The AgriLife Publications Team has now joined with the AgriLife Bookstore to bring you AgriLife Publishing, your one-stop source for editing, designing, and publishing through Texas A&M AgriLife.

Publication Levels

Factsheet (fewer than 20 pages)
Booklet (21 – 100 pages)
Manuscript (more than 100 pages)
Special Projects (items with above-average design or editing requests)

Publication Quality Standards

Updating Current Publications

All publications will have a required review period of 5 years. When a publication has been posted for 5 years, the original author—or department if the author is no longer available—will be presented with the opportunity to either review the publication for timeliness and correctness and update the publication or remove the publication from the AgriLife Bookstore.

New Publications

To ensure consistency in the quality of AgriLife Publishing’s work, an author must work with our team to receive a publication number and to publish their work through AgriLife. They also must use our editors and graphic designers.

Other quality standards include, but are not limited to:

Unless it is an infographic, the publication must be in complete sentences (other than tables or figures).
All included information must either be from the author’s own research or include citations.
When a publication is submitted, the author must list at least three individuals that have reviewed the publication. These individuals may be contacted to ensure that they have reviewed the publication.
Each publication must have an extension specialist, professor, or research specialist as the senior author or first author. Students or graduate students and other colleagues may also be listed as authors, but they cannot serve as the main contact for the publication process or final project approval.
Photos and graphics provided to our team must be at least standard resolution (300dpi for printed publications or 72dpi for electronic-only publications).
A publication must align with AgriLife values and purposes. It cannot be published only for the purpose of filling an author’s quota of publications for the year.
Each publication must stand on its own as an original work, even if it is part of a series.
AgriLife Publishing reserves the right to add to our list of quality standards at any point in time.

Team Processes

Workflow

An author submits a publication request.
The request and publication document(s) are reviewed.
- If they are approved:
  - Factsheets and Booklets are forwarded to the editor.
  - Manuscripts and Special Projects will be more thoroughly reviewed:
    - Editor and Designer will review the materials;
    - A meeting will be scheduled with the author; and
    - A contract for the project will be drawn up and signed by all parties involved.
- Pricing (if any) will be applied and discussed with the author and/or the program leader.
  - Potential payment may include:
    - Creative services fees
    - Printing fees
    - Storage and shipping fees
  - Not all publications will have associated fees.
Editing and Designing processes (below) will be followed.
Publishing processes will follow one of two tracks:
- Printing Processes will be followed if necessary.
- Otherwise, the publication will be submitted directly to the Bookstore.

Editing

Once your publication has been submitted and approved, it will be assigned to an editor. The editor will serve as your primary contact for project completion.

Our editors edit for content, clarify, and correctness. They also use the tool Grammarly to ensure that your publication is an original work.

Depending on which level of publication you are submitting, you will receive a specific number of rounds of edits:

Factsheet: 2 rounds of text edits
Booklet: Up to 3 rounds of text edits
Manuscript or Special Project: Up to 5 rounds of text edits

Designing

Once the author has given final approval on the text of their publication, it will be transferred to the designer. The designer will provide a PDF proof of your content to be reviewed.

Depending on which level of publication you are submitting, you will receive a specific number of rounds of edits:

Factsheet: 1 round of design edits
Booklet: Up to 2 rounds of design edits
Manuscript or Special Project: Up to 5 rounds of design edits

Printing

At the beginning of the publishing process, it will be determined if a publication will be printed or not.

Only new or revised Manuscripts and Special Projects will be printed by the Publishing Team.

Regular publications will not be printed by our team — they will be published as ePublications and/or PDFs. This way, the author, program, or customer can make the decision to print the publication on their own, saving time and money for all involved.

Publications that are being reprinted without revisions can be printed through a printing service by the author or program. Our designer will provide printing specs to the author or printer if necessary.

Our designers serve as printing specialists. AgriLife Publishing typically uses TEEX as a printing service.

Publishing

Once the publication is complete, including the printing of the publication if deemed appropriate, the publication will receive a publication number and be posted on the AgriLife Bookstore website. This part of the process is the same for all levels of publication.

Customers will be able to purchase and/or download electronic publications as well as purchase and order physical or printed publications.

AgriLife Publishing