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.

 

Pictures should be labeled with the cat's registered name and the photographer's name.

 

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.