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;login: The USENIX Magazine
Writing for ;login:
So you want to write for ;login:.
Writing is not easy for most of us. Having your writing rejected,
for any reason, is no fun at all. The way to get your articles
published in ;login:, with the least effort on your part and on the part of
the staff of ;login:, is to submit a proposal first.
Proposals
In the world of publishing, writing a proposal is nothing new. If
you plan on writing a book, you need to write one chapter, a proposed table
of contents, and the proposal itself and send the package to
a book publisher. Writing the entire book first is asking for
rejection, unless you are a well-known, popular writer.
;login: proposals are not like paper submission abstracts.
We are not asking you to write a draft of the
article as the proposal, but instead to describe the article you
wish to write. There are some elements that you will want to
include in any proposal:
- What's the topic of the article?
- What type of article is it (case study, tutorial, editorial, mini-paper, etc.)?
- Who is the intended audience (syadmins, programmers, security wonks, network admins, etc.)?
- Why does this article need to be read?
- What, if any, non-text elements (illustrations, code, diagrams, etc.) will be included?
- What is the approximate length of the article?
Start out by answering each of those six questions. In answering the question about length, bear in mind that a page in ;login: is about 600 words. It
is unusual for us to publish a one-page article or one over eight
pages in length, but it can happen, and it will, if your article
deserves it. We suggest, however, that you try to keep your article between
two and five pages, as this matches the attention span of many people.
The answer to the question about why the article needs to be read
is the place to wax enthusiastic. We do
not want marketing, but your most eloquent explanation of why
this article is important to the readership of ;login:, which is
also the membership of USENIX.
Unacceptable Articles
;login: will not publish certain articles. These include, but are
not limited to:
- Previously published articles. A piece that has appeared on
your own Web server but not been posted to USENET or slashdot is not
considered to have been published.
- Marketing pieces of any type. We don't accept articles about
products. "Marketing" does not include being enthusiastic
about a new tool or software that you can
download for free, and you are encouraged to write case studies of hardware or
software that you helped install and configure, as long as
you are not affiliated with or paid by the company you are writing
about.
- Personal attacks
Format
The initial reading of your article will be done by people
using UNIX systems. Later phases involve Macs,
but please send us text/plain formatted documents for the
proposal. Send proposals to login@usenix.org.
The final version can be text/plain, text/html, LaTex, RTF, or Word/StarOffice.
Illustrations must be TIFF, PNG, or JPG.
Deadlines
For our publishing deadlines, including the time you can expect to be asked to read
proofs of your article, see the online schedule.
You are encouraged to turn in accepted articles early, so that the editor can work
with you on improving your article. This
method reduces the amount of last-minute work for
everyone involved.
Copyright
You own the copyright to your work and grant USENIX permission
to publish it in ;login: and on the Web. USENIX owns the copyright on
the collection that is each issue of ;login:. You must grant permission
for any third party to reprint your text; financial negotiations are a
private matter between you and any reprinter.
Reprints should include the text "Reprinted from ;login: The Magazine of USENIX, vol. XX, no. YY (Berkeley, CA: USENIX Association, [year of publication]), pp. nn-nn."
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