This policy draft is adapted from the internal policy infrastructure applicable at One Future Collective and is made publicly accessible in the interest of our mission to build safe, just, and inclusive workplaces for all. If you are an organisation curious to know more about how to build socially just workplaces, we invite you to use and adapt these policies to make them relevant to your context. If you have used any of our policies, we request you to please credit us.
You can know more about us, our journey, how we work, and our commitment to Nurturing Radical Kindness through our internal organisational Manifesto: Sunflowers. We would also love to hear from you – if you have any feedback, questions, or comments, please feel free to use this form.
Some guidance on using this policy:
We understand that each organisation is distinctly placed, works in different contexts, and within diverse realities and organisational policies have to be resilient and responsive to these contexts. In this background, we would like to share the following guidance for your reference:
- All the segments marked in yellow and/or left blank are spaces for you to update with details which are relevant to your organisational contexts.
- The entire policy may not be applicable as it is – please treat this as an invitation to adapt parts of it to better suit your demands.
- The policies are developed in the context of the legal obligations, politics, and resources available to One Future Collective. Whenever you are developing your organisational policies, please ensure that you are conducting your own due diligence in relation to compliance and other obligations that you may have to adhere to.
- Some key identifying information and details about processes unique to our organisation are anonymised from the drafts below for reasons of privacy and confidentiality.
In case you would like to reach out to us to get to know more about a policy or are feeling a bit stuck, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at info@onefuturecollective.org.
Our Publication Policy
| Date of adoption | _____________________ |
| Date of review | _____________________ |
| Policy Holder | _____________________ |
| Queries | _____________________ |
1) Purpose
If you’re engaging in any kind of publication for <Name of Organisation>, please use these guidelines to ensure uniformity. This policy must be read alongside other relevant policies.
2) Applicability
This policy applies to all content creators who publish their work using <Name of Organisation> online or offline platforms like social media, website, and blogs amongst others. These creators can include but are not limited to individual authors (of research studies, blogs, essays, among others), illustrators, graphic designers, as well as audio and video creators who are engaged with <Name of Organisation> in a full-time, part time, or consulting capacity.
3) Definitions
- Content creators: Any individual who authors, illustrates, designs, or records and produces audio or video content for <Name of Organisation> in a part-time, full-time, or consulting capacity.
- Publication: Any digitally or physically published resource, including but not limited to research studies, blogs, essays, photo-essays, illustrations, podcasts, videos.
- Citation: The process of crediting a resource to its original source when referring to it in a different publication.
- Plagiarism: Copying the work of another person without crediting them for it, and passing it off as one’s own.
4) General terms and conditions about publication of resources at <Name of Organisation>
- Ownership: Content creators will always be duly credited for their work. However, all work in whatever form created will be owned by <Name of Organisation>, including all intellectual property rights to such work. This shall, without limitation, include any completed, in-progress, rejected, and discarded works. Content creators will be free to share the work as they like as long as it is cited and linked back to <Name of Organisation>.
- Acknowledgement and Credits: The creators of the different resources (written, audio, video) will be acknowledged and credited for their contribution to the resource. For written resources, authorship will be recognised of those who have made a significant contribution to the execution and writing of the resource. Where others have contributed to the resource in a substantive way such as through ideation, illustration, editing and so on, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.
- All creators are expected to provide due credits to the sources which have influenced and shaped the resources that they have worked on to the best of their ability. However, we understand that some ideas, thoughts and inspiration may come from conversations with colleagues, friends and others. We encourage you to find ways to acknowledge them, some ways in which you can do this are listed below:
- Credit them in your acknowledgements section while specifying their contribution.
- Add them as a reference and use interviews or conversation as the type of resource.
- Google Docs: Please ensure that all details relevant to the resource are put together into google docs. For written resources, the Google Doc should contain the final text which is inserted into your resource’s design including your index, foreword, copyright — everything. This means that you must proofread before you begin designing on another platform.
- Plagiarism: All work carried out for projects including initial ideation, structure, and content, shall be based on original ideas and ethical citation where inspiration, ideas or material is directly sourced. <Name of Organisation> has a zero tolerance policy on plagiarism. It is the responsibility of content creators to comply with this policy and ensure that they do not perform misconduct by the theft of intellectual property.
Plagiarism can include:
- Copying ideas from, directly quoting, paraphrasing, and/or printing the contents of another’s book, article, paper, speech, exam, portfolio, creative work, or any other work and presenting it as one’s own, either in whole or in part.
- Incorporating another’s work, either in whole or in part, without proper citation.
All content creators must cite their source(s). For research, citations must include the last name of the source, the year their work was published, and any other citation element that’s required by the style guide you’re adhering to.
You can conduct a similarity check for plagiarism in your text using paid software like Turnitin here, or free websites such as Grammarly Plagiarism Checker here. Similarities with other papers should not exceed 10%.
Please note that the similarity checks for plagiarism can exclude the following:
- All directly quoted work cited with permission and/or attribution
- All references, bibliography, table of content, preface, and acknowledgements
- All generic terms, laws, standard symbols, and standards equations
Note: we will be running your submissions through a plagiarism check as well. In case of conflict our plagiarism check will hold valid.
- Final draft: All resources must be ready and pre-approved to be published at least two weeks prior to publication.
- Design: Make sure you assign someone from the team, or budget permitting, a designer to design the resource and/or all accompanying collateral (such as logos and stickers) with the resource, well in advance. All designed elements should be finalised at least a week before publication of the resource.
- Accessibility: Ensure that all resources are accessible by all by making content accessible in multiple formats, using colours and fonts which are more accessible than others, and by providing annexures, alternative texts, and other relevant material.
- For text-based resources: Ensure that the font, colour, format, and content design are accessible to all by being uniform, friendly to be read and understood, broken down to make it more accessible.
- For audio-based resources: Ensure that text-based transcripts, content warnings, and ensure that listeners are able to engage with the audio resource in multiple formats.
- For video-based resources: Ensure that sub-titles are attached to all video based resources along with access to a video transcript. Ensure that the transcript also has a description of the different frames within the video as well.
- Social media: Ensure that all social media content is accompanied with alternative content settings on, detailed image and video descriptions, as well as using design that is accessible and clutter-free.
5) Dissemination Guidelines
The leads assigned to a particular resource are responsible for strategising the dissemination strategy to accompany the resource. The dissemination strategy should be creative and relevant to the audience that the resource is directed towards.
In order to design your dissemination strategy, refer to the following guidelines.
- Define success metrics
What will it mean for your resource to be successful? Assign numbers, reviews. and whatever else will help you assess the effectiveness and reach of the resource later.
- Launch
Some resources may be accompanied with a unique launch event. While planning the launch event for the resource, take into account who it is for, what the aim is, how the resource can be accessed, and also whether any specific resources are required for it. Consider also if you would like to involve external partners and collaborators who would contribute to the value of the launch event.
Event options can potentially include the following:
- Instagram or Facebook Live
- Pre-recorded webinar
- Workshop
- Podcast
- Poetry/Quiz nights/Open dialogue
- In-person launch events
- Outreach and Dissemination Channels: Ensure that all the resources are disseminated across different communications platforms and all accompanying communication material (creatives, captions, messages, emails) is prepared in advance.
<An annexure outlining a rough outline of the texts that is recommended to be added at the end of this policy.>