College and Research Libraries ROBERT D. STUEART Writing the Journal Article In their writing for publication, librarians have not adequately ex- ploited journals in many fields that may be open to them and so have not done an adequate job of advancing library interests. Although few librarians have taken advantage of the opportunity to write for publication, there are a number of incentives present to encourage them. Guidelines are offered on writing for publication: selection of the journal for submission and mechanics related to article prepara- tion. THE UNITED STATES is a nonfiction writer's paradise. The over 22,000 peri- odicals published in the United States today represent an insatiable market for nonfiction. Never has there been such a demand for magazine articles. In li- brary and information science alone there are many, many journals, issued at the national, regional, and state levels and by individual libraries. The list grows even longer when one adds to that number those of peripheral interest to librarians, such as those in personnel management, education, communica- tions, media, and computer science. Librarians have not developed that potential market. As far as considering possibilities for publishing articles, the profession has become very inward-look- ing. Only a few articles, written about libraries and librarians, by librarians have had an impact on nonlibrarian readers. For instance, look at the furor that Daniel Gore's article on the status Robert D. Stueart is dean, School of Li- brary Science, Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts. This article is based on · an a.ddress given at the Conference on Writing and Publishing for Librarians, sponsored by the New England Chapter of the Associa- tion of College and Research Libraries in Waltham, Massachusetts, on April 4, 1975. of librarians had a few years ago when it was published in the AAUP Bulletin.1 Some hurriedly rushed to the defense of librarianship by publishing rebuttals. However, if some librarian had al- ready written a different version, the sensationalism of Gore's article would not have been nearly so great; and the defense would not have been necessary. Or look at his recent article on the growth of college libraries, which was published in College Management. 2 Again our defenses are down because it appeared in a nonlibrary journal and is addressed primarily to a nonlibrarian audience. Jesse Shera, on the other hand, is one who has been able to de- fend library policy in the nonlibrary press. His article, in response to a physi- cist's plea for branch libraries, is a clas- sic example of the impact librarians can have on a wider community. 3 Yet very few librarians think further than the library press. A recent letter in the March 1974 issue of College & Research Libraries by Anabel Sproat points out that in the comprehensive "Bibliogra- phy on Fa•culty Status," published in College & Research Libraries, only two articles are cited from teaching jour- nals; all others are from library jour- nals. 4 Other studies have reached similar I 153 154 I College & Research Libraries • March 1976 conclusions. An important aspect that is being overlooked, then, is contact with the outside world. No one, except the librarian, has time or perhaps the inclination to read library literature. Surely there are a number of areas of librarianship which are of interest to a much wider audience. We are all fa- miliar with Winslow Hatch's description of a university or college library which goes something like this: "While the li- brary is typically described as the heart of the campus, it is often more like the liver for it is a large structure whose significance lies in the potential it may not be called on to release." Part of the reason we are not called on is that we have not done an adequate selling job- a public relations job-much of which can easily be accomplished through pub- lication. LmRARIANS AS AUTHORS Wolfgang Freitag's article on librari- ans as literary authors indicates that the librarian administrator who is also an a~ctive leading scholar in a major field of learning has virtually vanished. 5 To take its place we should infiltrate the general academic scholarly periodical lit- erature with our writing on -librarian- ship. Other people certainly write in li- brary journals. Look at American Li- braries and the large number there. A recent study of articles appearing in PNLA Quarterly indicated that 27 per- cent of the articles in the Quarterly were written by nonlibrarians. Of those which were by librarians, 64 percent were by academic librarians. 6 This raises another question: Are academic librari- ans more prolific than others, and if so, why? Is it because of the publish or perish syndrome? Are salaries, status, and promotion dependent on publish- ing? In many institutions where librari- ans have faculty status, they have been - forced to meet this publishing re9uire- ment. Perhaps more would pubhsh if it were clearly understood that it is ex- pected of them. It has been suggested that if this happened library science peri- odicals would proliferate. Is that a bad thing in itself? Couldn't the aca- demic environment likewise have an ef- fect on the quality of publications? What really creates the climate to publish? Here are a number of elements to consider: 1. Do you want to publish? Is your idea something that has not been covered in the literature before? 