Authoring Guidelines

Authoring Guidelines

If you wish to write about a topic related to technical communication, INDUS would like to hear from you. Before you send an article to INDUS, please email us a summary of your article idea. The INDUS team will check the idea for suitability for publication in the newsletter, and will get back to you immediately. The summary must contain your full name and your contact number. Please send your ideas to indus@stc-india.org.

What goes in

INDUS seeks original articles of interest to technical communicators – technical writers and editors, instructional designers, SMEs, illustrators, usability enthusiasts, content managers, teachers, managers, consultants, product managers, and others involved in technical documentation. It aims to promote professional development of technical writers through articles. See the archives to get a feel of topics that were published and those that might interest you.

Style

The primary purpose of INDUS is to inform the readers. So, write your articles in a clear, original, and informal style.

Length

An ideal length is 1000 words, but do use as many words as necessary to write your article. The editors reserve the right to condense or expand the article if they need to.

Screen Captures and Graphics

Screen-captures should be in the size they were created; not resampled, enlarged, reduced, or altered. Send your images in TIFF, BMP, JPEG, and GIF format only. The ideal image size is 400×400 pixels.

References and Bibliography

Do not include footnotes or reference citations. You can frame your sentences as indicated: “According to John Doe…”

You can include a list of publications for suggested reading. Refer to the following link for tips on including citations:

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html .

Abstracts

Do not include abstracts. Have a strong opening section that specifies the intended audience and the purpose or theme of the article.

Concluding Matter

At the end of the article, include a brief description “about you”. You can also include your email address.

Publishing Rights and Permissions

The Society for Technical Communication (STC) India Chapter requires that authors grant STC India one-time print rights to articles appearing in INDUS. STC also requires that authors grant STC permission to place the article on its website for an indefinite period. These rights are assumed given when you send an article for publication and it is accepted by INDUS. Reprints from INDUS are permitted on request. Indus assumes that all contributors have the required permissions to have their articles published in Indus before they send in their articles for consideration. Indus editorial team has the final rights to decide if the submitters articles are to be published or not. Submission of an article does not guarantee publication in Indus.

Submitting Articles

Email your articles to the INDUS editors at indus@stc-india.org .