29 Jan 09 FAQ

Authors and Contributors

There are some very simple rules about contributing to the Texas Music Journal. First and foremost, most of our contributors are not professional writers.  In many cases, they are very talented musicians, historians, or business people.  Their love of Texas music has brought them to our site.  Treat the contributors with respect. If you disagree with a contributor, you are most welcome to express your point of view.  Anyone violates rule #1, respect for contributors, will be booted out of the site, permanently.

When a contributor submits an article or comment, it is received by someone designated as an editor.  The editors will read every submission before allowing the contribution to be published on the site.  If an editor suggests changes to your submission, work with them.  Their job is to protect the quality of the work.

The editors will also watch that the information that is placed on the site is properly cited.  It you use other people’s work, such as quoting another article or book, be sure to properly cite the material that you are using.  Please refer to the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 3rd ed. (2008) at The MLA Style Manual.  It is important to make sure that authors are properly cited for prior work.

It is also important that you add tags to all of your articles.  However, it is also important that you NOT tag everything that remotely relates to the topic that you are writing about.  For guidelines on the proper way to tag an article, please read the following article by Jon, “Top 10 Tagging Best Practices for Anything Web 2.0” Armchair Theorist: All conjecture, minimal substance. May 22, 2008 at Top 10 Tagging Best Practices for Anything Web 20.