Developing Your Ready to Ship Checklist
After considering all the details, focus back on what the basic outcomes are for the project. What do you need to “ship” it (as they say in the software industry when releasing new products)? Make a “ready to ship” checklist for your publication to keep everyone’s eyes on the prize. Include milestones for reaching items on the checklist in your timeline.
Here is a sample ready to ship list. Yours will be different based on what your author group values, what the topic of your publication is, what your audiences are, etc.
- A text that has undergone editing, design/layout, and proofreading
- Authors’ note describing the context and community of practice
- Sustainability plans for updating the work, and where users can provide feedback
- Community author and editors acknowledgements
- Data management plan
- License
- Use/Re-use tracking plans (internal)
- Cover page
- All links work
The additional components section provides more ideas for information you may want to gather before shipping. For more detailed information on how to deliver a clean text, see the copyediting and proofreading sections, along with their checklists in Appendix 8.
