Instructions for Authors

Editorial Process (Peer Review)

Papers submitted to Ticker must be original. By submitting a manuscript for review, authors acknowledge first publication rights are granted to Ticker. Authors retain the copyright of their papers without restrictions. Submission of a manuscript implies that the work described has not been published, is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and has been approved for publication by all co-authors and by institutional authorities where the work was conducted.

It is the author’s responsibility to obtain all necessary permissions and pay any necessary fees for the inclusion of copyrighted materials, such as figures and tables from other publications. Appropriate credit should be attributed in the body of the work. Previously published work will not be considered for publication, nor will simultaneous submissions.

Practitioner articles will be reviewed and edited only by Section Editors. Research manuscripts will be reviewed by at least two independent reviewers. (For the Spring issue we give reviewers 8-10 weeks to review to account for winter holidays. For the Fall issue we ask reviewers to complete reviews in 6-8 weeks.)  At least one reviewer will be from an Academic Business Library Directors member institution. 

 

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License that allows others to share the work in noncommercial ways with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. (The journal has used several different CC licenses throughout its history, but going forward all articles will be published under CC BY-NC 4.0, beginning with Volume 9, Issue 2. Prior to that issue, the specific CC license used for any given article can be found on its individual article page alongside the other publication information.)

There are no author fees or submission fees. No fees will be charged if an author withdraws their article after submission. Authors are encouraged to post their work to an institutional or disciplinary repository.

 

Preparing the Manuscript

Regardless of whether your manuscript is undergoing Editorial or Peer Review, please follow all of the guidelines listed below:

The following elements are required for any manuscript submitted to Ticker.

1. Filetype: The file format should be Microsoft Word.

2. Text: Please follow these guidelines:

  • Single-spaced, 12pt font.
  • For emphasis, use bold or italics, not underlining.
  • To enhance accessibility, do not include hyperlinks in the body text. Instead, include an APA-formatted reference in the body text, and include a complete hyperlink in the Reference list.
  • All images and figures should be placed within the text at the points where the author(s) want them to be seen.

3. Keywords: Authors should supply a minimum of three keywords or key terms.

4. Author(s) Information: 

  • Author(s)' full preferred name
  • Institution Name*, City, State/Province/Region, Country
  • Author's email address
  • ORCiD (optional)

*Institution in this case refers to the parent institution, not a unit within an institution. For example, an author who works at the Kresge Library within the University of Michigan would only include University of Michigan.

 

Author 1 Name

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States

author1@umich.edu

 

Author 2 Name

University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

author2@ubc.ca

orcid.org/0000-0000-xxxx

 

Author 3 Name

University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos, Nigeria

author3@email.unilag.edu.ng

 

5. References: Regardless of whether the manuscript undergoes editorial or peer review, please cite in accordance with the current APA Publication Manual. In-text citations should include author and date: (Smith, 1983). There should also be an alphabetical References list at the end of the manuscript. References should not be placed in footnotes. If recommending a resource — without necessarily paraphrasing or quoting it — a proper APA-formatted reference is still required both in-text and in the References list.  

5a.  Conference Report References: When reporting on conferences, proper APA-formatted citations are still required (both in-text and a References list). When hyperlinks are available, please follow these guidelines: 

– YES: the main institutional or event (e.g. conference/meeting/symposium) website.

– YES: stable online storage (e.g. repositories, proceedings institutional or event website).

– NO: a presenter’s individual cloud storage.

 

The following two elements might be required for select manuscripts submitted to Ticker:  

1. Abstract: Authors should prepare an abstract of no more than 300 words for manuscripts submitted for peer-review. Articles that undergo double-blind peer-review are only published in these sections:  

– Feature Articles

– Teaching & Learning

2.  Introduction: Authors do not need to prepare an abstract if their manuscript is published in these sections. Instead the editor(s) for that section will write an introduction that contextualizes the manuscript.  

– Teaching & Learning (Case studies undergo editorial review in this section and do not require an introduction)

– Tips

– Business Libraries by Design

– International Outlook

– Conference Reports

– Opinion & Thought Pieces

Images

  • You have obtained permission for any third-party material that is used in the submission, including images.
  • If you create or obtain photographs/images of other parties (e.g. a speaker at a conference) please obtain permission from those parties to have their likeness included in your Ticker submission.
  • Images should be in the appropriate sections of the manuscript.
  • Janeway system, uploading separate file(s) that duplicates the images.

Submitting the Manuscript

Please ensure that submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration. 

Please submit articles to Ticker through the Janeway publication platform. You will need to 'Register' for a Janeway account before submitting (the link to do so is on the upper right corner of all of the journal's webpages). After you have an account there will be a dropdown menu where that 'Register' link reads 'Account' after you've logged in and 'Submit' will be one of the available options. Author workflow guidelines are available via Janeway documentation for the submission process. Please reach out to the Editor-in-Chief if you need further assistance.

AI & AI-Assisted Technology Policy

At Ticker, we recognize the rise of generative AI technologies have made them more accessible to academics, authors, and researchers. Our AI policy offers guidance to our authors, editors, and reviewers about how AI tools can used in the editorial process. We consider this a living policy and will continue to refine it as needed.

For authors

We recognize that AI tools can be valuable for analyzing data and information during the research process and do not wish to curtail data gathering and synthesis. Authors may use AI tools in their writing process to improve readability, examining language, grammar, etc. Any use of these tools during the pre-submission phase should be disclosed at the bottom of the manuscript before the works cited document.

During the writing process, authors should only use these technologies to improve readability- for example grammar, looking for synonyms, adding summary statements, etc. Authors are responsible for reviewing and editing AI-generated content to ensure the information is correct, complete, and unbiased. The authors are responsible for the content of the work. If these tools are utilized during the writing process, authors should disclose this in a statement. AI tools should not be listed as a co-author of a work, nor cited as an author. Works should be original, and not infringe on third party rights. We believe only humans can serve as authors- the creativity and originality necessary to create relevant works cannot be solely completed by AI tools.

Scientific research thrives on validation through reproducibility. Authors must explain their methodologies, documenting the data analysis techniques they used to reach conclusions. AI tools can complicate this if the data itself or analysis process is not clear or accessible to the human author.  An author’s transparency about this process is necessary for an article to be included.Ticker does not permit the use of AI-assisted tools to create or alter graphic images for manuscripts e.g., altering human faces, editing landscapes in photographs, or merging together elements from multiple images. However, the use of AI-assisted tools for graphic images can be used for basic editing e.g., adjusting brightness, contrast, and cropping dimension. 

For reviewers

All manuscripts sent to reviewers should be treated as confidential. These works should not be uploaded into a generative AI tool to aid the reviewer in their process; this may violate the confidentiality of the authors and impact the rights of third parties cited in the paper. Reviewers should also abstain from uploading their report into an AI tool, because it likely contains layers of the confidential information in the original paper. We recognize that AI tools can improve readability, but we will not allow them at the expense of confidentiality.

Ultimately, our editorial team selects peer-reviewers based on their unique skillsets and believes that reviewing a manuscript is a task that must be done by humans to preserve the spirit of peer review.

For editors

All manuscripts sent to editors should be treated as confidential. These works should not be uploaded into a generative AI tool to aid the editor in their process; this may violate the confidentiality of the authors and impact the rights of third parties cited in the paper. Editors should not upload their letters or note documents into an AI tool. We recognize that AI tools can improve readability, but we will not allow them at the expense of confidentiality.

If an editor reviews a document and has reason to suspect an author violated Ticker’s AI policy, they should inform the Editor-in-Chief immediately.