INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

• Introduction |
• Submission of articles |
• Presentation of articles |
• Proofs |
• Copyright and clearing permissions |

Introduction

Polity welcomes submissions in all fields of political science on the understanding that the material is original and has not been published or submitted for review elsewhere. All material, including footnotes, titles, tables, and quotations, must be double-spaced and conform to these guidelines. Submissions are sent to a member of the editorial board and at least one scholar in the relevant subfield for blind review. Since manuscripts are sent anonymously to reviewers, the author's name and affiliation, as well as footnotes identifying the author, should appear only on a separate page. An abstract of approximately 150 words should also be on a separate page. Authors should supply up to 6 keywords for indexing and abstracting services. Manuscripts of articles should not exceed 35 pages, including notes, tables, and other material; manuscripts of review essays should not exceed 18 pages. For co-authored articles, one author should be designated as the corresponding author, to be responsible for communicating with editors and the publisher and for relaying information to and from the other authors.

Submission of articles

Electronic submissions are preferred. Articles should be in Word format or Word Perfect and sent to polity@gc.cuny.edu. The subject of the e-mail should be "new submission".

The editorial staff shall complete the review process and reach a decision within three months of submission acknowledgment. If the author does not receive a decision within three months, s/he may choose to withdraw the manuscript by notifying the editor.

If the author does not have e-mail access, 5 copies of all materials should be sent to:

• Andrew Polsky, Editor, Polity, MA/Ph.D.
  Program in Political Science
  The Graduate Center, CUNY
  365 Fifth Avenue
  New York, NY
  10016-4309
  USA

Authors sending paper materials should note that this submission process may delay a decision about the manuscript.

Polity publishes book review essays, not individual book reviews. Individuals interested in writing review essays should send inquiries or full proposals (including bibliographic information on the works to be reviewed, a short abstract describing the theme of the essay, and the author's current c.v.) to the Editor, as above.

Presentation of articles

All articles should be in English. Materials should be double-spaced and presented in the following order, each starting on a separate page: title page (including author's postal and e-mail address and telephone number), abstract, body of text, notes following the body of the text in sequential order, tables, figures, graphs, and maps (all numbered and titled). Placement of tables, graphs, figures and maps within the text should be noted on a separate line. Text headings should appear on separate lines. Primary headings should be left justified, with initial capitalization, and should be bold face. Secondary headings should also be left justified, with initial capitalization, but should be in italics.

Spelling should conform to Webster's New International Dictionary or Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

Initial submissions may include rough work for tables, figures, graphs, and maps, but authors whose submissions are accepted will be required to provide publishable computer files of this material. They should be provided on separate sheets at the end of the article, with their position within the text clearly indicated on the page where they are introduced. Provide typed captions for figures and plates (including sources and acknowledgements) on a separate sheet. Electronic versions should be saved in separate files to the main body of text and figures should be saved in either Tiff or Jpeg format.

Notes (with no bibliography) should conform to the Chicago Manual of Style for footnotes (not in-text parenthetical notations). Use short form for all subsequent references; avoid op cit., loc. cit., and ibid. Parenthetical references in the text are permitted only in manuscripts undertaking extended textual analysis of one or a few works, and then only for those specific works. A separate, unnumbered acknowledgement of collegial and financial support should precede the numbered notes. It will be referenced with an asterisk at the end of the title of the article. Examples of notes follow.

• Journal article:

  Gary Miller and Norman Schofield, "Activists and Partisan Realignment in the United States," American Political Science Review 97 (May 2003): 245-60. [note that volume number follows journal title without punctuation; no issue number is used; colon precedes page numbers]

  Subsequent reference: Miller and Schofield, "Activists and Partisan Realignment," [or even "Activists"; use shortest possible version] 256. [here a comma is used before page number]

• Book:

  John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), 38-51. [note comma before page number]

  Subsequent reference: Rawls, Theory of Justice, 104-23.

• Edited book:

  Howard Gillman and Cornell Clayton, eds., The Supreme Court in American Politics: New Institutionalist Interpretations (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999). [no state needed before colon if name is in press]

  Subsequent reference: Gillman and Clayton, Supreme Court in American Politics [this could be shortened further to Supreme Court if more is not necessary to differentiate it from another book or article used]

• Chapter in edited book:

  L. Sandy Maisel, Walter J. Stone, and Cherie Maestas, "Quality Challengers to Congressional Incumbents: Can Better Candidates Be Found?" in Playing Hardball: Campaigning for the U.S. Congress, ed. Paul S. Hernnson (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001), 298-408. [note that the editor follows book title; ed. = "edited by" and thus is the same for multiple editors]

  Subsequent reference: Maisel et al., "Quality Challengers," 305.

• Newspaper article:

  Bill Schiller, "Macedonia: What's in a Name?" The Toronto Star, 15 November 1992 [or: November 15, 1992 - just be consistent]

  Subsequent reference: Schiller, "Macedonia."

Proofs

The corresponding author will be sent an email containing a link to an online PDF proof of the article. Please print a copy of the PDF proof, correct it within the time period indicated and return as directed. Please make no revisions to the final, edited text, except where the copy-editor has requested clarification. The Editor retains the right to make minor stylistic changes to the final proof of the manuscript.

Copyright and clearing permissions

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 these permissions to the acknowledgement footnote that precedes all other notes. 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 Northeastern Political Science Association, but 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.