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Style Guide

Submissions should be made electronically through this website.

Please ensure that you consider the following guidelines when preparing your manuscript:

Article types

  • Research articles must describe the outcomes and application of unpublished original research. These should make a substantial contribution to knowledge and understanding in the subject matter and should be supported by evidence.
  • Short Reviews of up to 3,000 words are also accepted by the journal. Please note this journal does not accept unsolicited book reviews.
  • Video/audio essays
  • Multiple-authored criticism
  • Creative-Critical pieces (longer-form, peer-reviewed)
  • Creative Responses (short-form, non-peer reviewed, e.g. Shalini Sengupta, 'On "Always Nervous"')
  • Interviews (textual or video/audio-based)
  • Works from those outside the academy as such

More detail on article types.

Length

Submissions of articles should be no fewer than 5,000 words in length and not exceed 10,000 words. Short reviews should be no longer than 3,000 words in length. These limits include all referencing and citation. All submissions should include an abstract of no more than 250 words.

Structure

  • Title
  • Author Name(s)
  • Author Affiliation(s) - Institution, Country
  • Author(s) Corresponding Email Address
  • Abstract

The text of the article should be prefaced by an indented abstract of no more than 250 words summarising the main arguments and conclusions of the article.

  • Keywords

Please include a list of 5-6 key words after the abstract.

The Abstract and Keywords should also be added to the metadata when making the initial online submission.

  • Main text

The body of the submission should be structured in a logical and easy to follow manner. A clear introduction section should be given that allows non-specialists in the subject an understanding of the publication and a background of the issue(s) involved. Methods, results, discussion and conclusion sections may then follow to clearly detail the information and research being presented.

  • Acknowledgements

Any acknowledgements should be in a separate paragraph, placed at the very end of the article.

  • Competing Interests Statement 

If any of the authors have any competing interests then these must be declared. A short paragraph should be placed before the references. Please read our competing interest policy.

  • References

The Journal follows MHRA style. All references are to be included as footnotes. More formatting details are given below.


Formatting

Please ensure that your work is formatted to the journal style prior to publication. Authors are responsible for ensuring that their manuscripts conform to the journal style. Failure to apply this formatting may result in delayed publication and additional rounds of revision.

Capitalisation of titles

Capitalise all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and subordinate conjunctions (i.e. as, because, although).

Use lowercase for all articles, coordinate conjunctions and prepositions.

Examples:

Slip-Sliding on a Yellow Brick Road: Stabilization Efforts in Afghanistan

Globalisation with a Twist: Stability, Volatility and Fragility All in One

NOTE: Tier 1 subheads should follow the same rule as the titles. For lower-level subheads, only capitalise first letter (plus proper nouns). 

Language

Articles must be submitted in English. Authors are welcome to use American or British spellings and grammar as long as they are used consistently. Some of the key differences between English and American English include the following:

  • Palaeo (UK) vs. Paleo (US)
  • Archaeology (UK) vs. Archeology (US)
  • Centre (UK) vs. Center (US)
  • 13 January 2011 (UK) vs. January 13, 2011 (US)

Please note that when referring to proper nouns and normal institutional titles, you should always use the official, original spelling. For instance, it is World Health Organization, not World Health Organisation.

Grammar

As with language, American or English spelling and grammar rules may be used as long as they are used consistently. For instance, you may use a serial comma (red, white, and blue) or not (red, white and blue).

Numbers

We are happy for authors to use either words or figures to represent large figures (i.e. one million or 1,000,000) as long as the usage is consistent within an article. For numbers between zero and twelve we would recommend using words rather than figures, except for when it is a part of a dataset or presented in a table.

Symbols are permitted within the main text and datasets. For example, percentages (%) and per mil (‰) are allowed.

Currencies

Use £ for British Pound Sterling, € for Euro, e.g. £50, €100.

Use US$, C$, NZ$, A$ to distinguish between the different dollar currencies.

Quotation marks

Please use single quotation marks except for quotes within another speech, in which case double quotation marks are used.

Acronyms & Abbreviations

With abbreviations, the crucial goal is to ensure that the reader – particularly one who may not be fully familiar with the topic or context being addressed – is able to follow along. Spell out almost all acronyms on first use, indicating the acronym in parentheses immediately thereafter. Use the acronym for all subsequent references. You do not need to spell out abbreviations for US, UK, EU, UN and DC, as in Washington, DC.

Images & Figures

Images/figures are welcome as long as they provide key information related to your submission. Figures, including graphs and diagrams, must be professionally and clearly presented. If a figure is not easy to understand or does not appear to be of a suitable quality, you will be asked to re-render or omit it.

Please ensure that all figures are cited within the text, in consecutive order (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2).

NOTE: Please supply all figures separately as supplementary files during the submission process, if possible in colour and at a resolution of at least 300dpi. Each file should not be more than 20MB. Standard formats accepted are: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS.

Tables

The same principles which apply to figures apply to tables. They should be necessary and should not repeat significant pieces of information already included in the text.


References

This journal uses the MHRA (endnotes) system of references. References cited within a submission must be listed at the end of the article, in numerical order in which they appear.

NOTE: Please include DOIs for reference entries, where possible.