IRD’s Author Guide

Iqbal International Institute for Research & Dialogue (IRD) was originally established at Lahore as a global centre of excellence in Islamic Studies to encourage critical interdisciplinary approaches to the study of contemporary Islamic thought. With particular emphasis on areas such as human rights, rule of law, pluralism, diversity, democracy, Islam and the West, its aims from the beginning have been to build an inter-faith dialogue and construct intra-religious relations, and to inject multiple Islamic responses to religious extremism and violence. The Institute is emerging as the busiest intellectual forum in Pakistan. In January of 2008, IRD became an autonomous affiliate of the International Islamic University, Islamabad. It has won a respectable place as a global centre of excellence and an open forum for critical, creative work, candid, timely and productive conversations on issues of contemporary relevance to Islamic societies. IRD has organized major international conferences, panel discussions and public debates by eminent international scholars and policy makers. In addition, IRD has organized intensive courses on topics such as “Media and Ethics” and “Critical Thinking.”

IRD has established collaborative relationships with academic institutions, think tanks, and civil society groups. Through our outreach programs we hold public lectures and seminars in district headquarters throughout Pakistan collaborating with local academic and civil society organizations.
The Institute has also launched a series of publications in order to reach a wider public. IRD has published more than 100 manuscripts on various subjects of social sciences. IRD publications are mainly of two categories. The first category is of the works that are in line with the mission of the institution. Such publications are meant to generate healthy debates based on the fundamental values and teachings of Islam as articulated in the writings of Allama Muhammad Iqbal.  IRD’s aim is to help in evolving culture of peace, tolerance, and harmony in Pakistan and among the Muslim Ummah. It is one of the primary goals of the IRD to promote and develop dialogical rationalism and create an awareness of humanity’s common aspiration and endeavor to build a morally-informed, just social order.

The second category is of the works that are prepared or accomplished by authors in their personal capacity. The opinions expressed in these books are those of the authors and do not reflect the official view of the Iqbal International Institute for Research & Dialogue, Islamabad. The aim of IRD by these publication is to promote freedom of expression within the cultural, constitutional and legal framework and provide opportunity to authors to publish their research contributions.

Final acceptance of all submitted manuscripts is a decision made by the IRD’s Editorial Committee in consultation with the Executive Director and reviewers. If a manuscript does not meet the standards of IRD or is otherwise lacking in scientific rigor or contains major deficiencies, the reviewers will attempt to provide constructive criticism to assist the authors in ultimately improving their work for publication. IRD reserves the right of acceptance and rejection of any manuscript. All rights of the IRD publications are reserved. No part of any IRD published work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

IRD welcomes authors to submit their manuscripts for publication. This IRD’s Author Guide has been prepared to guide authors about various steps in the process of publication from submission of a proposal to the final stage of printing manuscripts and their promotions.

Executive Director,
IRD, Islamabad

The first step is the preparation of proposal. The preparation of proposal is a very important task because it shows a layout of main work to be drafted. Proposal is the rough sketch of a work which is to be carried out. Once a proposal is ready, it becomes an easy task to accomplish the work according to the structured layout in accordance with the proposal.

All proposals are required to be submitted to the Editor or editorial department mandated with the review of the subject area and market that your book is aiming at. This proposal may include some or all of the following things:

a) Synopsis – Its objective is setting out the objective and approach of the intended book.

b) Table of contents – It includes a list of chapters including the main subheadings of each, with a guess of the number of words or printed pages in each chapter. For books prepared by a team or edited volumes, this should include the name and affiliation of the suggested author(s) for each chapter, and a memo of whether they have approved to contribute.

c) Preface – It should consist of about 500 words and it should summarize your aims, scope, general approach, and intended audience.

d) A covering letter – A cover letter should be furnished setting out details of: the author’s appropriateness and inspiration for pursuing the project; the projected readership; the ways in which the anticipated book fits in with and/or improves upon the on hand books and information resources on the market; the mode in which the script would be approached; any particular points of style, configuration or presentation; the projected script timetable and conclusion date; any strategy for keeping the book up to date after publication; in the case of a book to be written by a panel, an indication of the way in which the writing procedure will be managed to make certain a reliable and logical outcome in terms of the completed book.

e) A curriculum vitae – It will include particulars of any pertinent experience and a list of any preceding publications (books and/or articles); in the case of a writing team, similar particulars for each contributor.

f) Additional supporting materials – It is not always required but if there are other materials that can be put forward to demonstrate the projected approach or show the author’s previous writing experience, they can be useful.

