Writer's Guide to Publication Development. How to Get Your Publication into an Information Retrieval System.

This handbook is a set of guidelines to assist authors in preparing publications to meet two sets of criteria: requirements of federal and state government sponsors and requirements of information retrieval systems. The guidelines include both a set of written instructions and a physical model, and are sufficiently flexible to apply to research reports, curriculum materials, bibliographies, handbooks, guides, and other types of publications. Divided into four sections, the handbook covers (1) elements of a publication, describing mandatory and optional publication parts (such as front matter, funding information, abstract, table of contents, lists of illustrations and tables, foreword, preface and acknowledgements, appendix, glossary, abbreviations, bibliography, index, and cover) and listing the order in which they should appear; (2) content requirements, discussing substance and organization in general, and giving a checklist for the development of curriculum materials; (3) physical characteristics, dealing with layout and reproducibility standards for ink, type size, paper weight, photographs and illustrations, and printing; and (4) copyright considerations, delineating the purpose and procedure of copyrighting as well as changes in the 1978 copyright law. (ELG)