iQ – The RIMPA Quarterly Magazine - is the learned professional journal of the Records and Information Management Professionals Australasia (RIMPA). Its aim is to communicate records management information and innovation to the widest possible audience of industry stakeholders.
Although iQ publishes work by many of the most eminent authors in records management in Australasia and overseas, anyone with a piece of original research or a personal example of best practice to communicate is encouraged to submit a paper. Collaborations between academics and practitioners are particularly welcomed, as our particular interest is in work that is both of a scholarly standard and of practical benefit in the field.
The Editor accepts both unsolicited editorial contributions and commissions work for publication in the journal. All clear and original work on topics of interest to record management professionals will be considered, but the emphasis is on research, case studies, and innovation where the relevance and usefulness to practitioners is clearly highlighted. Papers discussing and disseminating information on industry initiatives are also sought.
No payment is made for articles, papers, photographs or other material published in iQ, be they unsolicited or commissioned. However, all authors retain copyright in their work. (See below for more on Copyright.) Every effort is made to credit the creators of all written, illustrative and photographic material published in the journal.
In the case of members of RIMPA, publication of a paper in iQ will be credited toward their official status upgrades. Works by RIMPA members published in iQ also automatically become eligible for the Article of the Year Award, which is awarded at the annual inForum conference.
Editorial contributions are reviewed by the Editor in the first instance, who may accept them, pass them to appropriate members of the Editorial Board or other expert reviewers for further appraisal, or return them to the author. Returned papers may be accompanied by suggestions for strengthening the paper for resubmission where it is considered reworking is merited.
Papers which are passed to the Editorial Board will be peer reviewed by an Editorial Board member or, where appropriate, by a specialist with specific expertise to offer to a particular paper. The identity of reviewers is not revealed to authors. The review process can be, if the author requests, double-blind – that is, the identity of the author is not revealed during the process.
The reviewers will be looking for work with clear appeal and applicability to records management practitioners. The paper will be examined for cogency, originality of thought and robustness of method, research, argument and conclusions. Where there is an existing body of literature on the subject, clear references to the existing work will be expected, so that interested readers are able to easily investigate topics in greater depth.
An Author’s Guide
Reviewers will either accept a paper without any caveats, return it for recommended amendments or reject it. Acceptance of returned papers which are resubmitted is dependent on changes being made which satisfy the recommendations made for amendments. Authors are entitled to request copies of any comments made on their paper by an external reviewer, whatever the outcome of the review.
When submissions have been accepted, authors must complete, sign and submit to the Editor an iQ Form for Authors, (see below). The author should also submit a brief biography (maximum 100 words) head and shoulders photograph of themselves (minimum 1MEG) together with other appropriate photographs, illustrations, tables, etc, which the author authorises to be published in iQ with the submission, should the Editor choose to use them.
Articles/papers accepted for publication in iQ will be edited by the Editor with a view to spelling, grammar, punctuation, and journalistic presentation, and may be reduced in length, at the Editor’s discretion, to meet the journal’s production requirements. The Editor may also write an appropriate magazine headline for the article/paper, and add sub headlines if and where appropriate. The Editor also reserves the right to split an article/paper over more than one issue of the magazine where available editorial space is limited.
Articles submitted to iQ should be the wholly original work of the named authors. All authors of accepted work must complete and submit an iQ Form for Authors, which must be signed by all authors and/or, where applicable, any employer or agency entitled to hold the copyright of an employee’s output. Please refer to the iQ Copyright Policy Statement for further information.
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check their submission compliance with all of the following items. Submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
When writing a submission, please consider the following:
The copyright of articles/papers published in iQ is assigned by the author/s to RIMPA for a once only publication in iQ. The author/s otherwise retain full copyright in their work. However, RIMPA retains the right to briefly quote from all work previously published in iQ in reviews, promotional copy, etc.
Further, where the work concerned receives its first publication on the pages of iQ, RIMPA requires as a condition of publication that where the work is later published elsewhere the author includes in the text the notation, ‘This work was first published in the (month and year) issue of iQ - The RIMPA Quarterly Magazine of the Records and Information Management Professionals Australasia.’
All proprietary and patent rights associated with the contents of your article are unaffected by the temporary assignment of copyright, and remain with either the author(s) or their employing institution.
Authors must confirm that their work is original. Permission must be obtained from the appropriate author/s or publisher/s for the use of any lengthy excerpts from other copyrighted material in works submitted to iQ. Those excerpts must be fully acknowledged. Copies of relevant written permissions must accompany the form. Failure to obtain such permissions could lead to litigation. Most authors/publishers do not require permission applications where the excerpt is only brief, or the excerpt is used in a legitimate review, as long as the original author and work is credited. If in doubt, intending authors should contact the appropriate copyright holders before using their material in work submitted for publication in iQ.
Authors are required to indemnify RIMPA in respect of claims made against it by third parties for copyright infringement relating to publication of the article, or concerning authorship or rights of publication over the article, in the completed Form for Authors.