HCI Style Guidelines
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The HCI journal is very lenient on the style of papers during the reviewing process, since content and human-readability are most important. However, once a paper is accepted, it must conform to these HCI style guidelines to enable publication of the paper in the journal. These guidelines describe the requirements for the final submission. See the HCI Production Process for what to do with the final submission. The best examples of HCI style are found by referring to the most recent issues of the journal. HCI generally follows the style of the APA, but with important variations. These guidelines will refer you to relevant sections of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fourth Edition, 1994. (Copies may be ordered from the APA Order Department, PO Box 92984, Washington, DC 20090-2984; 800-374-2721; www.apa.org.) Contact the Editor if further clarifications of style are needed. The Most Common ProblemsTo start, here are the most common problems with final submissions. Check these to avoid having to redo the final submission: The production phase is not a time to make revisions. Proofread your final manuscript carefully, so that you won't have to make too many corrections on the page proofs. It is especially important that changes on the page proofs not cause the number of pages to change. Check the format and completeness of your references. Reference formatting is by far the fussiest part of a paper and causes the overwhelming majority of queries from the production editor on the page proofs. Check that all text on your hardcopy manuscript is set at double-spaced formatting with at least one inch margins on all sides. This extra spacing allows for copyediting notations. Final Submission ChecklistThe final submission consists of an electronic file of your paper. and a printed hardcopy manuscript. The complete checklist:
1. Contact InformationProvide a page with contact information, including the name, address, telephone number, and email address of the corresponding author (i.e., the author whom the Editors may contact with questions about the paper and to whom the page proofs can be sent). Also provide information about alternative contacts during anticipated absenses during the production process. 2. Permission Letters for Use of Copyright MaterialAs author you are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright owners for the use of lengthy quoted text (500 words or more), tables, and illustrations that were published elsewhere (as well lines of poetry or song lyrics). You should write to the original author and publisher requesting nonexclusive rights to use the material in the paper and in future print and nonprint editions. You are also responsible for any license fees required. Appendix C contains a form letter that you can adapt to secure permissions for the use of such materials. In your paper, you must include appropriate acknowledgments to the copyright owners. For example, using a figure from another article, include the following in the caption of the figure in your paper:
Use the word "adapted" instead of "reprinted" if the figure has been altered from the original. 3. Hardcopy ManuscriptThe hardcopy manuscript should completely describe the content and desired appearance (within the HCI style) of your article. You do not have to make your manuscript appear exactly like the journal format, but close enough to guide the Production Editor in typesetting the material of the paper into the journal format. Standard format elements (headers, lists, bold, italic) are not a problem. If your paper includes a notation, be especially careful that it is consistent, so that meaningful formatting is not lost in the typesetting process. The hardcopy manuscript consists of several parts, which should be submitted in the order discussed below in Sections 4-13. 4. Title PageGive the article's title, the full names of all authors, and their main professional affiliations. Give a running head title, which is a shortened title that can fit at the top of each page of the article. It should be no longer than 40 characters (including spaces). A biographical footnote about each of the authors appears on the first page of the printed article. The purpose of this footnote is to give the reader some background to understand the point of view in the article. The "mini-biography" for each author should be no more than one (compound) sentence long. The Editor will trim it down if it is too long. The first part of the biographical sentence should convey the author's discipline (e.g., designer, computer scientist, sociologist, etc.) and the author's research or design interests, especially as they relate to the article. The second part of the biographical sentence should give the author's current professional position or title (e.g., Manager of the XXX group, Assistant Professor of XXX, System Programmer, etc.). If a person has recently changed to a different position, it may also be appropriate to give the previous position. The pattern of a biographical sentence is something like:
5. AbstractThe Abstract should preferably fit on the first printed page of the article (although this is difficult if there many authors to list on the first page). It should be concisely written, briefly describing the work reported in the paper, clearly indicating the nature of the paper (theoretical, empirical, or methodological), and -- most importantly -- conveying the main points or results of the paper. 6. ContentsA table of Contents appears at the top of the second printed page of each article. The Contents lists the top three levels of section headings (see the next section) in indented outline format. If there are Appendices, the titles as well as the top level sections of each Appendix should be included in the Contents. 7. Body of the PaperFontsThe body and headings are all in a basic serif font (HCI uses Baskerville). Italics are used to highlight new terms and for emphasis. Symbolic notations, such as computer programs or formal languages, are in a distinct font (HCI uses Futura). Section HeadingsLogical section headings help the reader comprehend the article. Titles of sections should be as informative as possible (for example: instead of "Experiment" use "A Test of Two Spatial Representations"). The body of the paper should begin with Section 1 (if you can't characterize an introductory theme, then call it "1. INTRODUCTION"). There are five levels of section headings in HCI articles:
