Instructions for Authors - postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies

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Notes for contributors

postmedieval is published three times a year, in a mix of two themed, guest-edited issues and one open topic issue. The editors will also entertain proposals for small, themed “clusters” of 2-3 essays to be included in the open issues.

The journal is no longer accepting submissions for the 2010 themed issues, although it is still possible to submit to the open issue. Information about the 2011 themed issues is available here: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/pmed/archive/2011_issues.html.

If you have a suggestion for or would like to guest-edit a themed issue, or would like to discuss the appropriateness of an article for an open issue prior to submission, please contact the editors, Eileen Joy (ejoy@siue.edu) and Myra Seaman (seamanm@cofc.edu).

postmedieval can only accept submissions of unpublished manuscripts which are not being considered by other publications. All articles are subject to peer review and the final decision to publish rests with the editors.

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General submission guidelines

All manuscripts, including those for themed issues, should be submitted to postmedieval@palgrave.com.

Please submit two documents, containing the following elements:

  1. Author contact details and biography:
    • the title of the article
    • the author(s)' names and affiliations
    • a short biography of no more than 80 words for each author
    • full contact details (including email, postal address and phone number) for the corresponding author
  2. Article:
    • the title of the article
    • a summary or abstract of not more than 150 words in length outlining the aims and subject matter
    • 3-6 keywords (for indexing and for web searches: keywords will not be published with the paper)
    • the article in full, including references

Manuscripts should be in English, preferably in Word format. Please double-space the entire manuscript, including all notes and bibliographical references, and make sure all pages are numbered consecutively.

Articles would normally be between 8,000 and 10,000 words in length. Please print a word count at the end of your manuscript. Word counts should include abstract, all notes and references, and author biographies.

In the peer review process for postmedieval both author and reviewers will be anonymous. Please ensure that no author names are given on the first page of the manuscript and that author names have been taken out of the ‘File’ ‘Properties’ screen in Word.

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Style Guidelines

Manuscript style guidelines

We prefer lively prose and creative use of language, and clear phraseology with direct tenses. In addition:

  • Quotations should be within single quotation marks. When quoting within quotations, please use double quotes.
  • Long quotations of five or more lines should be indented and single-spaced without quotation marks.
  • Numbers 10 and higher should be in figures. Numbers lower than 10 should be spelt out in the text except when associated with a unit or period of time (‘9 meters’, ‘9 minutes’), when spanning a range (‘9 to 10’, not ‘nine to ten’, nor ‘9 to ten’), or in percentages (‘9%’).
  • Dates should be in the form of 5 September, 1990; 1994-1998; or, the 1990s.

Reference format

postmedievalpostmedieval uses the Chicago Author-Date style, with in-text references and an alphabetical reference list at the end.

Please refer to the “Author-Date Citations and Reference Lists” described in Chapter 16 of The Chicago Manual of Style. Some examples are given below.

References in the Text

In the text, use the last name(s) of the author(s) (without first name initials, unless there are two authors in your reference list with the same name) and year of publication.

Example:

    Since Padilla (1985) published his seminal book…

For in-text citations, insert the author name and date in parenthesis before the final punctuation.

Example:

    … (Allatson, 2007).

Where possible, please include the specific page number(s). Insert a comma between the date and the page number(s).

Example:

    … (Mendoza, 2006, 15). Or, (Mendoza, 2006, 15-23).

Unpublished data and personal communications should include initials, last name, and year. Publications which have not yet appeared are given a probable year of publication.

Example:

    More recently, various scholars have discussed both the importance and the pitfalls of interracial collaboration (Capetillo-Ponce, 2009, 56; Betancur et al., 1999). Still others (G. Candelario, 2008, personal communication) suggest…

Publications by the same author(s) in the same year should be identified by adding a, b, c (e.g. 1984a, 2009b) to the year. If there are two authors for a publication, use both names separated by “and” (not “&”). If there are more than two authors, put the name of the first author followed by et al.

For internet citations, include the author’s last name and year in text; full citation should be placed in the references, including full URL and access date, according to the example below under “List of References.”

List of References

References are placed in alphabetical order of authors’ last names. The following are examples of correct forms of references:

  • Book:

    Hernández, R. 2002. The Mobility of Workers Under Advanced Capitalism: Dominican Migration to the United States. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Dalleo, R., and E. Machado Sáez. 2007. The Latino/a Canon and the Emergence of Post-Sixties Literature. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Edited collection:

    Gutiérrez, D.G., ed. 2006. The Columbia History of Latinos in the United States Since 1960. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Garcia, L.E., S.M. Gutierrez, and F. Nuñez, eds. 2008. Teatro Chicana: A Collective Memoir and Selected Plays. Austin: University of Texas Press.

