niobiumu'washington'edu

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ltniobium_at_u.washington.edugt
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Managing Image Production is like

• In image production there are three groups of
  cats to herd
• What the Editor wants regarding content and
  quality
• Content driven
• Does the author's work meet our standards?
• What the printer needs to achieve the Editor's
  requirements
• Mechanics driven
• Can we print this? Will it meet the Editor's
  quality standards?
• What the author knows, and what they can provide
• Highly variable
• Dependent on the author's knowledge of image
  production and their field of research

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Managing image production is like

• A chasm has opened between publisher requirements
  and author knowledge
• Publication guidelines often contain very
  technical requirements
• Authors may not understand a good deal of the
  things being requested of them, and how they
  relate to their work
• Editors are often authors themselves, and may not
  be well-versed in publication requirements or
  image editing
• The publication staff wind up herding the cats
  over the chasm!

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So what do authors know?

• Image Production
• Author knowledge in this field was very limited
  3-5 years ago
• Many basic imaging concepts were foreign to
  authors
• Resizing via resampling
• Image types (Vector graphics vs. continuous-tone
  images)
• File types (JPGs vs. TIFFs vs. proprietary
  formats)
• Resolution!
• Authors relied on graphic artists or
  knowledgeable staff members
• Now that author knowledge is growing
• More authors have basic familiarity with image
  editing
• Use of professional image-editing software is
  common
• Authors are teaching themselves how to work with
  images out of necessity

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So what do authors know?

• Publishing and Printing
• Many topics in this area remain a mystery to
  authors
• CMYK color in print publication vs. RGB color on
  monitors
• File format limitations (eg. GIF or JPG vs. TIFF
  or EPS)
• Some of this knowledge is very domain-based
• You would not expect an author to know it
• They can provide publishable image files without
  knowing it
• This knowledge defines what they need to provide
• They may not know why you're asking for something
• They may not know how important it is to
  publishing
• Authors may not know why or how to provide an
  image in a certain format.

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So what formed this chasm?

• The changing face of technology
• Professional image editing software is now
  readily available
• Previously it was thought to be tools for
  professionals only
• It wasn't originally made for consumers, so the
  learning curve can be steep
• A wider variety of image editing options is
  available now
• Science-specific programs for producing complex
  art
• Line-art vs. photographic editing programs
• Presentation software (eg. Powerpoint)
• Schools have been very slow to offer training
• Authors are often out of the loop on image
  editing software and how to make use of
  it

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So what formed the chasm?

• Where have all the graphic artists gone?
• Many people do their own image editing now
• Demand for image use is high
• Image-editing software is more readily available
• Hiring someone to produce your figures can be
  expensive and time-consuming.
• Author budgets are shrinking
• Even when an author can afford a graphic artist,
  they may not be able to find one
• This is a self-reinforcing problem!
• Authors usually have to do their own figures with
  very little help

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So what formed the chasm?

• Authors have partial (or sometimes no)
  information
• Often self-taught
• They know that image-editing software can do
  certain things but do not always know how
• They know that Powerpoint can be used to label
  and arrange but don't know the drawbacks to using
  it
• They don't always know the full ramifications of
  their image editing decisions (eg. resizing,
  making JPGs, layering)
• Authors may produce figures that seem fine to
  them but that the publisher can't use
• Authors may unintentionally manipulate their
  images

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Navigating the Chasm

• Guidelines for Authors
• Most authors check publication guidelines
  infrequently
• When they do, it's to check for only specific
  items
• They seldom read all of your guidelines unless
  they're very short
• Encourage authors to check your guidelines!
• Notifications of recent changes on your webpage
• House ads in your publication, email
  correspondence
• Your guidelines need to be concise and concrete
• Don't use publication jargon - use terms they
  know!
• Explain how to meet the requirements
• Your Guidelines are a powerful tool in
  guaranteeing ease and success in
  working with authors.

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Navigating the Chasm

• Author Interaction
• Try to pinpoint their skill level ask them!
• You don't want to confuse people who don't know a
  lot
• You don't want to annoy people who do know a lot
• Try to find out what they did to produce their
  figures
• Knowing their process pinpoints what you need to
  ask for
• You can identify what's wrong very quickly and
  without guesswork
• Be flexible and adaptable
• Strict requirements seldom work anymore
• Be familiar with formats you don't accept
• Develop strategies for handling unacceptable
  formats
• Remember--it's a little bit like tech support.

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Navigating the Chasm

• You are sharing the graphic artist position with
  the author!
• You are their missing information
• Consider additional training in software and
  workflows
• Consider offering image editing services based on
  a standard fee schedule
• Authors will often make the same mistakes and
  have the same questions
• Prepare in-house documents for common questions
• Keep example images and emails on hand for staff
  to review
• Clearly indicate what is and isn't allowed for
  image manipulation!

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Reading Material

• Some reading material for the flight home
• Nature article on Fluorescence Imaging, very
  informative look at what scientists must tackle
  when preparing scientific images Nature (May 10,
  2007) pages 138-140, "The good, the bad, and the
  ugly".
• JHC Editorial on science images as art JHC (Oct
  2006) 1073-1074, "A Beautiful Science".
• Sheridan Press PDF on digital art and how to
  manage it in a workflow Digital Art in Scholarly
  Periodical Publishing, Technical and Practical
  Information http//www.sheridanpress.com/assets/p
  df/DigiArt_WP.pdf
• One of the earlier journals to adopt a PDF
  condencing all of their digital art requirements
  into 2 straight-forward pages was PNAS. Digital
  Art Guidelines from PNAS lthttp//www.pnas.org/mis
  c/digitalart.pdfgt