Write for ZopeMag!

Updated: November 2nd, 2004

ZopeMag welcomes contributions from Zope community members on all topics that might be of interest to users and developers of Zope. This can be an article on how to use a particular technology with Zope (for example, how to publish binary information stored in an SQL database from Zope) or of general interest (for example, Zope acquisition or the Zope security model) or how you have used or deployed Zope for a customer project, in an educational institution or a governmental agency.

Since we publish several free articles or product reviews per quarter, take a look at some of our previous articles to get a feel for what our articles are like. You might also want to take an "Article tour" to get an idea of the effort we put into all our articles.

We also publish an up-to-date list of topics we are particularly interested in.

We welcome article submissions:

• When you have an idea for an article on Zope that you would be interested in writing yourself, send us a short description in English – a paragraph or two will do. Identify the topic (or topics) you would like to write about and why it is (they are) important. Send your idea(s) to the Editor at . Your suggestion(s) will then be considered by the ZopeMag staff. A member of the ZopeMag staff will then get back to you with respect to your proposal(s).
• If you have already written an article, in English, which has not been published in some other resource, you can send it to us and our staff will review the article and give consideration to its inclusion in ZopeMag. We'll inform you within 1 month of our decision.
• If you would like to suggest a topic that is of interest to you or which you think would be of interest to the Zope community, please send your idea(s) to . If our staff agrees that the topic would be of interest, we will try to find an author willing to write an article about it.

As we pay for all articles, any published article would become the copyrighted property of ZopeMag. Henceforth, it can be quoted for reviews or reference but cannot be published or copied in any form without the written consent of ZopeMag. Naturally, if you later decide to write a book in print and wish to base it on some or all of the work you have done for ZopeMag we will happily support you--all we would ask is that you mention where the original article was published.

In general, an article in an issue of ZopeMag is about 10 pages long, including code examples. This does not mean, however, that we will reject longer articles: articles longer than 10 pages may be divided into two or more parts and printed in successive issues of ZopeMag.

Note: code to be downloaded is not included in this length restriction.

We can not accept or publish images, screenshots or diagrams that are wider than 500 pixels.

Our rate for all articles we publish is 25 Euro per page (30 lines of 60 characters per line, i.e., 25 Euro per 1800 characters) excluding any program code. Payment is made on appearance of the article and will be based on the length of the final, not the submitted, text. In an article with two or more parts the time of payment will be divided up accordingly, i.e., payment will be made on appearance of the parts of the article. Authors should submit a PayPal account number in order to enable transfer of payment. Payments are processed 2 to 4 weeks after publication.

Authors who write either one article or two product reviews, that are published by ZopeMag, receive a one year subscription to ZopeMag free of charge. (See also our FAQ)

Once a topic for an article has been approved by the ZopeMag staff, the future author will be contacted and a deadline will be given for submission of the article. If this time is too short, we request that the author contact us immediately so we can agree on another deadline. ZopeMag planning for future issues depends on timely submission of articles. Prompt payment for an article will depend on its being submitted on time.

Note: ZopeMag reserves the right to decide when an article that has been accepted and gone through the editing process will appear on the Web.

English is the language of submission. No other language is acceptable as ZopeMag has no facilities for translating articles. We request that non-native English speakers have their articles looked at and given a critical evaluation -- and corrected as needed -- by a native speaker; or, if this is not possible, then by someone fluent in English (not by someone who is simply "good" in English).
Note: Articles are not to be translated using electronic translation programs, unless they are subsequently edited in detail by a native speaker or a fluent speaker of English.
One of the functions of the ZopeMag editor is linguistic editing; but the original text must be in “decent” English, so that anyone fluent in the language can get a clear idea of the author's meaning. ZopeMag reserves the right to return to an author for linguistic editing any article which has been accepted based on the author’s synopsis when the Editor finds that editing would require extensive rewriting.

All articles are to be submitted in reStructured Text (preferred), Microsoft Word or Open Office document(s).

Please make sure that any Images you send us do not exceed a width of 500 pixels.

As indicated above, the Editor will perform basic linguistic (and stylistic) editing. His editing function also includes making changes where they enhance the readability and coherence of an article. This will not be done in an arbitrary manner but with an eye to making the author's meaning as clear as possible. As the Editor is not a Zope developer he will first draw on the resources of ZopeMag and then will contact the author for clarification of any questions he might have and discussion of his recommended changes. This contact will be in one or more of the following four ways:

1. Direct discussion, for authors living in the Berlin area
2. Telephone contact, insofar as this is economically feasible
3. AIM or .mac ID
4. Email

Once the Editor has analyzed and made changes in a text (except where the changes are trivial, for example spelling or basic mistakes in grammar) and when any significant changes and the Editor’s questions have been discussed with the author, he will send an edited version back to the author for his/her final approval and any final comments.

Once the author-approved text is returned to the Editor, a final Word version will be prepared and then sent to the ZopeMag art director for HTML/DTML layout. ZopeMag will advise the author when his/her article is scheduled to appear.

ZopeMag (currently) is published quarterly. The texts, e.g., Articles, Product Reviews, Interviews, Letters to the Editor, etc. are not all published at one time, but over the course of the quarter. Authors will be informed of the Issue their article is to be published in.

Note: ZopeMag reserves the right to reschedule accepted articles, for example when a topic focus has been selected for a given issue. Each issue, whenever possible, will contain several articles on the same subject. The Editor intends to keep such rescheduling to a minimum, but requests our contributors' forbearance in this respect.