Contributor guidelines
The DAAO is about
- art history
- authoritative content
- information
- research
- access
DAAO is about artists: their lives and work.
For images of artists’ work the DAAO points to partners’ online collections and databases.
Who qualifies as an Australian Artist?
An Australian artist is defined as a person, living or dead, who:
- has a body of artistic work
- considers themselves to be an artist
- is considered by others to be an artist
- is a resident or citizen or is known as an Australian.
Criteria for inclusion
For your entry to be included in the DAAO it needs to fulfil the following criteria.
Biographies need to focus on
- art history not art criticism
- authoritative content not reviews
- information not opinion
- research, rather than promotion
- be written in plain English prose. A pasted C.V. does not meet DAAO Editorial Policy.
Principles
- Accuracy
- Impartiality
- Respect for original research
- Substance
- Substantiation
- Summary of an artist’s life
- Privacy
Multiple biographies
DAAO welcomes multiple, 'parallel' or alternative renderings of an artist's life. Variant biographies are permitted, i.e. biographies about the same artist by different writers with differing perspectives.
Intellectual Property
Biographies need to be the work of the author. Authors warrant at the beginning of submission that the content is their intellectual property (see terms of contributor agreement).
Word limits
Try to limit biographies to approximately 1000 words.
System protocols
A biography may be reviewed more than once, and by different Reviewers if necessary.
Time-outs also apply. Reviewers must submit comments inside seven days of claiming the project. Authors are given a month to submit a new biography, and seven days to revise their biography if necessary. Authors may subsequently update or ‘version’ their own published biographies at any time. Other authors may write ‘variant’ biographies of a published biography.
Style Guide
The DAAO defers to Style manual for authors, editors and printers: Sixth Edition Published by John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd.
General Style Principles
- To be written in the third person
- Written in plain English
- Impartial
- Be conscious of timeliness - avoid writing in the ‘now’ e.g. “Artist X currently lives in…” should read “In 2007 Artist X was living in…”
- Be aware of your audience
- Include all references and sources in the metadata schema. The DAAO has no footnotes.
Avoid
- Avoid jargon
- Avoid additional editorial from outside sources e.g. extracts from reviews (any references to reviews etc. can be mined in schema)
- Unless pertinent and brief, avoid inclusion of additional academic text from outside sources (see note above re: references)
- If outside sources are to be quoted, include all reference details for verification and indexing purposes
- Avoid extraneous prose
- Unless highly relevant/interesting, avoid details on auction prices/sales (catalogue details can be listed as references)
- Avoid long descriptions of artworks, they speak for themselves
- Potentially defamatory judgement (e.g. “boring”, “not very good”) will not be published. Discriminatory, racist or sexist comments will not be published.
- Generally speaking, avoid critical judgements (good or bad)
- Avoid time based observations e.g. ‘turn of the century’
Do not make personal attacks anywhere on the DAAO.
Comment on content, not on the contributor.
All articles must strive for accuracy; the DAAO is not the place to insert personal opinions, experiences, or arguments.
All prior versions of published articles are kept, so there is no way that you can accidentally damage DAAO or irretrievably destroy content.
Living artists
Authors need to take particular care adding biographical material about a living person to any DAAO page. Such material requires a degree of sensitivity, and must adhere strictly to our content policies. (See DAAO's Indemnity Statement)
Contentious material
Editors will remove any contentious material that is unsourced, or that relies upon sources that do not meet DAAO standards. If the information is derogatory or poorly sourced, it will not be published.
Administrators may remove such material at any time.
Using the subject as a source
In some cases the subject may become involved in creating a biography. They may edit it themselves or have a representative of theirs edit it. Information supplied by the subject may be added to the article if:
- It meets key principles: verifiability, neutrality etc.
- It is relevant to the person's notability;
- It is not contentious;
- It is not unduly self-serving;
A blog or personal website written by the subject may be listed in the external links/further reading section, if it satisfies DAAO’s link policy.
Privacy
All subjects are entitled to their privacy. Authors should exercise restraint and include only information relevant to their work. (See DAAO's Privacy Policy)
Privacy of birthdays
DAAO includes exact birth-dates for some famous people, but including this information for most living people should be handled with caution. While many well-known living persons' exact birthdays are widely known and available to the public, the same is not always true for marginally notable people or non-public figures. With identity theft on the rise, it has become increasingly common for people to consider their exact dates of birth to be private information. Err on the side of caution and simply list the year of birth rather than the exact date.Contact us
You can contact DAAO via email: daao@unsw.edu.au
Or by post:
DAAO
PO Box 6456
University of NSW
1466 NSW Australia
Facsimile number: 61 2 9385 8002
Relevant links
Step by step authoring guide
DAAO Reviewer guidelines
DAAO Board guidelines
DAAO Links policy
DAAO Indemnity statement
DAAO Privacy policy