This document states the guidelines for a Privacy Observatory Article. The authors submitting an Article as contribution for the Privacy Observatory Web Magazine should follow these guidelines.

1. An Article is composed by five parts: the Title, a collection of Keywords (from 3 to 8), the Abstract (ca 150 words), the Full Length Text (ca 1500 words) and the Bibliography.

2. The Abstract is a very short version of the Article. A well-written Abstract:

a) contains the fundamental information about the problem addressed in the Article avoiding unnecessary details and explanations;

b) states clearly what are the conclusions and/or the findings of the Article.

3. The Full Length Text is the main body of the Article:

a) We encourage the authors to organize it in 8-15 Paragraphs;

b) Each Paragraph should contain and explain one concept;

c) We encourage authors to give to each Paragraph (or to each group of Paragraphs) a Paragraph Title of 4-8 words that clearly expresses the concept explained in the Paragraph

4. Authors should keep in mind that this is a Web Magazine: they should use as much as possible text structure (bold, bullet lists, links…) and multimedia content (Images, Audio, Video):

a) Images should be jpg, gif, png, or bmp and of size no more than 500px x 300px, larger images will be automatically resized;

b) Audio and Video should be encoded respectively in mp3 and mpeg format and be no more than 2-3MB;

c) Alternatively, it is possible to load the multimedia content on a hosting service (for instance Youtube) and to provide the direct link.

5. The Article must be sent to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it :

a) Title, Keywords, Abstract, Full Length Text and Bibliography can be both in a Word file or on a plain text format (and can be placed in the same file);

b) Each Image, Audio and Video file inserted in the Article must be attached to the message. If the text does not include directly the file please state clearly where the content should be placed;

c) The total size of the Article submitted to the e-mail address must be no more than 10MB.

6. Authors should keep in mind that the audience of the Web Magazine is highly heterogeneous: it is composed by readers from very different fields and scientific communities (computer science, law and so on). It is necessary to use a shared language and to avoid technical language typical of a specific field of study.

7. Use short sentences for any part of the Article. In general a sentence for a Web Magazine should be on average 50% shorter than a sentence for a printed article.

8. We highly recommend to put many References in the Article:

a) In the text of the Article the Reference should have this format: (Surname First Author, Year). If necessary, add "et al." after the first surname. If you cite more than one article published by the same authors in the same year put a "/id" after the year. An example of reference: (Giannotti et al., 2009/II) for the second cited paper co-published by Giannotti in 2009 referenced by the Article;

b) In the Bibliography the Reference should have this format: Comma separated list of authors, "Title". Publication information, Year. Example: Giannotti, F, Pedreschi D, Theodoridis Y.,  "Geographic privacy-aware knowledge discovery and delivery". EDBT pp 1157-1158, 2009.

9. The Article must be written in English.

10. For the first Article sent to the Web Magazine, the authors should attach also a brief Biography and a Photo about them. It is not necessary to send it again for each Article, unless the authors want to update it in the Web Magazine archive.

The guidelines are not absolute rules, slight exceptions are permitted, but infractions are strongly discouraged. A contribution with too many infractions may be edited directly by the editorial board or sent back to the authors to be corrected.