RSD Guidelines

Authorship and publication standards

The Systemic Design Association is committed to ensuring the RSD proceedings uphold high standards of originality, attribution, and academic integrity. All submissions must represent the authors’ own work and appropriately acknowledge the contributions of others.

By submitting a paper, authors confirm that:

• The manuscript is original and free from plagiarism, including unattributed text, ideas, data, or images.
• All sources and influences are properly cited.
• The manuscript has not been published previously and is not under consideration elsewhere.

The RSD editorial teams and peer reviewers take reasonable steps to support these standards, including originality checks and providing careful reviews. However, primary responsibility rests with authors to ensure the integrity of their work.

If breaches of these standards are identified, submissions may be declined or, if already published, formally retracted from the proceedings.

Referencing & copyright

Publisher

Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design (ISSN 2371-8404) are published annually by the Systemic Design Association, a non-profit scholarly association leading the research and practice of design for complex systems: 3803 Tønsberg, Norway (922 275 696).

Attribution

Open Access article published under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License. This permits anyone to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or form according to the licence terms.

Suggested citation format (APA)

Author(s). (20##). Article title. Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design, RSD##. Article ##. rsdsymposium.org/LINK

The use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies

This guidance is intended for authors, readers, reviewers, and editors who use generative AI and AI-assisted technologies, specifically in the context of the writing process. It aims to promote transparency, build trust among authors, reviewers, editors, and readers, and ensure compliance with the terms of use of the relevant tool or technology.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that the work is original, that the stated authors qualify for authorship, and that the work does not infringe on third-party rights. The use of AI for data analysis is not within the scope of this guidance.

We acknowledge that AI and AI-assisted technologies can improve readability, clarity, and consistency and should be used in the preparation of a manuscript. Generative AI or AI-assisted tools in producing graphical abstracts are also acknowledged as commonplace and permitted. However, submissions should not use AI to replace authoring tasks such as creating written abstracts, producing insights, drawing conclusions, or providing recommendations. When AI or AI-assisted tools are part of the research method, such use must be clearly described in the methods section. Content attribution should include the name of the model or tool, version and extension numbers, and application used. Be sure to adhere to the application developer’s specific usage policies and ensure correct content attribution.

AI-generated output can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased, and authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the work’s contents and for providing the necessary human oversight. If it is the case that AI and AI-assisted technologies are used in the work, authors must provide a statement at the end of the published work describing how AI was used or applied. The use of spell and grammar-checking software does not need to be declared.

The Systemic Design Association will monitor AI and AI-assisted technologies and adjust or refine the guidelines as needed to stay current with developments and norms of use.

Open access and AI use

The RSD proceedings are published open access to maximise the reach and impact of systemic design scholarship. Each paper is first shared as an advance online publication, which authors are welcome to download and post on academic profiles or repositories. The final version is published in the proceedings as a PDF, with the abstract also provided in HTML to enhance visibility and searchability. Full citation information and metadata are included with every article.

Open access ensures that contributions are widely available to researchers, practitioners, and the public. It also means that papers may be accessed by automated systems, including artificial intelligence tools that learn from publicly available knowledge. While these systems do not currently provide attribution or citations, open dissemination helps ensure that systemic design contributes to the evolving knowledge base informing research, practice, and technological development.

As publisher, our role is to make authorship and licensing clear, apply metadata and signals to discourage misuse, and uphold the proceedings as the authoritative record of contributions. For citation purposes, the proceedings remain the definitive and citable version of record, and authors are encouraged to direct colleagues and students to this source.

Style guide for documents

When contributors follow the basic formatting protocols provided here—from the proposal stage (i.e., the call for submissions) to updates to the final version included in the proceedings—the process works like a collaborative publishing venture between authors and publishers. The digital and print quality of presented work is improved, and the process reduces duplication and intensive editing for formatting and consistency across the RSD repository.

Please read through the style guide; the guidelines will likely appear familiar, as they closely align with accepted standards for academic work and adhere closely to APA (7th edition) conventions. RSD has a few anomalies, such as numbered references (to support discoverability by Google Scholar), which are highlighted in RSD templates.

General guidelines for documents

Authors should follow the minimum requirements carefully. The academic/programme committee checks submissions to ensure they meet the minimum submission requirements before distributing them for review. Be sure your document meets the following guidelines, as there may not be time to turn around incomplete submissions or documents that do not meet the standard format.

