After getting the nod from the JASIST editor that it would be worth submitting a paper, I did a quick analysis of what could be cut out of the Full Report and how many words that would save. I soon realised that to reduce it from the Full Report’s 25,000 words to the 8000 words that the JASIST author guidelines suggest are required, would completely emasculate it. So, then I started to look at some recent issues of JASIST to see what length the papers actually are, and I did find some over 19,000 words. That and the fact that the Editor’s short email back to me after scanning the Full Report  said “it might benefit from some editing/trimming/reformatting to make it conform more closely to a JASIST article”, emboldened me to just cut out the extraneous material and chance my arm on the length issue. Consequently I’ve submitted a version today that is just less than 18,000 words. I guess I’ll find out soon enough if that is acceptable or not.

The submittal process is an education in its own right via a system called ScholorOne Manuscripts which asks a variety of questions including whether one has read the Wiley Colour Charges policy which is not provided and which I couldn’t find. If it turns out that it costs to include colour photos and diagrams, mine will instantly become black and white… There was also a requirement to select keywords for the paper from a rather unfriendly and very lengthy taxonomy. The submission process culminated in requiring the download of a complete draft for review purposes; a ‘Main document’ which excludes the Figures and Tables; a file containing just the Figure and Table captions; a file containing all the Tables; and a separate file for each of the Figures. I eventually got through it all – and now I’m just keeping my fingers crossed!