2. Do you have to publish in order to advance professionally? 3. Are you anxious to relate the re- sults of research performed in a scientific manner? 4. Do you have .a real commitment to writing, and have you made the distinction between scholarly re- search and "'how to do it" articles? There is a place for both in the literature. THE PREssUREs TO PUBLISH If you are in the publish or perish situation, perhaps the next question be- comes: "'What sort of released time is given for individual research and writ- ing?" This is certainly .a problem for academic librarians. In a 1958 study by Kellum and Barker 78 percent of seventy-two libraries sur- veyed said that time was allowed for staff members to prepare articles, though a few administrators stated that they also expect writers to work on their own time as well. 7 Seven out of eight of those library administrators give some kind of recognition for writing and publishing. A comparable study by Jesse and Mitchell of fifty-two ARL libraries and fifteen liberal arts colleges indicat- ed that over half of the libraries al- lowed released time and that some pro- vided clerical assistance and free photo- copying.8 Despite that, only about 8 per cent of the 2,523 university librarians and 14 percent of the 106 college li- brarians had taken advantage of the op- portunity in the previous three years. Is that because the interest was not there or because they didn't know how to be- gin? By fa1:" the most common action taken by administrators and committees in regard to librarians' publishing was in recommending advancement in rank or salary or in recommending tenure. But even if that incentive is not there, we all know that we find time for what we really want to do; it is simply a mat- ter of establishing_ priorities. If writing has a high priority, then we write. After that it's contagious. Another factor to consider is the con- tinuing education aspect of writing in library-related areas. A point often overlooked is the one that Jim Mataraz- zo made in a speech to the Long Island Special Libraries ·Association Group, in which he maintained that professional literature can be used as a source of continuing education and is, in fact, the primary source of continuing education for most professionals. We should all have a commitment to this aspect, whether we are library educators or practicing librarians. The recent study prepared for the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science on continuing ed- ucation proposes a cassette service which would review and record outstanding articles, the idea being th~t librarians would be better able to keep up-to-date with what's going on by listening.9 How- ever, one could question whether we would listen any more than we read. In writing, one should keep that in mind and look closer at the quality of one's own writing. This would help editors a great deal. Writing the I ournal Article I 155 In 1915 Dr. Abraham Flexner stated that (Cthe evolution toward professional status can be measured by the quality of publication set forth."10 This, then, is a measure for our wr,itings. TECHNICAL AsPECTS OF WRITING JOURNAL ARTICLES If you are writing for the first time, you must decide whether you are going to aim at the big market, such as Li- brary I ournal, American Libraries, or AAUP Bulletin, or at a smaller au- dience, first, such as a state or regional journal. There are many smaller, quali- ty journals which don't receive the same number of manuscripts as do the large ones. The Illinois, California, and Wis- consin state publications are good exam- ples of this kind of journal. Perhaps that's a good place to begin. Very few professional journals these days, even including the large ones, can pay for ar- ticles published. This is one major dif- ference between writing for a profes- sional journal and writing for a more commercial one. One should be prepared for, but not discouraged by, rejection notices or sug- gestions that the manuscript be rewrit- ten or submitted to another journal. Often what is the right article for one publication may not be right-subject, length, etc.