TECHNICAL PAPER EDITORIAL GUIDELINES

Water e-Journal  Technical Papers should be scholarly in style and formally structured, with a bibliography (in Harvard style) and aimed at an audience that can comprehend scientific, technical and economic arguments. Authors should bear in mind the multi-disciplinary audience, so papers should avoid the most arcane aspects of a topic.

Length should be in the range of 3,000 to 5,000 words, including an Abstract of around 200 words. A formal structure of: Abstract; Introduction; Method; Results; Discussion; Conclusion; Acknowledgements; References; and Author Biographies is preferred. Papers should also be accompanied by a 500-word Executive Summary, which will be considered for publication in Current magazine, as well as on our website, with a link to the full paper. The Summary should be informal in style, written in plain English to appeal to a general audience. It should summarise the context and conclusions of the paper and be devoid of mathematical symbols or complex discussion.

Acceptance is at the discretion of the Editors and Technical Advisory Committee. Manuscripts submitted for publication are tabled at editorial committee meetings and papers are reviewed by between one and three experts, who expect high standards. Referee comments are forwarded to the principal author for further action.

Authors may find  the article "The Thrill of the Paper, The Agony of the Review" useful. 

GENERAL EDITORIAL PRINCIPLES

Papers should be of interest to a (mainly, but not exclusively, Australian) water industry audience and should not be used for advertising purposes, although brand or company names may be provided for context when relevant
Clarity of expression is important, as is cogent argument
Text should be provided in a Word document. Fonts and page layout are not important, as the editor and designer format each paper to style
Include line numbers in your Word document. This can be turned on by selecting the Layout/Line Numbers/Continuous function in Word
English spelling is preferred, e.g. ‘organise’, not ‘organize’
Include suggested Title and Sub Heading at the top of the paper
Include suggested TAGs for SEO optimisation
Metric units should be used
Numbers one to nine should be spelt out; larger numbers can use numerals, e.g. 21
In text, words are preferred to symbols, e.g. ‘and’ not ‘&’; however, an exception is ‘per cent’, which can be rendered as %, for simplicity.
Acronyms should be spelt out at first instance
Figures and tables should be referenced numerically in the text rather than by position, and labelled accordingly (e.g., ‘see Figure 1’, not ‘see figure below’)

GRAPHIC MATERIAL

All graphic material should be provided as separate files, as well as embedded in the Word Document to show preferred positioning. Diagrams, charts and graphs should be supplied as high-res JPEGs, saved from the original programs. Images should be supplied separately at their original size. All graphic material should be suitable for reproduction in a 12cm-wide column @ 300dpi
Note: With our new Water e-Journal  there is now also the potential to include the added value of data files, animated content and any other web-based media

COPYRIGHT

The Australian Water Association is committed to sharing its intellectual capital through several different channels. Print, audio and video content is available on request for a wide range of uses, including media outlet republication, corporate newsletters, and group and classroom discussion.

The Australian Water Association holds the copyright for its content. However, you can republish articles for free, after a 3-month AWA member exclusivity period, by gaining permission from the Association’s Editorial team, and under the following guidelines:

You must acknowledge the Australian Water Association as the source, preferably at the top of the article and noting the date that the piece was originally produced; and provide a hyperlink back to the Association’s website homepage: www.awa.asn.au
For our records, please supply a link to your reproduced article to: journal@awa.asn.au
Unless you have permission from the Technical Co-ordinator at the Association, you will not be able edit or change articles.

Water e-Journal  will consider papers that have been previously published/presented (e.g. at a recent conference), pending copyright clearance, or an updated, extended or shortened version.

Email  journal@awa.asn.au  for more information or  submit your paper via Scholastica  now.