  • Chapter in book:

    Coutin, S.B. 2005. The Formation and Transformation of Central American Community Organizations in Los Angeles. In Latino Los Angeles: Transformations, Communities, and Activism, eds. Gilda Ochoa and Enrique Ochoa, 155-177. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

  • Chapter in edited collection:

    Rivera, R.Z. 2007. Between Blackness and Latinidad in the Hip Hop Zone. In A Companion to Latino Studies, 351-362, ed. Renato Rosaldo and Juan Flores. Massachusetts: Blackwell.

  • Journal article:

    Hernandez, D. 2008. Pursuant to Deportation: Immigrant Detention and Latinos. Latino Studies 6:35–63.

  • Conference paper:

    Rodríguez-Muñiz, M. 2008. Rearticulating Latinidad: Puerto Rican Solidarity in the Immigration Rights Movement. Paper presented at the Puerto Rican Studies Association Conference: Cartographies of Identities: Puerto Rico(ans) in the XXIst Century. San Juan, Puerto Rico: 1-4 October.

  • Thesis:

    Pérez, G.M. 2000. The Near Northwest Side Story: Gender, Migration, and Everyday Life in Chicago and San Sebastián, Puerto Rico. Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University.

  • Government documents:

    President’s Commission on Migratory Labor. 1951. Migratory Labor in American Agriculture. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.

    United States, Congress, Senate. 1954. Agricultural Workers from Mexico, Congressional Record, Proceedings and Debates of the 83rd Congress, Second Session, Volume 100, Part 2. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.

  • Newspaper article:

    Hill, G. 1951. Million a Year Flee Mexico Only to Find Peonage Here. The New York Times, 25 March: 1.

    Manifestación Independentista Borinqueña. 1935. La Prensa, 3 September.

  • Internet Citations:

    The Sentencing Project. 2006. “New Incarceration Figures: Growth in Population Continues,” December. (http://www.sentencingproject.org/PublicationDetails.aspx?PublicationID=430), accessed on 4 January, 2007.

Sidenotes

postmedieval also publishes ‘side notes’, for short parenthetical observations. The side notes are published on the outside margins of the page, alongside the article, rather than as footnotes at the bottom of the page or as endnotes at the end of the article.

In order to keep side notes from becoming running columns on the side of the article text, we ask that authors keep all notes as brief as possible. Please place author-date references within the article, according to the style set out above, and use notes only to elaborate briefly on a particular point.

In your manuscript submission, show side notes as endnotes rather than footnotes. Please do not use the footnote/endnote macro in MS Word, as this formatting is lost in the typesetting process.

Illustrations

Supply figures and plates as separate files, in either TIFF or JPEG format, with their position within the text clearly indicated on the page where they are introduced. Provide typed captions for figures and plates when prompted on the online submission form.

For further guidelines, please see: www.palgrave-journals.com/pal/palgrave_artwork_guidelines.pdf.

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Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing through any medium of communication those illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. Add your acknowledgments to the typescript, preferably in the form of an Acknowledgments section at the end of the paper. Credit the source and copyright of photographs or figures in the accompanying captions.

The journal's policy is to own copyright in all contributions. Before publication, authors assign copyright to the Publishers. Authors do however retain their rights to republish this material in other works written or edited by themselves, subject to full acknowledgment of the original source of publication.

The journal mandates the Copyright Clearance Center in the USA and the Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK to offer centralized licensing arrangements for photocopying in their respective territories.

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Author PDF

Corresponding authors will receive a PDF of their article. This PDF offprint is provided for personal use. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to pass the PDF offprint onto co-authors (if relevant) and ensure that they are aware of the conditions pertaining to its use.

The PDF must not be placed on a publicly-available website for general viewing, or otherwise distributed without seeking our permission, as this would contravene our copyright policy and potentially damage the journal’s circulation. Please visit http://www.palgrave-journals.com/pal/authors/rights_and_permissions.html to see our latest copyright policy.

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Book Review Essays

Each issue of postmedieval contains a book review essay. In themed issues, book review essays will be coordinated with the theme of the issue.

postmedieval does not accept unsolicited book review essays, and does not publish individual book reviews. If you would like to suggest a theme for a book review essay in an open issue, please contact the Book Reviews Editor, Holly Crocker (hcrocker@mailbox.sc.edu).