Document structure

1. An abstract of at least 300 words

2. The submission must include:

a) A full paper is a manuscript of approximately 5,500 words that follows an academic paper structure
OR
b) Presentations and reports also require papers but can be more descriptive and are approximately 2,500 words
OR
c) Workshops, interactives, and other activities include a written brief of approximately 1,500 words
OR
d) Maps and exhibits require a description of approximately 1000 words and an image
NOTE
e) Panel proposals and speakers require only an abstract, which must be at least 300 words and can be longer. Essays and reflective pieces are encouraged before or after the presentation.

3. References following APA (7th edition) conventions

4. Author(s) profile(s) and contact information (optional)

Abstract: The abstract on the EasyChair submission form must be the same as the abstract in the paper or proposal (cut and paste from the final version).

Template: You must submit work in the RSD15 template to be reviewed.

References: All cited content must be correctly referenced (the references are not included in the word count). References help the reviewers judge the context and trustworthiness of the work.

SEO and indexing: An abstract of at least 200 words is required to improve search results across the website and by search engines. We also embed the submitted PDF on the same page (search engines index PDFs). Note that a correctly formatted PDF increases the likelihood of your work being indexed on Google Scholar. (Reference: Google Inclusion Guidelines for Webmasters)

Additional sections: Your reflexivity statement, land acknowledgement, or other information that will contextualise your work are welcome additions.

Note: References, authors, appendices, and acknowledgements, statements, author profiles, and resources are not included in the word count.

With a little attention to detail, documents can look professional and align with RSD content requirements.

Getting started

• Download the appropriate RSD template (these differ from year to year).
• Save your completed paper as a PDF and submit it via EasyChair (upload the paper).
• RSD uses the University of Oxford Style Guide for styles such as dates, times, and titles. The one-page style guide covers the basics.

Using the RSD template

• The template is a Word (.docx) document, but it should translate to other systems.
• If a different format is required, please get in touch with cheryl@systemic-design.org
• Note that the headings have been set in the template and should be followed.
• Do not format without using the styles.

Title

• Use Heading 1.
• Use Title Case (Capitalise each word, except articles (a, the) and conjunctions (and) in the title.)

Subtitle

• Use the Subtitle style.
• The subtitle is optional; do not add a period at the end.

Author names & affiliations

Use the following format:

first-name last-name, first-name last-name, and first-name last-name

IMPORTANT: For author(s), use the H3 style only and list names with commas; separate author names using a comma, and for the last author “, and” (Oxford comma).

Affiliation: Please add affiliations at the bottom of your paper. The template provides an example. As of 2023, affiliations will not be placed below the author’s name(s).

Abstract

• Indent the abstract and use “N” from the Quick Style List.
• Your abstract must be between 200 and 400 words. Since RSD is an online repository, the minimum ensures search engines will scan it.

Keywords

• List 4-6 keywords after the abstract.
• Do not use a heading style.
• Format keywords with a colon and commas (see example below).

Keywords: systemic design, holistic diagnosis, agricultural sector, ecosystem services, micro-enterprises

RSD Topic(s)

• List up to three RSD topic areas.
• Less is best—pick only the topic areas that fully align with your paper.
• The RSD topic areas are Architecture & Planning, Cases & Practice, Economics & Organizations, Health & Well-Being, Learning & Education, Mapping & Modelling, Methods & Methodology, Policy & Governance, Society & Culture, Socioecological Design, and Sociotechnical Systems (see example below).
• Check the site menu for examples of papers in each category.

Example

RSD: Health & Well-Being

Headings

• Use Heading 2 only and sentence case.
• For other headings, use the “normal font” and bold.

A cleanly formatted document makes it easier for reviewers to compare like-to-like—and not be distracted by inconsistencies in formatting, spelling, and style. Also, accepted submissions are posted online and available as an advance online publication before and during the symposium.

• Please prepare your submission using Microsoft Word if possible.
• You must have the ribbon enabled to see the Quick Style List (view>ribbon).
• Add your name and information to the Word file’s Properties> Summary.

Here are some tips for bringing your content into this document.

