Writing for INCITE Online
Writing for INCITE Online INCITE Online is now a dynamic online publication—designed to be timely, accessible and engaging for a diverse, national audience. Writing for INCITE Online may feel a little different from other professional or academic contexts. Our house style is ‘light’: we aim to inform and engage, with a clear, conversational tone rather than formal or technical language.
We publish content from across the library and information sector, with readers at all stages of their careers. Our goal is to reflect the breadth of the profession—sharing ideas, insights and stories from different sectors, regions and perspectives. As of 2026, all INCITE Online content will be freely available for anyone to view.
Below you’ll find key information to help you prepare and submit an article, along with guidance on style and answers to frequently asked questions.
- Length: In the new online format, there is greater flexibility in article length depending on the content and purpose. As a general guide, most articles should aim for between 500 and 1,000 words.
- Images: Any photos, graphics, diagrams or illustrations accompanying the article must be a minimum of 300 dpi or over 100KB, submitted in jpg format. Each image or illustration should be provided as a separate file. If you have more than one image, we like to receive both portrait and landscape-oriented versions as that gives our designers more scope when laying out the page. ·
- References: We do not use or require footnotes, references or bibliographies in most cases. Simply include the title, author and date of publication within the body of your article in sentence form (more details on that in the style hints below).
- Hyperlinks: Where possible, we prefer short URLs because they are easier to read or copy. If you are referencing a long or complicated URL, please consider using a program such as bitly (www.bitly.com) to reduce it down. We don’t include the ‘http://’ in websites exceptions to this may occur if the site is https and can’t be found using a normal Google search without this prefix.
INCITE Online Essentials
1. Give your file a unique and clear name: name your document with your surname, a descriptive title and the issue of INCITE Online for which you are submitting the file, eg: Anne Smith Collection development for digital resources INCITE Online 2026
2. Identify yourself: Include your name, position and place of employment, and your email address at the end of your article.
3. Include captions: if you have also sent images or illustrations, include the details for these, including captions at the end of your article, along with the specific file name for each individual file. You must include the name of anyone identifiable in a photo, where it was taken and what it is of. If you are able to embed a caption with the image file, we recommend that you do so. And remember you must obtain the permission of anyone appearing in a photo for its use in INCITE Online.
4. Submit your article: When your article is ready for submission, click here to submit it via the online form. Please note: Submitting a pitch or draft article for consideration does not guarantee publication. All proposals are reviewed by the INCITE Online editorial team and assessed for relevance, timeliness, balance of content, and alignment with our editorial priorities. We’ll be in touch to let you know whether your idea has been selected or if we’d like to explore it further.
5. Know your reader: When you are writing for INCITE Online, keep in mind that your readers are your colleagues – you share a knowledge base, so the basic concepts of the profession will rarely need explanation for this audience unless you are writing a ‘how to’ article.
INCITE Online Style – Frequently Asked Questions
Full stops and spacing
Please insert one space only between a full stop and the first letter of the next sentence.
Spelling
INCITE ONLINE uses Australian spelling for words such as realise, globalise, and so on. For more information, see The Style Manual for authors, editors and printers.
Abbreviations
Any abbreviation used must be in full for the first use with the abbreviation shown in brackets, after that you can use the abbreviated form. For example,
- open access (OA)
- Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL)
Be especially careful with the term LIS as it can mean library and information studies, services or sciences. We need to know which one you mean!
Exceptions: There are a few exceptions to this rule: ISBN, IFLA.
Names
Titles of books, journals, magazines and things such as television programs are italicised. Titles of events such as conferences are not italicised. Quotation marks are not required. For example: ·
- The Da Vinci Code
- Crimestoppers
- Disaster Preparedness Planning Workshop
We don’t capitalise words such as internet, world wide web, or any terms other than proper names written in full.
The word 'library' is only capitalised when referring to the full name of the library, for example, The National Library of Australia. In sentence form, the word is almost always lower-case. This is also true for words like program, catalogue, university, and school. For example,
The library has extended open hours. Students at the university can now access the library's programs 24 hours a day. It is easy to log on to the school’s library catalogue.
Numbers
INCITE Online uses the word form for numbers from one to nine and numerals for numbers from 10 onwards, with commas to separate large numbers (this assists readability). We also use an ‘en dash’ with no spaces between numbers when writing a range of numbers. (An en dash is an elongated dash.) For example,
- There were seven participants ·
- It is estimated 11,000 readers will participate nationally ·
- During the period 2010--2012
Where possible, try not to start a sentence with a number. For percentages, INCITE Online uses the % sign rather than the word form.
Dates
Our house style for dates is ‘day month year’ where they are given in full. We don’t use ‘st’ or ‘th’ at the end of dates. For example,
‘On 24 October, our group met to develop a plan for a new approach to ebook education.’
If the year is obvious, such as ‘last October we presented a series of workshops’, this will be acceptable to keep with the conversational tone of the magazine.
Hyphenation
INCITE Online uses a hyphen in compound words and an ‘en dash’ between parts of a sentence. Always use a space either side of an en dash. For example,
- Well-recognised
- This is important – particularly in libraries
We do not use hyphenate ‘part time’ or ‘full time’ and we don’t use hyphens in phrases such as up to date, face to face.
Words such as elist, ebook, emeeting are not hyphenated or capitalised (unless the word is used to begin a sentence).
Referencing a publication in the text
To make reference to a publication, you need only to include the author, title and year of publication in a sentence. For example:
In their 2026 report, Digital Futures, Mark Smith and Jane Jones wrote, ‘There is a whole new world out there and it is ours for the taking’.
The only exception to this is for the LIS Investigations column or where a number of key references are the main topic of the article. In these cases, we use the Chicago Manual of Style referencing system. References to be used this way should be supplied as a single list at the bottom of your article and only with prior approval from the editor.
To reference a URL, simply include the URL in brackets, with the ‘http://’ deleted, for example
(www.alia.org.au).
Direct quotations
Any direct quotation from a publication or person should be placed between single quotation marks, for example: ·
- ‘The last thing we need is censorship,’ said Mr Smith.
- ‘The dictionary defines the word library as a "collection of books or place in which it is kept’.
Lists
In most cases we cannot include long bullet point lists in articles as we just don’t have the space. If this content is essential, it can either be included as a list within the text, separated with commas (eg apples, oranges, and pears) or, in some cases, it may be considered for laying out as a separate ‘box’ or ‘break out’ alongside the article.
If you have content like this and aren’t sure how to format it, email incite@alia.org.au and ask – we will help you resolve the issue before you submit your article.
Use the active and modern voice
Whenever possible, choose the active voice and modern, conversational language. For example:
- ‘We purchased comfortable chairs’ rather than ’comfortable chairs were purchased’
- ’Among the new options…” rather than “Amongst the new options…’
- ’The participants learned what it is like to be…” rather than “The students learnt what it is like to be…’
- ’We used a variety of platforms” rather than “We utilised a variety of platforms‘
Advertising and advertorial content
We are happy to receive media releases as a source of information but we do not publish in that format so please ensure you provide contact details for us to follow up for a story. We are unable to accept case studies or academic abstracts for publication.
While we love to hear about new products, services and ideas, we do not offer advertising in our editorial content. Advertorial can only be accepted as advertising and will be identified as such. INCITE Online accepts display advertising under the terms and conditions as indicated in our booking contracts and on our website. For more information on advertising requirements, contact media@alia.org.au