-for another. Sometimes the editor may feel the article has a good theme but that the writing or documen- tation needs to be tightened. In those cases the editor will often make sugges- tions. There seem to be several steps in the manuscript writing process: Identifying the subject: Do you have anything to say that has not been said before? Think seriously about this. Surely there are enough new things, new ideas, new philosophies emerging that one doesn't necessarily have to rehash a topic. Do a little search in the area: 156 I College & Research Libraries • March 1976 What special knowledge do you possess? Remember the search may start in the materials found in libraries; but field research, or applied research, is just as important. Once you have selected the idea, do some basic searching to estab- lish that there is ample material avail- able for a worthwhile article. Use up- to-c;Iate material in your research, unless it's a historical paper. Nothing is more frustrating to a reader than to see out- of-date statistics or citations being used to substantiate arguments. Reaching the audience: The aim of writing is communication. You should not waste your time if there is no mar- ket for your ideas. Structure and form are important: Establish what you want the article to say, and prepare an outline of your ma- terial so that the article will do what you intend it to do. The organization should capture the reader's interest; give direction to the article; report evidence to support the points being made; and make the reader feel well repaid for having read it. Philip G. Becker in his tongue-in- cheek article indicates that an article should have four sections: the introduc- tion, the main body, the summary, and the conclusion. Most importantly, the body occupies itself with a discussion of the theme of the article; and the au- thor can do a magnificent job when the mind is set to it. For instance, the theme of an article might be: "The more books you have, the bigger the library · collection." In ordinary writing, per- haps, the meaning of this statement would be relatively clear. However, an author might find that it was a little too clear. This is indicated by the opening paragraph. Becker concludes by saying: "In dealing with the administrative dif- ficulties inherent in problems of this nature, it is essential to bear in mind that the organizational and administra- tive capacity of the library is governed in a directly proportioned manner by the amount of material which the li- brary has collected by means of its ac- quisitional policy, through gifts and ex- changes, as well as through normal acquisitional cbannels."11 Enough said. Development of the article prepares the reader to understand how all parts hang together as a whole. The summary, as a final element, can answer this ques- tion. Someone said the summary is a re- cording of what you've written in an effort to determine what you've said; and one often finds that nothing has been said at all. Finally, one must check the tone of the article-tone being style, grace, wit, anger, condescension, etc. CONCLUSION Writing the first few articles is not easy. It becomes easier for someone who enjoys writing and who has written enough to have developed a sound tech- nique. This is where the difference be- tween an amateur and a professional begins to show. When the beginning writer completes the first draft, the au- thor reads it through to correct typo- graphical errors and considers the job done. When the professional writer completes the first draft, that is usuallv just the beginning of the writing pr~­ cess. The difference in attitude is the difference between amateur and profes- sional. A final warning is that writers must protect themselves from their own egos, whether in the form of uncritical pride or uncritical self-destruction. As poet John Ciardi once said: "The last act of writing must be to become one's own reader. It is, I suppose, a schizophrenic process, to begin passionately and to end critically, to begin hot and to end cold; and, more important, to be passion-hot and critic-cold at the same time." 1 r t , Writing the ] ournal Article I 157 REFERENCES 1. Daniel Gore, "The Mismanagement of Col- lege Libraries: A View from the Inside," AAUP Bulletin 52:46-51 (Spring 1966). 2. Daniel Gore, "Zero Growth for the College Library," CoUege Management 9:12-14 (Aug. 1974). 3. J. H. Shera, "How Much is a Physicist's Inertia Worth?" Physics Today 14:42-43 (Aug. 1961). 4. ''Letters," College & Research Libraries 35: 133 (March 197 4). 5. Wolfgang M. Freitag, "The Proper Study of Librarians-What is it?" The Harvard Librarian 9:4-7 (Sept.-Oct. 1974). 6. Joann Scheck, "The Writing Librarian," PNLA Quarterly 34:23--25 {April1970). 7. W. Porter Kellum and Dale L. Barker, "Activities and Opportunities of University Librarians for Full Participation in the Ed- ucational Enterprise," College & Research Libraries 29:195-99 (May 1968). 8. William H. Jesse and Ann E. Mitchell, "Professional Staff Opportunities for Study and Research," College & Research Li- braries 29:87-100 (March 1968). 9 .. Continuing Library and Information Sci- ence Education: Final Report to the Na- tional Commission on Libraries and Infor- mation Science (Washington, D.C.: Amer- ican Society for Information Science, 1974). 10. Abraham Flexner, "Is Social Work a Pro- fession?" School and Society 1:901-11 (June 26, 1915). 11. Philip G. Becker, "How to Write Effective- ly for a Library Periodical," in J. D. Mar- shall, eel., Of, By, and For Librarians (Hamden, Conn.: Shoe String, 1960), p. 302-4.