Britain and the Sea:
Instructions for Authors

NB what follows is written as simply as possible, to take account of any authors who might not know what the web is, nor yet the features it can offer. We don't want authors to take fright!

Introduction

First of all, thankyou for agreeing to take part in this project which, as the Mission Statement makes clear, attempts to use the web (and perhaps CDROMs) as the vehicle for a set of serious, extended essays for tertiary students, using the various graphical and multimedia facilities of the web to enliven and illustrate them.

At the National Maritime Museum, we are committed to the use of the web as another vehicle for serious scholarship. It will not replace the printed book, but can and should extend the book's efficacy as a medium for teaching and learning.

Features of Web Publishing

Consequently, before beginning your work, please be aware of the features you can build into your essay. Briefly, these include:
  1. images: the full range of over 4,000 images (all available in digital form) making up the NMM's collection of paintings. You can incorporate quantities of these in your essay, as thumbnails (click on the thumbnail - up comes the large image);
  2. hotlinks between your essay and the essays of other authors;
  3. hotlinks with the NMM website, and especially with the NMM's searchstation, which is the first stage in the web publication of the NMM's collections, directed at a general audience. Here you will no doubt find various items (outside just the large painting collection) which you may wish to incorporate in your own essay;
  4. links to other sites: hotlinks to other important sites on the web are very valuable for two reasons: (a) we should not be parochial about the NMM collections which, broad as they are, are far from comprehensive in many areas; and (b) since part of the mission is to promote the web as a medium for scholarship, we must acknowledge and use sites which maintain high standards and contain useful information;
  5. magifying images: software allowing the user to zoom in on the details of an image; hence your essay can talk about details, because the user will be able to see them!
  6. annotating images: software allowing you to place "hooks" on an image of a work of art, upon clicking on which the user can be taken to (a) another image; (b) another page of text; (c) another website; (d) audio or video files which open automatically;
  7. panoramic views where appropriate; these can be of any angles up to 360 degrees, and can give an effective "being there" feeling to architectural sites, room interiors, ships etc. If you have any suggestions for panoramas, please let us know, and we will see if it is possible for our photographers to conmstruct them. Again, "hooks" can be inserted in panoramas allowing for text, other web pages, video and the like;
  8. animated diagrams where appropriate - for example showing ship movements in battle, or gunnery;
  9. other materials in the NMM: we are concerned to bolster the essays with whatever documentary (in a broad sense) material we have available; and we are especially keen to include actual documents, which will appear both as photographs and as transcripts - thus giving the reader some taste of palaeography;

We hope you will be able to use as many as possible of the above extensions to the standard essay format. Please feel free to suggest your own, or ask us to make suggestions to you. In either case our software technicians will set up the required software for you.

Format, layout and delivery of your Work

  1. style: here are our stylistic and layout criteria: insert criteria here;
  2. you have to hand the schedule of proposed essays for the project: please suggest what seem to you to be natural links between your essay and other essays, and mark them in your text as follows: details how this should be done;
  3. hotlinks: when referring to pages or images on other websites, please cite the link in an approved fashion; your essay will be turned into HTML for web publication, so if you wish to submit your essay as HTML, you can include your hotlinks directly, and test that they work from your own essay pages;
  4. images and text: since HTML web pages have no generic concept of page numbers, our technicians will have to chop up your essay into "web-sized" pieces; since we want images to remain adjacent to the text to which they refer, please refer to the image as follows within the text: place embedding instructions here;
  5. scholarly apparatus: all essays should contain a bibliography divided into books and scholarly papers, with a third section devoted to web links; items in all three sections should be accompanied by informative comments addressed to tertiary level students; the aim of the bibliography is (a) to back up assertions etc made in your essay; and especially (b) to offer guidance on further reading to the student;
  9. your personal details: we should like to acknowledge the work of our authors on the web site itself. Please provide a short biography, including a list of publications, contact details, email address, and any web site(s) with which you are associated;
  10. essay submission: we prefer to receive your work electronically as an email attachment (preferred) or on floppy disk;

Every author will receive a copy of the project CDROM when it appears.