Journal Printing Process

For detailed information about the journal printing process, refer to Chapter 3 of the Student Journal Editors Handbook.

 

Journal Production Checklist

 

A Journal may not submit files to the printer until the following forms have been completed:

  • Offprint orders – one form for each article in the issue
  • Author copyright agreements – one signed agreement for each author
  • Print order

PROOFREADING ARTICLE FILES

Article files should be reviewed before submission to confirm that these required elements are accurate:

  • “© Regents of the University of California” has been properly cited
  • Running heads are accurate and consistent
  • Volume and issue numbers and date are accurate and consistent on the journal cover, spine, table of contents, masthead, and reprint covers
  • Article titles and author names are accurate and consistent on the journal cover, table of contents, articles, and reprint covers
  • The issue’s beginning page number is correct
  • Strongly recommended: Print the PDF and review the content carefully and thoroughly to identify and correct any editorial errors before submission

SUBMITTING ARTICLE FILES

Submission of article files by the editor must take place in tandem with the submission of the print order by the Publications Coordinator.  The printer cannot take action on article files without this order form. 

 

Article files are submitted as PDF attachments to an e-mail message sent directly to the printer’s Order Desk, order.desk@christensen.com, and to your Customer Service Representative, Mary Carlson, carlsonm@christensen.com. 

 

Your message must also include the Order of Materials form, indicating the order of articles and front matter for the issue.  In lieu of this form, you may include any other document that provides the same information. 

 

You should receive an auto-reply from the printer confirming receipt of your files.  If you do not receive this reply within two hours, verify that you used the correct e-mail addresses and, if necessary, resend the files. 

 

CONTRACT PROOFS

Once all of the required information has been successfully transmitted to the printer, the first round of contract proofs should be available in about five business days.  These will be sent via UPS overnight service to the journal editorial office.  The Publications Coordinator will receive an e-mail shipping notification which will be forwarded to the journal.  Included with the proofs will be an Error Memo describing obvious formatting errors and inconsistencies in pagination, headers, footers, and spelling which the printer identified while processing your files. 

 

ERROR MEMO

The error memo is not a comprehensive review of your proofs, so it is imperative that the journal carefully and thoroughly review the proofs to identify and correct any other errors.  Each round of corrections will incur a charge and generate another set of proofs.  The journal should return the error memo to the printer indicating whether or not you accept the suggested edits, and noting any additional corrections that will need to be made to the contract proofs. 

 

SUBSCRIPTION LISTS

The Publications Coordinator will provide the printer with the journal subscription mailing lists and an Address Verification Form on behalf of the journal.  Issues will be mailed to subscribers after advance issues have been sent to the journal.  The remainder of the issues requested by the journal will be shipped via UPS ground service to arrive in about a week.  The printing process concludes with shipment of offprints to the authors about two weeks after the issue has been published.

 

SUBMITTING CORRECTIONS

The journal has two options for submitting corrections to the printer.  Contact Mary Carlson you’re your questions about which option is the most effective in your particular situation:

 

  1. Submit a single page of the file, if the corrections are limited to only one or two pages, at a cost of $5 per page.
  2. Resubmit the entire file, if the corrections affect the entire article, at a cost of $1 per contiguous page ($1 times the entire article page count).

APPROVAL TO PRINT

Once all of the corrections have been made and the journal has accepted the final proof, an approval to print will need to be conveyed to the vendor.  At the bottom of the form entitled, “This Package Contains Your Contract Proof Pages,” indicate your approval to print by marking the box, “No Corrections Needed: Issue is Approved to Print.”  Sign and date the form and either fax or scan/e-mail it to both Mary Carlson and the Order Desk.  Mary will contact the journal in a day or two with the scheduled print date and the ship date of the advance copies of the new issue. 

 

ERRORS FOUND AFTER ISSUE PUBLICATION

Occasionally, errors are discovered after an issue has been printed.  These include footnote problems, incorrectly cited works, and dropped text.  Typically, it is the author who brings these errors to the journal’s attention. 

 

If the error was the fault of the journal – not having edited an article appropriately or not having correctly incorporated an author’s revisions, for example – then the cost to reprint the author’s entire offprint order will be paid by the journal.   The Publications Coordinator should be contacted immediately for assistance with the reprint request.  The journal will need to revise the original Word document and confirm with the author that the revisions are correct.  The edited Word file and article PDF must be forwarded to the Publications Coordinator, along with a description of what the errors were and on what pages they occurred.  If any of the edits affected pagination, this must be indicated to the Publications Coordinator, as well. 

 

The journal will submit the corrected PDF to the printer, copying the Publications Coordinator on the e-mail message.  It typically takes two to three weeks for the reprinted offprints to be produced and shipped to the author.  The Publications Coordinator will ensure that the corrected file is submitted to online vendors, Lexis, HeinOnline, and Westlaw.