by
the subject of the photograph.
Authors
are encouraged to submit their own graphics to use with their
article. If the Editor wishes to include one or more graphics
with an article other than those submitted by the author, the
author of the article shall review and has the right to disapprove
the proposed graphic as an illustration for his article.
Photographs
that are grainy or poor quality will not be accepted for publication.
Photographs
may not be edited, flipped, or "doctored" in a misleading
way.
Pictures
must be submitted with captions.
Cover Art
Cover
art may be solicited or provided by members (preferred), or by
the Editor. The Editor and the EB will collaborate on this subject.
Layout
Layout
should be magazine-style, reflect industry standards, and incorporate
white space to avoid a crowded look.
Continuing
articles to later page locations in the publication should be
avoided when possible Articles should never be continued to earlier
pages.
The
President’s report should be presented as a “Message
from the President” close to the beginning of the Bulletin.
Other officer reports should be printed together, preferably towards
the end and in the following order:
First Vice President, Second Vice President, Recording and Correspondence
Secretary, Membership Secretary, Reporting Treasurer, Accounts
Treasurer.
Committee
reports (but not articles provided by committees) should be printed
together, if possible and towards the end of the Bulletin. The
Second Vice President will notify the Editor which committees
will have reports in each issue, and if possible will provide
the Editor with an estimate of how long each report is expected
to be and the Editor will communicate this information to the
Production Manager.
Content
relating to various aspects of TIBCS business will be printed
in generally the same location from issue to issue when possible.