1.1. How to Prepare a Proposal
While preparing a proposal, it is necessary to keep in mind all the possible perspectives of a given topic. The above mentioned things should be included in the proposal.

1.2. Writing a Draft and Revising Manuscript
The next step is that of a writing a draft and subsequently revising the manuscript to identify and eliminate the mistakes. The manuscript text file should commence with a title page which will show authors’ affiliations and contact information. The Title page of manuscript should give a brief overview of the work carried out. The following elements must be included in the Title page:

1. Title of the book
2. Names of the authors
3. Affiliation of the authors

The language of the manuscript should be grammatically correct. In addition, you should always have your manuscript read by at least two other people to avoid typing errors before submitting. References should be in the corrected format.
A draft document is the original comprehensive form of the manuscript. The draft document should include: all chapters including introduction and conclusion; front matter; a bibliography; and figures and tables if relevant. Please note that we will not be able to refer out your manuscript to a reviewer before it is completed.

Reviewers are always more favourable to a manuscript that has been proofread and copy-edited. Please note that these tasks will be your responsibility, as the person in control of the content of the manuscript. It is therefore a worthy idea to start copy-editing and spell-checking early.

In the case of a thesis being converted into a book, please keep in mind that writing a thesis differs from writing a book manuscript. A book manuscript has a changed addressees, drive and structure from a thesis, in that you are now writing for a larger group of academic peers that you are not in direct contact with, and should be concentrating less on the research process and more on the concrete results. In general, book manuscripts thus need less descriptive text.

1.3. Peer Review
Peer Review is a significant step required to be considered before getting the work published. Peer Review helps in maintaining and ensuring the quality of the work.

Peer review is typically steered on a “double blind basis,” meaning that neither you nor the reviewer know the other’s identity.

A peer Review may either result in:
1. A request for you to revise and resubmit the manuscript for a second reviewed assessment;
2. A final decision on acceptation or rejection of the manuscript for publication.
In case of first option, you will be required to revise the manuscript and carry out required amendments.

Once the above mentioned steps are carried out, the next step is to prepare the final version of the work.The manuscript, by now, should be fully copy-edited and spell-checked.

In the final version of the manuscript, all recommendations that were mentioned by us must have been addressed. Please include a list of the revisions that you carried out.

2.1. Time Frame
It is necessary to accomplish the work within stipulated time. Time has great importance in the success of any efforts. We assure you of timely publishing of your work provided there are no unavoidable circumstances.It is crucial that the time frame is realistic: this is the date that we will use to determine the production schedule. Please note that this delivery date should be included in the contract.

Even now that the manuscript has been accepted in the book series, we may still decide to refrain from publication if you cannot adhere to your own deadline or do not include the recommendations of the board or reviewers in a satisfactory way.

2.2. File Formats and Fonts
Manuscripts are written in various formats across the world. In Pakistani academic institutions, Chicago Manual Style is usually followed. The font used for main text is 12; whereas for headings, it is 14. Times New Roman Style is used for writing the text. The text alignment should be justified.

Please always send a PDF version identical to the Word file, with all the fonts you have used embedded in the file. For edited volumes, please send one PDF file of the combined Word files.

2.3. Illustrations (Figures, Maps, Charts and Graphs)
Illustrations are very important for imparting ideas and information through manuscripts. It consists of Charts, Graphs and Maps etc. All these should be mentioned in Table of Contents. It will help the readers to easily access the content. These illustrations may be attached as Appendices.

Color illustrations in which information is presented in many different colors but which are printed in black and white should display the relevant information correctly in different tones of gray. In some cases colors cannot just be converted to black and white as information will be lost, because the different tones of gray will not be clearly distinguishable. In some illustrations, therefore, color may need to be converted to different types of hatching.

2.4. References
References should be given in proper format. Work should be properly attributed to the original sources. There are various ways of giving references. Generally, a reference should include:

1. Author/ Authors name (s)
2. Title of the work
3. Year of Publication
4. Publication Agency or Journal Name
5. Place and year of Publication
6. Volume and Issue Number and
7. Relevant page numbers

There are various styles of providing References. For the Arts, Harvard or MLA style (author–date or author–page system) is preferred. For publications on any other aspect of the Humanities, the Chicago style or the Oxford style are preferred. For the Social Sciences and Linguistics, APA is the preferred style.

