Information for Editors of APS PRESS Symposium Books

The Symposium Book Series of APS PRESS is a series of formatted, soft-cover books based on symposia held in conjunction with The American Phytopathological Society's (APS) annual meetings. These symposia cover a wide variety of topics of interest to plant pathologists and scientists in related disciplines.

Books in the symposium series are produced as “formatted” in order to make the information presented at symposia available as quickly and as inexpensively as possible. Because formatted publications are reproduced directly from the text files submitted by the editor, they are more economical to produce than traditionally edited and typeset books. APS PRESS does not assign in-house editors or proofreaders to formatted books, so the editor of the volume and the contributing authors are responsible for the quality of each book in the series.

These guidelines are intended to help symposium book editors and authors prepare high-quality manuscripts. One of the first books in the symposium series, Biological Control on the Phylloplane (1985, edited by Carol E. Windels and Steven E. Lindow), may serve as the model for these guidelines. Please direct any questions not answered in the guidelines to Karen Cummings at APS headquarters: kcummings@scisoc.org.

FORMAT OF AN APS PRESS SYMPOSIUM BOOK

To keep all volumes in the symposium series reasonably consistent in appearance and format, APS PRESS has established the following general policies:

The finished size of symposium books is 6” x 9”. The image size (typing area) is 4.25” x 7.25”.
Symposium books must be between 96 and 200 pages in finished length to accommodate the type of binding that has been selected for these books. Within these limits, the editor must apportion the space among authors. Refer to the specifications section of the Publication Agreement for special length requirements.
Symposium books may include relevant material that was not presented at the symposium if, in the judgment of the editor and the senior editor assigned by APS PRESS, the added material is desirable to cover the topic and does not cause the book to exceed the maximum length allowed.
To keep the cost of the books as low as possible, no royalties are paid.
Symposium books may or may not have indexes. This decision is made by the Editor.
To save space by eliminating duplicate references, symposium books have one comprehensive Literature Cited section for all chapters. This section appears after the last chapter and before the index (if any). The references in this section are arranged alphabetically and numbered consecutively and are cited in the text by number.
Manuscripts are submitted to the editor before or at the time of the symposium. Within six weeks, the editor submits the edited manuscripts to the senior editor assigned by APS PRESS, who sees that the book receives a formal review. After the review, the senior editor returns the manuscripts and reviews to the editor, who returns the chapters to the authors for revision. The finished version is sent to the senior editor, who looks it over and submits it to APS PRESS.

THE EDITOR’S RESPONSIBILITIES

The editor of an APS PRESS symposium book is responsible for refereeing and editing the papers, for ensuring the quality of the final manuscript, for collecting and forwarding to APS PRESS copyright transfer forms and letters of permission to reprint any previously copyrighted material, and for scheduling and meeting deadlines. Except for the cover and the title and copyright pages, the book must be complete and ready for the printer when the Editor submits it to APS PRESS.

The following checklist includes many of the editor’s responsibilities:

Send suggestions for the book’s cover as soon as possible to APS PRESS. (The graphics staff at APS PRESS design the cover, but they prefer to work from suggestions from the book’s Editor.) If possible, include photos that might be used on the cover. Because the cover is used to promote sales of the book, and because the ads must be planned long before the book appears in print, the Editorial Office needs cover ideas early in the process. Also submit information about the cover (e.g., subject, artist or photographer, courtesy line, if any).
Send each author a copy of Information for Authors of Chapters in APS Symposium Books.
Let each author know your requirement for the draft copy. For example, you might ask for drafts to be submitted electronically and/or printed double-spaced on 8.5” × 11” line-numbered paper.
Let all authors know how long their manuscripts should be, either in draft or final form. Note that five full double-spaced 8.5” × 11” manuscript pages are roughly equivalent to four finished book pages containing type only. Figures and tables add to the final length.
Collect manuscripts at or before the symposium, edit them as much as necessary, and send them within six weeks to the senior editor. After the formal review, return them to the authors and set a specific due date for revisions to be returned to you.
Check manuscripts to see that each author has credited the sources of all published materials, as explained in Information for Authors of Chapters in APS Symposium Books. Check permission forms submitted by authors to see that permission has been obtained to reprint all previously published material. Remind authors, if necessary, until these are submitted. Send all permissions to APS PRESS with the final manuscripts.
Collect copyright transfer forms from each author and forward them to APS PRESS with the final manuscript.
Prepare the comprehensive Literature Cited section. You may wish to ask each author to submit in advance a list of the references that will be used in her or his chapter. Then 1) combine the lists, 2) eliminate duplicates, resolving any discrepancies in references to the same publication, 3) put the list in alphabetical order (list citations in alphabetical order by authors’ surnames; list single-author publications before those by two or more authors with the same first author; list multiple publications by the same author(s) in order of year of publication, most recent last), 4) number the references consecutively, 5) see the BIOSIS List of Serials for accepted abbreviations of journal names and recent issues of Phytopathology or Plant Disease for examples of how to format references for different types of publications, and 6) send copies of this final Literature Cited section to all the authors. Ask them to use these numbers in their manuscripts, and let them know that they cannot add new references that do not appear in the list.
Alternatively, you may wish to wait until all the draft manuscripts have been submitted to you and then combine, reorder, renumber, and type all the references. Note that in this case each citation in each chapter must be renumbered when the final retyping is done.
In both cases, please be sure that every reference mentioned in the book is given accurately in the Literature Cited section and correspondingly that all citations in the Literature Cited section are mentioned in the book.
Answer questions from authors and act as the authors’ liaison with APS PRESS.
Prepare preface or foreword, if any.
Prepare a title page; this page will be typeset at APS PRESS, but APS PRESS needs to know the exact title of the book and the preferred style of the name(s) of the editor(s) (full name or initials, for example). If affiliations are required, include those as well.
Prepare the table of contents. Check the typed table of contents against the manuscripts to be sure that the titles and authors’ names on the first page of each chapter correspond exactly with those in the contents. APS PRESS will insert the page numbers.
Send the completed manuscript to the senior editor.
Send a list of all authors’ mailing addresses to APS PRESS if authors are to receive copies of the book.

Summary of Requirements for Final Submission

Submit a text file containing text only. Do not embed tables or figures in the Word file.
Submit a file containing captions and one containing tables.
Submit each figure separately in a graphics file (.tif or .jpg) and properly named (Chapter10_Fig 5.tif, not Root_rot 2.tif).
Submit paper copies of figures and a printout of the text, caption, and table files.
Send copyright transfer forms and permissions to reprint.