Submissions

Author Guidelines

ISSEME Publications

Style Guide for Authors

This document outlines the formatting and style guidelines for authors wishing to publish with ISSEME. We invite authors to use this document when formatting their manuscripts for submission.

This document details conventions for the following:

1. Presentation of Typescript
2. Style Guide
3. Images
4. References and Bibliographies

Presentation of Typescript

All submissions should be in English and submitted in a MS Word format (.doc or .docx). If you must use another file format, please contact the ISSEME publishing manager or the publication editors in advance. Images should NOT be embedded in the text file but supplied as individual files (see below).

Submissions should be in Times New Roman font, with minimal formatting. Formatting features of your word-processing program, such as italics, superscripts, small capitals, etc., are acceptable, however, we request that you do not attempt to simulate the final layout.

For indentations, especially at the opening of paragraphs use the tab key and not the space bar. Notes should be rendered as footnotes, numbered consecutively (see below for further information on references). Subheadings are not to be numbered unless this numbering is required for cross referencing. Ensure there is no track changes or comments in the file, as this will cause confusion. All files should be in their final state.

Passages in non-roman alphabets (like Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, etc.), special characters, and characters with diacritics should be written in Times New Roman. If this is not possible, another Unicode font needs to be used. Do not use the Symbol font to insert characters, as it is not Unicode compliant.

Images

Authors have the responsibility to obtain the rights of reproduction for the pictures they are using. A copy of the authorization letters you receive must be provided to the editors of the volume.
Depending on the situation, the copyright may concern both the owner of the object and the author of the photograph.

Style Guide

Please use the following style guide for formatting the text and references of your submission.

Spelling

Commonwealth and UK spelling (as given in the Oxford English Dictionary and its derivatives) is preferred, but US spelling may be used. Either spelling preference must be followed consistently throughout the submission.

Possessive forms of names ending in -s, -z or -es, should use ‘s as normal except for Greek or Hellenized words ending in -es (e.g. Jesus’s, Tacitus’s, Jones’s, but: Sophocles’, Moses’, Xerxes’).

Place Names

English forms of place names should be used where they exist (e.g. Padua rather than Padova, Seville rather than Sevilla). Likewise, regions should remain in their English forms where these are well known. In other cases, use the native-language spelling but always in Latin script (e.g. Paramythia rather than Παραμυθιά).

Native-language forms of personal names should be used except in cases where the use of the Anglicized version has become ubiquitous (e.g. Zenobia, rather than Bat-Zabbai).

Dates

The anno Domini system may be rendered with either the abbreviations BC/AD or BCE/CE, but must be consistent through the entire volume.

Centuries should always be spelled out in full in the main prose (e.g. in the twelfth century; a thirteenth-century manuscript).

Date ranges are always to be given in full (e.g. AD 1300-1356 not AD 1300-56).

Calendar dates should be given in the following format: 1 January  968, not  January 1, 968.

Pluralised dates should be given with an -s as in 860s not –‘s or -ies.

Numbers

Spell out numbers up to one hundred except when expressing dimensions, in statistical contexts, or in tables; use Arabic for 101+ except when beginning a sentence; spell out approximate numbers over one hundred

No commas are required for four-digit numbers (i.e. up to 9999), but should be used for every three digits thereafter (e.g. 5600, 24,000, 144,000, 1,200,000).

Use roman numerals, small capitals, for volume numbers, book numbers, and other major subdivisions of books or long poems, and for acts in plays. Use roman numerals in small capitals for sequential Bible books of the same name. (E.g. Herodotus, Histories, V. 2; Hamlet, X. 2; Weijers, Le travail intellectuel, VIII, p. 69; II Corinthians) roman numerals are also to be used for large capitals, for regnal numbers (Edward IV, Pope Innocent III).

Abbreviations

Contracted forms of words that end in the same letter as the full form, including plural -s, do not take a full stop; other abbreviations do (e.g. Dr, edn, St, fols, vols, nos, eds, repr., trans., vol., pp., ed.).

Do not use full stops for abbreviated standard reference works, journals, or series (e.g. OED, OCD, PL, CSEL, CCSL).

Please note the following abbreviations: c. (circa), not ca.; b. (birth/born), d. (died), r. (ruled), fl. (flourished).

Use MS and MSS for manuscript shelf-mark citations and references but otherwise write the word ‘manuscript’ in full.

Punctuation

Use single quotation marks, aka inverted commas (‘…’) for quotations. Only use double quotation marks to denote quotations within quotations.

Punctuation generally falls outside quotation marks unless the quotation forms a complete sentence and is separated from the preceding passage by a punctuation mark.

Place ellipses within square brackets […] when they indicate text omitted from a quotation. If the beginning of the sentence is omitted following the ellipses, begin with a capital letter. Do not use ellipses at the beginning of a quotation or at the end, unless there is a specific reason.

Commas should appear before the final ‘and’/‘or’ in a list of three or more items (e.g. truth, grace, and beauty).

Quotations

Quotations from a primary source provided in the main body of the text should include both the original language and a translation in modern English. Both should be in roman typeface, not italics. The translation should directly follow the quotation (within parentheses without quotation marks for shorter quotations, or immediately below in a second block quotation within parentheses without quotation marks, for long quotations). If followed consistently throughout the volume, the translation can also be given in a footnote.

For verse citations, line breaks should be separated in consecutive text with a |.

For passages of one or more words requiring editorial intervention, use […] to indicate words suppressed by the editor, [sic] to acknowledge any errors in the source, 〈 _〉 for words added by the editor and *** for lacunae. For language-specific conventions, please ask your publishing manager.

