The Web Site:
Frequently Asked
Questions
to the best of his abilities
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The Web Site: Frequently Asked |
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to the best of his abilities |
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Table of Contents
2. Why don't we (usually) give references/citations for facts, figures and quotations on our web-site?
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Sure you can - if you are a contributing member of the Andaman Association or if you have otherwise been generous with us (by supplying useful and relevant new data of any kind or in any other way). See Contact and support us.
If you decide to ask us questions or ask for services of any kind, please be good enough to tell us who you are and why you need an answer to whatever specific question(s) you may have.
If you do or are none of the above, we won't bother either - unless you can tell us why we should.
2. Why don't we (usually) give references/citations in the texts on our web-site?
Except for the earliest ntries on the site, we do have most of these on our master files, of course. We often omit them on our web-site because we found too many lazy people garnishing their homework, theses and articles with the fruits of our (unacknowledged and unpaid) scientific labour. We don't charge for our work (despite the old adage that what is free is not appreciated) but we do like to keep track a little of who is using what and in what context. To receive the occasional acknowledgment can also be nice.
We happily give specific references and citations to any who are known to us and have contributed financially or otherwise to our cause in the past or who appear to have a genuine need for such additional information. For those preparing to publish something, we do have a tiny additional wish in return: please let us have a copy of your published work for our library.
In specialised scientific articles published by us (e.g. the article on Toba Volcano), as well as in all reprints and original prints supplied to us, we do give references as a matter of course.
Can I submit texts/pictures for publication on this web-site?
Of course you can, provided
(a) you hold the copyright
(b) your topic fits into our (very broad) range of interests (check
our Table of Contents for an idea what might be included in our
range)
(c) you have written the text or shot the pictures/recorded the
sound/video files yourself /yourselves. No plagiarism please
(d) you are halfway coherent, original, interesting and
comprehensible
(e) you have written to a reasonable standard of English (we will
edit up to a point but we don't re-write!)
To see texts others have published with us, see reprints and originals.
How and in what form do I submit texts/pictures, and what about copyright and other legal questions?
1. Sending material
Best:
send a CD or DVD by post to
THE ANDAMAN ASSOCIATION
Waldstrasse 6
CH-4410 Liestal
Switzerland
Second best:
E-mail us your material (but note: our anti-SPAM program is set at
maximum (even at the risk that we destroy some genuine E-mails). We
are ruthless about eliminating anything even remotely resembling
SPAM. If you are dumb enough to load your E-mails with advertising
and "fun" items, you won't get through - and we will not greatly care
if you don't since you are unlikely to be our kinda guy. OK? We also
delete, unread, any excessively and suspiciously heavy E-mail that
we have not been advised about beforehand. So, if you plan to
send us an E-mail with lots of stuff in it, tell us about it
first.
2. Sighting, decision on publication
We will the check your material as quickly as possible. Do not set deadlines or try to rush us - that would be counterproductive. You will get our comments/suggestions/decision as soon as we as a non-profit organisation possibly can. In no case will we will return any material (whether accepted for publication or not) to you unless requested and paid for by you in advance.
3. Format of material supplied
If you think the following instructions a bit paranoid, you should have seen (and had to work with) some of the files we have received. How about a reference list scattered over countless "Excel" cells? We like puzzles -but not this timewasting sort. Or a massively-heavy "Word" file constantly crashing our system despite plentiful memory and RAM. The same file also gave tables on top of normal text and pictures when printed; it could not be opened by the MS "Word" program because of "insufficient memory" or some such twaddle and it took the competition product "Think Free Office" to do it. We still have no idea how these effects (perhaps they were "features"?) were achieved. But we now have an idea what a timeconsuming hell it can be to un-do such peculiarities. It was educational, too: we had an unhealthy insight into the spaghetti programming behind the program. Life is too short to be spent on unravelling such mysteries. So, unless you are prepared to pay heavily and in advance for our time, we must INSIST on the following:
a. virus-free E-mails
b. Overview: if you have a complete file of your masterpiece already with everything in place and looking as it should, make a .pdf file of it and send it along. Such a file is not strictly necessary but it will provide us with a double-check in case of doubt or if errors have slipped into the working files.
c. Working file Text: Text files are best submitted in MS-Word (.doc or .rtf) formats or similar. Text files should NOT contain footnotes, illustrations, tables, lists with lots of tabulators, non-Latin letters and other complications. Wherever such items have to be inserted in the body text, put a separate line into your text file saying (for example) "here footnote 1", or "here picture 7", "here "table 19", etc. as a separate line. In the body text file only body text and tables are is acceptable (plus, perhaps if there are just a few, lists).
d. Tables: Tables in any computer program known to mankind are formatted differently and the various formats are usually incompatible. In other words, tables are a lot of work and trouble for us. After some recent experiences when one of us had to spend a lot of valuable time re-writing large tables, we will not in future offer such free services. If you have large and complicated tables, we suggest you type them yourself in whatever format suits you, then print them and scan the print and send it to us as a .gif graphics file. Alternatively you can make a .pdf file out of each of your tables and send us these along with the separate text file.
e .Working file Footnotes: Footnotes are a pest in internet files. If you MUST have them, collect them all, numbered consecutively (do NOT number them separately for each page!). If you have just a few footnotes, we will put them at the end of the paragraph where they occur. If you have lots, you should supply them as end notes.
f. Working file References: Do not put your references into foootnotes unless there are very few. If there are many, flag them in the text as e.g. "text text (ref. XX)", if you have numbered them as "text text (ref. 1)". The references will then be all collected in a separate "reference" section at the end of your article. That means: supply the references as a separate "Word" or similar text file. Use the same style for all entries and not a jumble of style from lots of different sources - we don't mind what style you use, as long as it is the same for all references.
g. Working file Lists: If you must have lists, keep them and the use of tabulators to a minimum. They are troublesome and timeconsuming to adapt to the internet. In such cases we often simply scan in your list from a paper printout and upload it as an .gif grapahic. This may not look highly elegant but it is better than spending hour re-writing all you have written once already.
h . lllustrations (charts, photographs, diagrams, illustrations of every kind): use .jpg (for photographs, coloured or b/w) or .gif (for line drawings, maps etc.) wherever possible. We work ith Mac computers and so are extremely flexible with picture files - but some exotic formats can defy even a Mac or come out looking like death. If you send pictures by E-mail, do not send huge megabyte-monsters in 1200 dpi if all we need in the end is a compessed stamp-sized pic in 150 dpi. On CD or DVD this does not matter and you can send them as big as they come and we can convert them here (another advantage of using CDs). Number the picture files or give them SHORT NAMES. You are not making friends here with file file names like "thisismesittinginthegardenlastwednesdayarenticute_20050418_photographedbymyfriendarchibald_25.jpg". Our hardware won't crash because of such names - but our humanware will.
We look forward to seeing your article, photographs, maps, discoveries - whatever!
4. Dating
Make sure you tell us when (in what year, more precisely if possible) the article, photograph, discovery, that you wish us to publish has been written, taken or discovered. If you have historical items, we need to discuss this with you before you send anything to us. There may be legal limitations on their transfer - make sure you know about them before you do anything!
5. Copyright
If you are not telling us, we will assume that copyright of anything submitted to us rests with you personally. It is the sender's responsibility to tell us if this is not so. If you do not hold the copyright, make sure you do not send us material without the copyright holder's knowledge and consent and note clearly on your material who the copyright holder is.
6. Responsibility for physical material sent
For intrinsically valuable originals (historical photographs, manuscripts, artefacts, etc) prior written agreement between The Sender the The Andaman Association on all aspects of such transfer, be it temporary or permanent, must be reached before the Andaman Association accepts any responsibility for the safety of such materials. Ensure that it is legal for you to send such material out of your country.
The laws and regulations of the Swiss Conferderacy and of its Canton of Basel-land shall apply always.
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Last change 1 May 2007