Tips for Academic Writers - 1

• Ask the publishing house what referencing style do they follow - APA, MLA or house style. Style your references and citations accordingly. Ask the publishing house for a copy of their house style guide and any other guidelines for authors/editors that they might have.
  
  
• Please stick to one kind of spellings and usages - British or American - and mention this to your publishers when you submit the manuscript.
  
  
• If you quote someone directly in your text, please give the page number in the citation (even if the quote is just a few words). By page number, I mean the page number of the page of the referenced source from where the quote has been taken. This means that you have to be meticulous in your pre-writing research.
  
  
• Make sure that you are clear about the level that each heading and sub-heading (sections and subsections) in your text belong to. Make sure that the editor can at one glance distinguish between headings 1, 2, 3, etc. Use the styling option in MS Word or manually change the font size and style of the levels. It would even help if you insert tags before your headings indicating what level that heading belongs to, e.g., [heading 1] The Crisis of Healthcare.
  
  
• Every table, figure, graph, illustration, photo, etc. should have a title/caption and a source. If the item is your own creation, please mention that. If all items are your own creations, mention that in the preface. And as far as possible, each of these elements should be cited and there should be some text or call-out that point to each element. (The element should be placed after the call-out.).
  
  
• Photos - photos and scanned illustrations are tricky. For a photo to be print-worthy, it has to be scanned in high resolution, ideally 300 dpi plus. Consult your commissioning editor or production editor on what resolution and what file format they can accept.
  
  
• More about photos - All photos, illustrations, maps, etc., should be covered for copyrights, permissions and other legalities. They should be backed by permission from their creators, publishers, and, in case of maps, from the concerned government. For instance, the maps of India should present clarity on the territorial boundaries of India and be vetted by the Surveyor General of India. Clarify with your production editor/commissioning editor about the kind of permissions you require for each element.