• When you are cutting & pasting, put your cursor where you want the content to appear and use Edit > Paste and match style.
• If your text is not displaying correctly, you might need to use Edit> Paste special> Unformatted text.
• Do not use a simple paste, as this will bring formatting from your draft document into this one.
• Use bullets and numbers from the home ribbon—make sure your punctuation is consistent for each bulleted or numbered section (i.e., sentence case or not, commas or not, etc.).

Referencing styles and conventions

• Use the APA (7th edition) conventions.
• Note: A variance to APA referencing is that we do not indent paragraphs for references, and the references are numbered. This is a customisation to conform with Google Scholar’s Inclusion Guidelines for Webmasters.

Spelling and grammar

• RSD uses British English for grammar and punctuation. After reviewing over 400 proceedings from RSD1 to RSD8, British English was selected as the RSD standard because the majority of articles used this standard.
• Please ensure that your document settings are “English” (United Kingdom).
• The Word template should also default to this setting. Please check to be sure it is set in your spellcheck for your RSD document.

Consider also using Grammarly or the Hemmingway Editor to check your work.

• RSD uses Grammarly to line-edit content; settings expert>formal>academic>[intent as appropriate].

Headings

• Sentence case—no period at the end of the heading.
• Click on “Heading 1” or “Heading 2” from the Quick Style List to format headings.
• If you need a lower heading style, use the “normal” style with bold or italics. All caps may also be used for headings in the “normal” style. Do not use H3; this is reserved for authors’ names.

Body

• Use the “normal” style above. Do not format text using the font and font size options. Apply “normal” by highlighting the text and clicking “normal.”
• Do not add spaces between paragraphs. One space following a period, please.
• If the font does not look right: highlight the content and click on “Normal” (or the style you want to use) in the Styles Pane.

Images

• Place images inline where you would like them to appear. You may also provide them as separate files if you would like to include them in the web post that accompanies your paper.
• Use .png (best for graphics) or .jpeg (best for photographs).
• All images must be relevant to the text and include captions. Use the “normal” style and drop the size to 10 points. Do not italicise or centre.

Example:

Figure 2. A contribution to the methodological repertoire of systemic design. Source: Author.

Other notes on style

Refer to APA (7th edition) conventions for guidelines on italics and quotation marks.

In-text citations follow APA conventions.

An easy-to-follow reference for style can be found on Grammarbook.com.

Use lowercase for terms. Common RSD examples:

• gigamap
• systemic design
• systems oriented design

For convenience, here are examples of reference formats based on APA 7. Please use numbering for the reference section and do not indent or change the line spacing. This format helps web crawlers to identify the content as scholarly work and supports indexing on Google Scholar.

Authored book

1. Krippendorff, K. (2006). The semantic turn: A new foundation for design. Taylor and Francis.
2. Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (1969). The psychology of the child (H. Weaver, Trans.; 2nd ed.). Basic Books. (Original work published 1966)

Edited book

1. Fischer, T., & Herr, C. M. (Eds.). (2019). Design cybernetics: Navigating the new. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18557-2

Chapter within books

1. Jones, P. H. (2014). Systemic design principles for complex social systems. In G. Metcalf (Ed.), Social systems and design (pp. 91-128). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54478-4_4

Journal articles

1. Bunnell, P. (2017). Reflections on learning as designing. Kybernetes, 46(9), 1486-1498. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-11-2016-0308

Conferences: When citing a conference paper published in published conference proceedings, cite it as a book chapter if the publication has an ISBN or a journal article if it has an ISSN.

Conference presentations or sessions

1. Krippendorff, K. (2021, July 7-13). A critical cybernetics [Paper presentation]. The Art and Science of the Impossible: The 65th Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, online.

Published proceedings ISSN

1. Krippendorff, K. (2021). From uncritical design to critical examination of its systemic consequences. Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD10) Symposium. https://rsdsymposium.org/professor-dr-klaus-krippendorff/

Published proceedings ISBN

1. Krippendorff, K. (2021). From uncritical design to critical examination of its systemic consequences. In Diehl, J.C., Tromp, N. & van der Bijl-Brouwer, M. (Eds.) Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD10) Symposium. TU Delft. https://rsdsymposium.org/professor-dr-klaus-krippendorff/

Theses and dissertations

1. Fantini van Ditmar, D. (2016). IdIOT: Second-order cybernetics in the ‘smart’ home [Doctoral dissertation, Royal College of Art]. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.690638