Individual Station Reports. As with progress reports, individual stations’ contributing projects may generate their own publications upon the completion of their research. Such publications should reflect any plans for preparing Southern Cooperative Series Bulletins and should not interfere with their development. However, information and research results not suitable for the regional publication should be issued separately by the experiment station involved. Such publications should carry the same footnote information relative to the MRF project as indicated previously.
These publications should also be produced electronically for the Web and placed on that institution’s Web server. The Southern Association has links to all Southern experiment station Web servers, so people who access the Southern Association’s Web site will also be able to access individual station reports.
Southern Cooperative Series Bulletins. State agricultural experiment station scientists in the Southern Region are involved in a variety of MRF projects. These cooperative efforts often lead to advancement in science or new approaches to technology that should be published in order to provide research results and new technologies to users. Further, such advances are often best expressed via publications that cut across scientific disciplines. This may require special distribution to best reach the audiences for which publications are intended. The electronic cooperative series bulletin often best serves that need.
These publications are principally the result of research accomplished via MRF projects. This series is not limited to such research, however. Efforts of research-related activities sponsored by the Southern Directors are often publishable. These include efforts by SCC’s to compile and organize separate research findings into unified documentation via conferences and workshops. In the same manner, other less formal cooperative efforts within the region can use the series.
The principal requirements for publishing in the series are that it:

  • Be used to provide research results
  • Involves SAES scientists from within the region (not exclusively)
  • Involves a research team that has an administrative advisor officially appointed by the Southern Directors or their chairman

Bulletins resulting from multistate research are issued in a regional series (continuing the Southern Cooperative Series started in 1943) and the Executive Director assigns series numbers and International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) in chronological order as accepted for publication. These bulletins do not carry individual state series numbers in addition to the regional numbers.
Preparing Southern Bulletins. The manuscript for a bulletin in this series is prepared by the technical committee of the multistate project concerned or by appropriate persons or subcommittees designated by the technical committee with the approval of the administrative advisor. Editing and proofreading is done under the direction of the technical committee or its designated representative. The publication plan for a given multistate project should be worked out as early as possible in the life of the project and tentative assignments made for senior authorship of the publications.
A member of the editorial staff of the institution that will publish the bulletin must be added to the technical committee early in the life of the publication. (This person should become familiar with agInnovation South’s Format Guidelines for Electronic Publications). Further, proposed publications deemed to have extension-relevant subject matter should be reviewed by an extension specialist. The editorial staff member assists in drawing up the publication plan, arranging for photographs and illustrative material, editing the manuscript, converting the publication to a World Wide Web format (html text, gif or jpeg graphics), placing the document on the institution’s World Wide Web server, and informing agInnovation South WWW server administrator that the document is up on the WWW.
Manuscripts will be approved by the technical representative and the director of each cooperating station and by appropriate representatives of any other cooperating agencies. It is the responsibility of the administrative advisor to advise the technical committee on preparing or reviewing the manuscript and to advise the other directors regarding the status and adequacy of any manuscripts submitted for clearance. Administrative advisors will secure written publication approval from appropriate directors and maintain this in their files. (See Publication Approval for SCSB)
Once a proposed bulletin intended for inclusion in the Southern Cooperative Series is ready for electronic publication, the administrative advisor either requests regional approval for electronic publication by action of Southern Directors (when assembled) or via interim action of the Chair of the Southern Association. (See Request for SCSB Number). Once such approval has been obtained, the Executive Director will assign a series number and ISBN and enter the title and publishing state in the regional records. Then the publication can be placed on the responsible station’s World Wide Web site.
Ordinarily, the principal participants in each of the cooperating stations and agencies will be joint authors unless otherwise provided for by the technical committee. The senior author or authors are listed first; the others follow in alphabetical order by states.
The electronic bulletin will, in each case, recognize the participants of all cooperating states and agencies in a prominent location. The leading state or agency, if any, will be listed first, and the others will follow in alphabetical order by states. The bottom of the first page of the electronic document will carry information on all cooperating stations and agencies.
Putting the bulletin on the World Wide Web is handled by the publications office of one of the cooperating stations. The document should reside on a Web server at that agency. It is the responsibility of that agency to correspond with and/or e-mail all libraries and state directors informing them of the new publication and directing them to the Southern Cooperative Series Bulletin section of the agInnovation South home page. In turn, the directors can forward a message to their scientists who would be interested in the publication. Because everything is done electronically, there will be no cost involved.
The only official printed copy is one that the publishing station should forward to the National Agricultural Library (NAL) for archive purposes. This printed copy may be generated from the web with the cover sheet placed on cardstock and the publication bound as desired.
In summary, the order of procedure is:

  1. Technical review of proposed publication by the administrative advisor and the scientists responsible for the research.
  2. Approval by appropriate directors and agency administrators. (See Publication Approval for SCSB)
  3. Final editing to meet publishing standards. (Performed by an Experiment Station Editor).
  4. Clearance for electronic publication by Southern Directors or their Chair. (See Request for SCSB Number)
  5. Assignment of a series number and ISBN by Executive Director.
  6. Placing document on the publishing station’s Web server and informing the agInnovation South Web server administrator where the document can be found.
  7. Notifying the appropriate libraries, state directors and agencies of existence of electronic publication and providing agInnovation South’s URL for electronic access and printing.
  8. Forwarding one hard copy to NAL for archive purposes.