Examples are given below:
a) Giving foot note in Chicago Manual style;
Author first name last name, “Title of Article,” Name of Journal volume, no. issue (month and year): page number(s). DOI if applicable.

b) Bibliographical format in Chicago Manual Style is as follow;
Author last name, first name. “Title of Article.” Name of Journal volume, no. issue (month/season year): page range of article. DOI if applicable.

c) The Author Date Style
The author-date style has long been used by those in the physical, natural, and social sciences. In this system, sources are briefly cited in the text, usually in parentheses, by author’s last name and date of publication. The short citations are amplified in a list of references, where full bibliographic information is provided. For example,
In text citation is given as (Pollan 2006, 99–100). Whereas, in bibliography, citation is given as: Pollan, Michael. 2006. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin.

2.5. Copy-Editing and Typesetting
It is used for improving the fitness. The purpose is to make grammatical and factual corrections. The purpose of Typesetting is to bring the text in conformity with the required layout proposed or set by publisher.

When finalizing the manuscript, please pay attention to the following elements of copy-editing:

1. Clearly mark (the level of) headings, (block) quotations, paragraphs, insertion points for illustrations and/or tables, footnotes or endnotes.
2. Please supply a running title for each chapter (max. 60 characters incl. spaces and punctuation marks).
3. Distinguishing typing 0 (zero) from O (capital letter); 1 (one) from I, l (letters).
4. If you use section headings, make sure they are recognizable as such. If you have more than one level, there should be a clear and consistently used distinction between them. Brill prefers numerical levels, such as 1.1.1.3, especially if you use more than 4 levels of heading (which is to be avoided as much as possible). Roman capitals and letters as numbering (also for chapters) should not be used.
5. Quotation marks: Please be consistent in your use of single and double quotation marks and the placement of punctuation before or after the closing quotation marks. See The Chicago Manual of Style or The Oxford Style Manual.
6. Larger sections of quoted text should be set off from the running text by a blank line before and after the quoted text, and the text should be indented. No quotation marks should be used for these block quotes.

2.6. Glosses, Trees and Linguistic Examples
It pertains to a brief notation, especially a marginal one or an interlinear one, of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text or in the reader’s language if that is different. Leipzig Glossing Rules are mostly adhered to.

To align your glosses, please paste them into tables. This helps the typesetters to get the alignment correct and should save you a lot of time correcting the proofs.

2.7. Title and Manuscript Parts
Title, as mentioned earlier, should be self explanatory and generally in 16 fonts. The parts of manuscript should include Abstract or Foreword, List of abbreviations, Table of Contents, Acknowledgement, body text and Appendices etc.

2.8. Monographs, Final Version: Checklist
The following requirements should be fulfilled before submitting final version:
1. Chapters are in proper order.
2. Footnotes are used.
3. List of figures and tables is included.
4. The final version should be submitted in both word and PDF forms.

It is also an important aspect to be considered.

3.1. Getting Started: Permission should be sought before including maps, pictures etc in your work. For saving your time, permission should be obtained in first instance.

3.2. Illustrations: Illustrations are protected by copyright especially when these are not older than 70 years. It is necessary to request for permission before including these in your work. Photos, figures, maps, drawings, cartoons and other illustrations are protected by the same copyright that is applicable to texts, i.e. the author has the exclusive right to publish his/her work until 70 years after his/her death. Find out, therefore, who the author is: this can be the photographer, the artist, the cartographer.

If your source is a database or another publication, it is likely that the copyright has been transferred to a publisher or an agency, in which case you need to turn to them to request permission. While there is no copyright on illustrations older than 70 years, these usually belong to a museum or an archive, which will likely have a procedure in place for requesting permissions. Please note that a museum might also charge you for using a picture (of an artwork) that you have taken yourself. Using photos of people can be tricky. Portrait rights exist in most countries; it is best to obtain permission in advance when you plan to use a picture that depicts people. The exception is a picture depicting a large group of people in a public place, e.g. a football stadium. Please be aware of the existence of trademarks, e.g. of multinationals.

3.3. Texts: The main moral right of the author is the right always to have his/her work attributed to him/her. Another moral right is that you are not allowed to change a work without the author’s permission. Permission should be sought or proper attribution to the author should be given at least. In some cases copyrighted work can be used without obtaining the permission from the copyright owner: the most important example of this is quotation. Illustrations can be quoted, just like texts. Quotation of the illustration must be functional and relevant and should include a discussion of the illustration itself. If you think your use of the illustration falls under quotation and you do not need to request permission.

