Scholarpedia talk:Assistant Editor/Featured Author Column

Here, we could archive the different discussions we had. -- Nemri 20:27, 24 January 2008 (EST)

Workflow

Since many people are involved in the preparation of a biography, we need some guidelines. Here is a suggestion that everyone is invited to comment and modify.

The draft of a biography follows seven stages:

1. Compile information on author from online sources. --  (x-----) 

2. Email author saying that we will be writing a featured author column/profile on him/her, ask him/her if they object, 
and if not to provide missing information (city of birth, e.g.) and a photo we can use.  --  (xx----)   

What's happen if they don't want to the information of birth or others shown in the bio? -Jian

I think we have to respect that. The goal of the column is to honor the featured author, and he/she sould be happy with the concept and the end result. -- Nemri 00:46, 21 January 2008 (EST)

3. First draft by the writing Assistant Editor (w.AE) directly in the author's userpage. --  (xxx---) 

4. Project leader and w.AE agree on a final version; check by project leader. --  (xxxx--) 

5. Check by author. --  (xxxxx-)  

If we can find enough information online, maybe we can only email once in this step. It should be noted that some authors don't have an email address! -Jian

The guidelines are what's most effective in most cases (hopefully). But I think it's part of the w.AE's job to determine how to adapt to a particular situation. In doubt, don't forget that the Editor-in-Chief or an Editor have had contact with the author during the invitation and peer-reviewing stage. -- Nemri 00:46, 21 January 2008 (EST)

6. Check by Editor-in-Chief. --  (xxxxxx) 

7. Addition to main page by the w.AE on the scheduled day, and courtesy email to the featured author.

We could use a system to follow the advancement of the biographies. For instance, Arkady Pikovsky -- (xxxx--) would mean that the bio awaits for the author's approval, while -- (xxxxxx) would mean it's ready for the main page.

Two points seem important to me. First, good communication between the w.AE and project leader. Second, seeking explicit approval from the featured author. Nemri 06:17, 17 January 2008 (EST)

One (small) caveat of this workflow: If internet doesn't provide all the necessary details for a draft (e.g. Moshe Abeles), then contact with the author comes obviously first. Nemri 06:27, 17 January 2008 (EST)

Right; I've modified the workflow to account for this. Thoughts? (Trottier 13:31, 17 January 2008 (EST))

Nice. It covers everything now. The only worry is that we now contact the authors twice, at different times. Since some of them respond with a significant delay, this will make the whole process slower. We could try it, and if it proves to be too slow, we could process differently the authors with enough information available on the net to write a draft and the (not so frequent) others. Nemri 17:26, 17 January 2008 (EST)

Good point, but we can begin writing without the missing details and photo, and emailing them earlier on makes it more likely that they'll respond in time with the information/photo we're looking for. Trottier 09:42, 20 January 2008 (EST)

Yes, I reached the same conclusion. To make life easier, it's better to email ASAP all the authors on one's list, and obtain the picture and missing info early. Then the writing is up to the w.AE and can be managed in function of the general progress. -- Nemri 00:46, 21 January 2008 (EST)

Acknowledgment

Look at the way the acknowledgement is implemented in [1]. Is that OK? (Izhikevich)

It looks fine to me. (Nemri)

What do you guys think of changing the text to "Profile prepared by XX"? Any dissent? (Trottier 16:33, 16 January 2008 (EST))

I prefer the word column to profile: "Column prepared by .." -- Nemri 07:35, 17 January 2008 (EST)

While to us it's called a "Featured Author Column", on the main page there's nothing that says it is ... so I'm thinking "profile" is more obvious and specific. Perhaps we could say "Author profile by XX" ? (Trottier 13:22, 17 January 2008 (EST))

Works for me. Profile alone didn't sound good, but "author profile by" does. Nemri 17:26, 17 January 2008 (EST)

"Author profile prepared by ... " sounds good in my opinion. (Ramaswamy)

I suppose now it's a trade-off between succinct-ness and how how it reads. Ideally, we'd have it the same way most newspapers do, with a simple "by XX", but this isn't likely to work here (in part for typesetting reasons). I'd still like to see the by-line be as short as possible, but we can put it to a vote. Trottier 09:36, 20 January 2008 (EST)

a) Profile by

b) Profile prepared by

c) Author profile by

d) Author profile prepared by

e) Column prepared by

f) (add your own)

Say, instant-runoff rank order voting, descending order of preference (first-choice first)?

• a,c,b Trottier 09:36, 20 January 2008 (EST)
• c,f  ;) -- Nemri 00:46, 21 January 2008 (EST)
• a,c Sengupta
• ..