FiguresAll illustration materials -- figures, tables, photographs, drawings, program listings, charts, etc. -- are called figures in HCI. Figures are numbered sequentially as they are mentioned in the text (Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, etc.). Each figure should be explicitly mentioned in the body of the paper. Immediately following the paragraph where each figure is first mentioned, include a "FIGURE N ABOUT HERE" instruction in the manuscript. Reference CitationsAll references that are listed in the Reference section must be cited in the text. Citations to references should follow the APA style (see APA, pp. 168-234). See Appendix B below for some examples. EquationsAll displayed equations (i.e., equations that are set off from the text and indented) should be numbered. They are numbered using Arabic numerals in parentheses and are right justified [e.g., (1), (2), (3), etc.]. An equation is referred to in the text as, e.g., "Equation 2." Other materials that are too short to be figures (e.g., short computer program segments, command sequences, language examples, quotations from transcripts, etc.) may also be treated like displayed equations. FootnotesFootnotes should be used sparingly. Try to integrate into the body of the text all material worth mentioning. Footnotes are numbered consecutively throughout the text and are indicated by superscript Arabic numerals. A footnote is referred to in the text as, e.g., "Footnote 3." Also see Section 11 below. Miscellaneous Style IssuesAmerican spelling, rather than British, is preferred. Define all abbreviations. Avoid the use of sexist language (see APA, pp. 46-60). 8. NotesA section named "NOTES" follows the body of the paper. It consists of the following paragraphs:
9. ReferencesAll references cited in the body of the paper must be listed in the References section. References should be formatted according to the APA style (see APA, pp. 168-234). See Appendix A for examples. In the Reference section, references are ordered alphabetically by the surnames and initials of authors. Single-author references precede multiple-author references with the same first author. References with the same first author and different second authors are arranged alphabetically by the surnames of the second authors. References with the same first and second authors are alphabetized by the names of the third authors, and so on. References with the same authors in the same order are arranged by year of publication, earliest first. References with the same authors in the same order with the same publication date are arranged alphabetically by title (excluding "A" or "The"). In these cases, one-letter suffixes should be added to the dates of these references (e.g., 1974a, 1975b) 10. AppendicesAppendices should be used sparingly -- only if the material is necessary for the reader to understand or evaluate the paper. If the material is not too long, it is probably better to incorporate it into the paper as one or more figures. Use appendices only if the added material cannot be incorporated into the body of the paper without distracting the reader. If there is just one appendix, label it "Appendix." If the Appendix has sections, number them A1, A2, A3, etc. If there are multiple appendices, label them "Appendix A," "Appendix B," etc. If the multiple Appendices have sections, then number them A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, B3, C1, etc. All appendices should have titles (e.g., "Appendix A. Transcript of User Behavior"). 11. FootnotesDuring the review process, it is okay to have footnotes at the bottoms of the manuscript pages. But the final manuscript should have the footnotes, or a copy of them, on a separate page. 12. Figure CaptionsThe text of all figure captions should be listed sequentially on a separate page of the manuscript. Each figure caption should make the figure self-explanatory, allowing it to be understood, as far as possible, without referring to the body of the text. In addition, any notation used in the figure should be explained in the caption. If a figure is from another source, then an acknowledgement should be included in the caption (see Section 2). Only the first letter of figure caption sentences are capitalized. 13. FiguresThe figures should follow the figure captions, with each figure on a separate page. Each figure page should contain the figure number for identification. For production purposes, there are two types of figures: figures to be typeset by the publisher and photo-ready figures prepared by the author. Typeset FiguresFigures that are mainly text (e.g., tables and listings) will be typeset. Look at recent issues of the journal to see the style of typeset figures. In order to typeset a figure, it must be included in electronic form. Photo-Ready FiguresPhoto-ready figures should be carefully prepared. You should take into account that these figures will be photo-reduced for reproduction in the journal. Unless a figure is unusually large, it will occupy from 1/3 to 1/2 of a printed page (4.5" x 7"). Therefore, make the lettering and details large enough to remain distinct after reduction. Your lettering should not reduce to less than an eight point font. For photo-ready figures, submit high-quality laser prints, professionally prepared black-and-white originals, or camera-ready glossy reproductions. Also, include electronic files of figures if possible. All hardcopies for which you do not supply an electronic file will be scanned into electronic form. Avoid using gray shading or dot screens in graphs, as these do not scan well. Figures appearing in the journal will look only as good as the material you provide to photograph. 14. Electronic FilesIt is critical to submit all textual material of an article in electronic form. Also include electronic files of the figures if you have them. This both speeds up the production process and reduces errors. Electronic files should be submitted on floppy disks. The publisher's preference is for a PC-formatted disk with WordPerfect or Word files, but a Mac-formatted disk is also acceptable. In either case, include a file in your word processor's format, plus a plain text ASCII file. The latter will serve as a backup in case the word processor file can't be read. Finally, make sure that your electronic files correspond to your hardcopy manuscript. Appendix A. Examples of Reference Formats
Appendix B. Examples of Reference Citations
Appendix C. Form Letter for PermissionsBelow is a form letter you can use to obtain permissions for lengthy quoted materials. You should write to both the copyright owner (usually the publisher) and, as a courtesy, the author of the material. Permission letters should be sent to copyright owners in duplicate. Enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope for fastest results. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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