3.4. Translations: Most publishers ask authors to assign copyright for publication of the work in all languages. This means that when you plan to start a translation project, either of your own work or that of someone else, you will first need to request permission from the publisher who published the work in its original language (unless it is in the public domain).

It is the final stage of publishing your work.

4.1. The Production Process: When peer evaluation is finished and your manuscript has been, tentatively, received for publication, you will be asked to initiate preparation for production. When you have submitted the ultimate edition, we will assess this by the editorial board so that they can settle on further revisions or ultimate approval for publication.

4.2. From Production to Publication: When you have provided the corrected form and the index, the production editor will communicate with the typesetters to make sure that your corrections are carried out. If all is in order, the print files will be all set, checked, and sent to the printers.

4.3. Index: Despite advances in computer technology, indexing is (unfortunately) not a mechanical activity that can be left to a computer: it requires thought, knowledge and common sense. There are three ways to prepare the index:
1. Manually, based on the first page proofs.
2. Using the XE-code functionality in Word.
3. Providing a list of indexing terms to which the typesetters will add proof page numbers; please note that we ask you to check the index proofs meticulously as this is not a fool proof method.

5.1. What You Can Do
Even prior to your manuscript is published, you can be thinking regarding raising the profile of your work. As the writer, you can take part in a vital effort to share your ideas and news about your book with your social group, friends, and readers. What you do may depend on the sort of book you’ve authored and how much time you have, but we encourage and support all authors to deem how they can support the promotion of their work.

If you are concerned in improving the visibility of your work more vigorously, take a glance at our recommendations below.
1. Make use of an email signature with links to the book and publisher webpage to let your contemporaries and associates know about your work.
2. Share your fresh book with social group and contacts on Facebook or other social networks that you already make use of.
3. If you already use Twitter, share the news in a tweet and share a link to the book in your Twitter bio.
4. Insert the book to your LinkedIn profile.
5. Think about which social network would suit you; you may find like-minded people on Twitter or Instagram, for instance. Every platform has distinct communities and interest groups; take some time to find what you enjoy.
6. Attach information and an icon of your publication to your professional and/or institutional websites.
7. Include a slide about your book in conferences and other presentations.
8. If you are interested in wider dissemination among non-specialists, such as policy-makers and the general public, get advice from your institution, faculty, or funding body about public engagement.
9. Recommend your book to your institutional or university librarian.
10. Write a post as a guest blogger for a blog.
11. Add your book to reading lists for students, and the offerings in relevant seminars or conference presentations.
12. If you have more than an hour: think about a supplementary piece of content.
13. Contact your university communications team and ask them to include information about the book on your university website or email newsletters.
14. Ask your alumni magazine to add a brief listing about you and your book to its communications.
15. If you want to use a new platform to talk about your work, you should join and start to build up a following at least several months before publication. Use the opportunity to talk, share ideas, and get involved in the conversations.
16. Write a Wikipedia article about your scholarship or your subject specialization. Include all relevant published work with links. Many scholars already have a Wikipedia entry, so why not you.
17. Make a personal website. Promote your research and publications with a simple personal website.
18. Look for organizations in your field that send large-volume emails. Attempt to get your book reviewed in their email or newsletter.

5.2. What IRD Can Do for You
IRD, as a publisher, promotes its books to the scholarly market in different ways: It includes an announcement in our email newsletters, include books in catalogs, marketing, social media. We also send out review offers to journals. So, as your publisher, IRD sponsors your book to the intellectual market in many ways.

1. Conferences
Let us know about any key and pertinent conferences in your field and we will attempt to send flyers and/or a display copy of your book to the organization. Alternatively, of course, we are obliged if you could take some yourself. ! Please let us know well in advance – at least 6 weeks – so that we have the time to order display copies and/or prepare flyers.

2. Lectures
If you are giving a lecture or speech, let us know and we will advertise for you via our social media channels. This is a great chance to mention your book to a huge audience of your peers.

3. Media
Please let us know about any accessible media coverage relating to you or your book: online newspapers, journals, newsletters or (radio) interviews are all perfect opportunities to draw attention (via, e.g., social media) to you as author and to your book.

4. Awards
If there are any awards you think we can nominate your book for, please let us know well in advance of the closing date. Please bear in mind that we have to allow at least 6–8 weeks for shipping copies to the award committee.