Wikibooks:Editorial board guidelines

A Wikibooks Editorial Board is a group of three qualified editors who can be asked by the authors of books to review their book and check it for accuracy, compliance with copyright and other attributes required in a textbook that will have high credibility. The editorial board can approve stable editions of books and these will be preserved in the Wikibooks database as PDF files. This procedure should normally apply only to mature, completed books.

The stable editions of books that have editorial approval will have the same credibility as any textbook published by a reputable publisher.

The editorial board

The board will consist of three members with the following characteristics:

1. Lead expert: at least one expert in a field that is closely related to that covered by the book. Expertise can be assessed by either a declaration by the editor of their name and qualifications or (for those who prefer anonymity) a body of work in Wikibooks that demonstrates their competence in the field.
2. Second expert: in addition, a further expert from the appropriate area of academic endeavour. (A scientist for scientific books, an expert in the humanities for a humanities book etc.) Again expertise may be judged by declared qualifications or contributions.
3. Administrative editor: in addition a person with experience of editorial boards.

The editorial board may not contain a prominent author of the book under review (contribution > 5%).

The editorial board must be acceptable to each other and to all the authors of the book who are active.

All Wikibookians should be asked whether they would like to volunteer as editors and enter their names on Wikibooks:Volunteer editors along with their areas of expertise ie: Johnsmith Science esp: chemistry, biochemistry.

The Editorial process

The editorial board can, at any time refuse to continue editing if they feel that the book needs too many amendments or there are insurmountable difficulties. A refusal to continue editing will lead to a six month delay before the next opportunity to submit the book for editorial board approval.

First pass

The authors should obtain three editorial board volunteers and establish their respective roles.

The authors should create a PDF file of the book.

They should then create a subpage in their book called "Editorial review edition 1.0" based on the Editorial review template. A link to this page should be placed at the bottom of their book.

Any challenges to the composition of the board must be made within 2 weeks of the creation of the template and before editors have devoted more than 1 hour of work to the review.

The PDF file should be submitted to the administrative editor who will assess whether it is suitable for editorial review. The book may be passed back for preliminary modifications at this stage.

Second pass

Books that have passed the preliminary checks for format etc. will then be read by the whole editorial board.

Having read through the book the expert editors may pass the book back to the authors for further format, depth of content etc. revisions.

Once satisfied with the general content and structure the expert editors will divide the book into equal portions and engage in an in-depth review.

The parts of the book may be passed back for revision.

Third pass

The authors will be advised that the book is acceptable and informed of final presentational details.

The final PDF will have a clear date, approval logo and edition number. It will be filed under a unique name and made available as a stable approved edition.

Frequency of approved editions

Approved editions should normally be no more frequent than 6 monthly. Requests for frequent editions may take away valuable resources from other books. There is no reason why development of the book should not proceed in the normal way between approved editions.