References and Bibliographies

Citations and Footnotes (full-title system)

Footnote reference numbers should be located in the main text after a full stop or other punctuation; they should be marked with a superscript number using the automatic footnote functionality of your word-processing software.

Each footnote should end with a full stop or other punctuation sign.

The first citation of a particular author or work in each chapter should be a full reference. Subsequent citations of a work should be abbreviated (surname of the author, followed by shortened form of book or chapter/article title, and page numbers (if applicable)). Please make sure that the short form reference is clear and standardized throughout.

Place of publication and publisher required; use English forms for place of publication (thus Rome: Carocci, not Roma). For books published by the same publisher in more than one place, refer only to the first (so Leiden: Brill not Leiden-Boston: Brill).

Supply forenames for names of people cited.

Do not use ibid., id., ibidem, et al., passim, idem, eadem, loc. cit., op. cit., or other abbreviations.

For references citing three or more authors, all authors should be listed in the first reference; in subsequent reference(s), authors should be abbreviated in the form first author surname followed by ‘and others’ (rather than et al.),.

Where possible, give specific page ranges, and avoid use of passim, ff., etc.

Bibliographical References (Full-title system)

Manuscripts, Archival Sources, and Other Unedited Material

Place names must accompany all MS short forms in the footnotes except for the most well-known archives, namely the BL (London), BnF (Paris), and BAV (Città del Vaticano); see examples below.

In footnotes, recto and verso should be abbreviated as r and v and given in superscript, e.g. fols 17v–19r.

Primary Sources

References to primary sources should give both a work’s internal structure (where available) and also page number of edition/translation being used. When you are using two or more editions of the same source, include the editor’s name. Thus:

Frechulf, Historiae, I. 2. 17, p. 116

Jordanes, De summa temporum vel origine actibusque gentis Romanorum, ch. 85, pp. 9–10

Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār, Memorial of God’s Friends, p. 48

Bertha, Vita Adelheidis, ed. by Piesik, ch. 3, p. 29

References to biblical books, deuterocanonical books, and apocryphal books need only cite internal division (i.e. chapter and verse). Separate chapter and verse with a full stop and space. Use roman numerals in small capitals for sequential books of the same name.

Matthew 25. 6; II Kings 15. 5; I Peter 1. 3

For Bible references, in the cases where the Vulgate numbering differs from modern versions (i.e. the Psalms), use the modern numbering and add the Vulgate in parentheses.

For references to classical sources, please follow the conventional layout, as provided in the Loeb Classical Library or the Perseus Tufts Digital Library (references should be rendered according to standard book/chapter divisions):

e.g. Euseb., Hist. eccl., I. 3; Tac., Ann., IV. 34; Suet., Aug.; Amm. Marc., Res gestae, XXV. 7. 11

Secondary Studies

Supply forenames for names of people cited.

List multiple entries by one author alphabetically by title (not by date), using the full name for the first entry.

Editors should be referred to with the abbreviation ‘(ed.)’ or ‘(eds)’.

Both publisher and place of publication are required. The name of the publishing house should be given without secondary matter (so Blackwell, not Blackwell Publishing) and forenames or initials of publishers (so de Gruyter, not Walter de Gruyter). For books published by the same publisher in more than one place, refer only to the first (so Leiden: Brill not Leiden-Boston: Brill).

Provide full references to series and series numbers, where appropriate.

The journal number (and part number, if applicable), should be included in the reference.

References to a footnote should be given as, e.g. p. 23 n. 2 (page and note number not separated by a comma), references to figures and tables quoted from a secondary publication should be given as, e.g. p. 23 fig. 4; p. 59 table 3. References to a volume number (in roman numerals, small caps) should be included when it is not clear from the bibliographical entry alone which volume is being used, e.g. Foot, Veiled Women, II, p. 123.

When citing multiple articles from the same edited collection, always provide full bibliographic details for the edited collection, not a short reference.

If a work is cited several times in a volume, authors can elect to abbreviate key titles. Even when these are included in a separate list of abbreviations, the author should also ensure that an abbreviation is explained in full the first time it is used in a text:

e.g. This information can be found in Bede’s Historica ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (hereafter Hist. eccl.).

e.g. According to the Annals of Loch Cé (hereafter ALC).

For a monograph, use the following examples:

For a chapter or an article in a book, use the following examples:

For a general reference to an edited collection, use the following examples:

For a journal article, use the following examples:

Online Sources

For online publications, follow style used for printed publications as detailed above as far as possible, according to publication type (note that many online resources still provide pagination or other details, that should be given in the footnote).

In addition to the standard details, please give a DOI (displayed as a full URL link in the form <https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxxxx>; no access date) or full URL (in the shortest form possible, so <https://cantus.uwaterloo.ca>, not <https://cantus.uwaterloo.ca/home>), followed by an access date between square brackets. Do not quote URLs from services such as tinyurl or bitly which abbreviate other URLs (for example, to fit into a tweet) but quote the originals.

When online databases provide collections of electronic existing printed publications, cite the details of original print edition, followed by the reference of the database.

When citing social media, postings should be given in full. Original spelling, punctuation, and @handles and #hashtags should be preserved. Postings should be identified by the writer (real name and, in parentheses, username or handle) and date (without specifying the time of day). No URL is given.

Blog postings should be cited by URL, with access date between square brackets

For citing of online digital media, the author, the title (in italics), the type of source, the title of the website, the date of publication, the URL, and the date of access should be given.

For e-books, give the place of publication (which would be based on the location of the offices of the publisher), the publisher, the year, and an indication of the kind of digital file. Give page numbers or section details only if these are fixed and stable; or refer to the location of a citation by giving section numbers or numbered paragraphs.

For online publications, use the following examples: