Formal Rules: Journal Of Voynich Studies
1. The primary means of communication of the Journal of Voynich Studies, hereafter J.VS, is the J.VS e-mail forum. Posting to the forum is open only to members of the J.VS.
2. The governing body of the J.VS is a committee of moderators, hereafter CM. The CM decides on applications for membership and other matters and moderates the J.VS e-mail forum. The CM will elect new committee members from the general membership as necessary to ensure the continued smooth functioning of the J.VS.
3. Proposals before the CM are passed by a simple majority vote. The number of votes 'in favour' must be greater than half the total number of members of the CM, regardless of the number of abstentions.
4. Final say on technical issues will rest with the J.VS technical administrator (TCM). Final say on copyright or legal issues will rest with the J.VS Copyright owner. On all other issues the CM will have the final say.
5. New members are accepted by approval of the CM after direct application, recommendation of another J.VS member, or by invitation of the CM. Direct application or recommendation should be accompanied by a short summary of the applicant's qualifications, interests and any other details which may recommend them to the committee.
6. The CM generally waits 3 days before announcing its finding on a member application. If the CM rejects an applicant for membership, there is a 60-day waiting period before the CM considers a new application from the same person.
7. The preferred language of the J.VS is English. Posts in other languages may be accepted, provided that (a) they include a summary in English and (b) they are in a language understood by the CM, to allow verification that the post complies with J.VS guidelines.
8. All posts are duplicated on a publicly-available website for archival and searching purposes.
Nonetheless, the copyright to a post, including for any eventual commercial usage of it, remains with the author of that post and permission to reproduce it in any medium other than the J.VS should be sought from them.
9. The committee reserves the right to remove inappropriate or offensive posts from the forum and exclude their authors from the J.VS, if necessary.
10. The CM may define further rules and guidelines in response to situations on the J.VS, as they see fit. These will be published on the J.VS forum and website and will apply from that moment.
Posting guidelines
1. All posts to the forum should be manually generated; do not use the "Reply" or "Forward" functions of your e-mail program as these can easily corrupt quotes and subject lines (see the guidelines for quoting and replying given below). The subject line of every post must begin with " J.VS", for example:
J.VS: The apparent symbol on Voynich's cane
2. More formal 'research' posts should be marked with "[R]" (the letter R in square brackets) at the beginning of the subject line. Such posts will be subject to peer review before publication. These posts and the threads derived from them should therefore be thought of as 'journal quality' and should more than most try to conform to the guidelines below.
Informal and off-topic posts should not be made in these threads, and the moderators reserve the right to remove any such posts from them. If an off-topic or informal reply is desired the subject line should be changed, with the original subject moved, e.g. "(Was: xxx... )".
3. When referring to works external to the current thread (books, articles, websites, or posts in a different thread), provide enough bibliographic information for readers to find them.
4. If the relevant extract from the external work is short enough to be quoted in full, then do so, in addition to providing the bibliographic information. (Copyright law generally allows quotation of extracts under 'fair use' provisions.)
5. When describing a method or procedure, such as enhancement of digital images of the MS, provide sufficient information for readers to replicate it. This includes specifying the source image, software and functions used.
6. The preferred form for quoting is to enclose the text in quotation marks ("), separated from the text by a single space, and with an empty line above and below the quotation. For example, to quote '1234567 890' write it as follows:
" 1234567 890 "
Avoid quotations which include an earlier quotation, if possible.
7. Post using ASCII plain text; do not use other formats, especially HTML, in your e-mail posts.
8. When replying to a post, ensure that you have just a single "Re:" in the subject line, after "J.VS". Examples:
J.VS: Re: The apparent symbol on Voynich's cane
J.VS: Re: [R] The apparent symbol on Voynich's cane
J.VS: Re: Victorian Cane styles (Was: [R] The apparent symbol on Voynich's cane)
The moderating committee reserves the right to request additional information or revision from the author of a post where the above guidelines have not been followed or the original post is unclear, and to defer publication until it is provided.
Further hints
1. Try to present points and arguments clearly and concisely; keep additional or off-topic comments, anecdotes, remarks etc. to a reasonable minimum, particularly in the formal research threads. For very long posts consider a short abstract at the beginning.
2. It may be useful to bear in mind the old introduction-method-results-conclusions order in which academic papers are usually written. While it will not be appropriate for all posts, it is often helpful in deciding how to present new ideas clearly.
3. When replying, first read the question! In other words, reply to what the previous author actually wrote, not to what you think they wrote.
4. Only quote those parts of the previous post to which you are replying, not the whole thing; enough to provide context. Quote first, then reply. Don't include the whole of the previous post at the end of your own: nobody will read it at that point anyway.
5. Take care not to place someone's personal e-mail address into a post without their authorization.
As of: 25 FEB 2007
last mod. V1.4 29 MAR 2009