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BCRA > Publications > Publishing with BCRA > Cave Studies Series Editorlogo

What is an editor?

This term can mean a number of different things. For BCRA's publications it has tended to mean Project Manager, with the understanding that this person also has responsibility for a number of the individual tasks, which commonly include copy editing, proof-reading and layout. However, as a project manager, if you can find people to do these tasks - it will save you from doing them yourself.

What is the Cave Studies Series?

This is a bit of an outdated term. It refers to BCRA's series of small booklets, which are listed here. However, we have branched out somewhat from the original concept and there is, in fact, no particular reason why we need to emphasis these books as a "series". BCRA is open to suggestions. We do not necessarily need a "Cave Studies Editor" to manage the whole range of books - possibly we are looking for individual project managers. The salient point is that the production of each book requires a project manager and if this person manages more than one title they are de facto the series manager.

What does the project manager do?

You need to manage the following tasks and coordinate the input from each of the volunteers handling these component parts of of the project. By default if a volunteer is not available, you are expected to do the task yourself. It will certainly help, in any case, if you understand the broad nature of the tasks, even if you are not skilled in applying the detail.

How many people does that require?

For some issues of Speleology, all the tasks marked with * above were completed by David Gibson, who also acted as project manager. For Speleology 19 and Cave Studies 20, Jerry Wooldridge acted as picture editor, with David Gibson providing the other starred tasks and also providing project management.

For future issues of the Cave Studies Series we would like to find someone who can do "most of the above" and who can therefore supply our Print Manager with a completed PDF, i.e. the modern equivalent of camera-ready artwork. It is possible that the Layout Editor and Picture Editor functions can be provided by existing volunteers (David Gibson and Jerry Wooldridge) but what would then be missing would be the coordination role of the Project Manager.

In Summary... at the very least, we need a Project Manager. Without a project manager our Cave Studies projects are not likely to get very far - even if people have offered to "help" with other parts of the plan.

Publishing formats

Page size: In the past, we have published using the paper sizes A4 and A5. As we move towards print-on-demand (p.o.d.) publication, we need to take note that A4 and A5 are not professional book sizes, and p.o.d. services are not always available in those formats (For example, the highest-quality of colour printing may not be possible, and a hardback publication may not be possible). For the Cave Studies booklets, a 'medium-quality' full-colour printing is possible in A5 'paperback' and 'saddle-stitch' formats but - for example - if we were to want to publish a p.o.d. 'Casewrap Hardcover' of the Yorkshire Dales book, this would not be possible in an A4 format.

Alternatives to A5: A higher colour-print quality than is generally available in A5 is possible in two similar formats - US Trade / Medium Hardcover, which is 229x152mm, and Royal, which is 233 x 156mm. Cave Studies #16, Essential Sources in Cave Science has now been reprinted in Royal format.

Alternatives to A4: The best format to consider as an alternative to A4 is currently (June 2015) 280x216mm (US Letter / Large Hardcover).

Margins: Because of the manufacturing process used for some p.o.d. items, it is important to apply larger margins that we might be used to working with. As a guide, no text or images should be closer than 12mm to the edge of the trimmed page, and a gutter margin of 3mm should be applied. For full-bleed content (i.e. images that go 'right to the edge of the page') the bleed should, in general be 3mm. However, working with full-bleed is not always a good idea so we advise that it is avoided. (One reason is that it is not suitable for home download and printing of online publications).

Editor's Checklist

This list is intended as a brief, hopefully helpful guide for new editors.



British Cave Research Association (UK registered charity 267828). Registered Office: Old Methodist Chapel, Great Hucklow, BUXTON, SK17 8RG
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This page, http://bcra.org.uk/pub/cs_editor.html was last modified on Fri, 30 Sep 2016 16:55:22 +0100