Author and Editor Toolkit
USDA/FS Southern Research Station

The 135 (+/-) scientists at the Southern Research Station are authors or coauthors for 600 to 700 publications a year. These include journal articles, conference proceedings papers, books and book chapters, bibliographies, management guidelines, guest editorials, and assessments.

In addition, the Station publishes the results of its scientists and their cooperators in four technical series:

• Research papers--Results, analyses, conclusions of formal studies or experiments
• General technical reports--Information of a technical nature, but not an original report; proceedings, computer programs, annotated biographies, guidebooks
• Research notes--Observational information on new techniques or instruments, especially of how-to-do-it type or incidental discovery
• Resource bulletins--Economic information of permanent value on timber and other forest resources or their utilization

The following materials were designed to help reduce manuscript turnaround time, improve communications with authors, and reduce costs while maintaining the Station’s reputation for high quality, credible publications:

• Publications Tracking System, allowing authors to check on the progress of their manuscripts
• Authors Guide - Guidelines for Citations, and Authors Submission Check List, providing information on preparing text, tables, and figures for most publications
• Proceedings Instructions, with Sample Manuscript, Sample Table 1, and Sample Table 2, providing instructions for papers in conference proceedings
• Tech Editing Checklist, detailing performance standards for Federal and contract editors
• Custom Dictionary, incorporating governmental and scientific conventions for spelling
• Quick Reference Guide, incorporating professional and governmental conventions for capitalization, compounding, units of measure, and numerals
• Publication Submission Guidelines, this option is only available to Forest Service employees on the Forest Service network.

All links above, except for the publication tracking system, are to portable document format or PDF files. Get Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or Acrobat Reader 5.0 for Windows with Search and Accessibility to view these documents.