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Preparation and Submission
of Manuscripts
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Please keep your electronic file as simple as possible,
with a minimum of special formatting, to minimize the chances
of conversion problems.
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Please do not hyphenate words at the ends of lines, either
manually or by using your word processor's hyphenation feature,
and do not justify the text.
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We do not use subheadings in the journal, so please mark
a section break by adding an extra line space. If you have
to delete descriptive subheadings in the process, you may
need to alter the first sentence in each new section to emphasize
the change in direction.
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Because successive short paragraphs tend to break the continuity
of thought and make the printed page look choppy, we recommend
a paragraph length of roughly 200 words. An occasional short
(or long) paragraph is acceptable if it is appropriate to
the context or needed for rhetorical effect.
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Use "American-style" dates: February 23, 2005,
not 23 February 2005.
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Please include first as well as last names for all individuals
when referring to them for the first time in the text or notes.
We follow the spellings for most historical figures' names
in Merriam Webster's New Biographical Dictionary. Do not use
initials only, unless the individual is most commonly known
that way.
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Notes are always typeset as footnotes in the journal, but
you can style the notes in your manuscript as either footnotes
or endnotes. We do not use in-text parenthetical source notes,
even in review essays. If for some reason you aren't using
your word processor's automated note feature, make sure that
your notes are numbered sequentially, and that you have a
matching note for every note number in the text. An introductory
note of acknowledgment should not be included in the numbering;
it will be set as an unnumbered note, not as note 1. Footnotes
attached to tables, graphs, or charts should not be numbered
with the text notes; they should be sufficiently brief to
remain with the illustrations.
- Please spell-check your text before you print it, and please
prepare a brief style sheet, if applicable, in which you advise
us about special uses or variant spellings of words that we
need to be aware of.
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Preparing
an Abstract and an Author Bio
When you submit your final manuscript, please
include both an abstract and an author bio.
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The abstract should consist of a short statement (approximately
200 words) describing the major focus of your article and
its contribution to scholarship. The editor of the AHR will
use your summary as the basis for his description of the article
in the introductory section of the issue.
- Your biographical statement (average length 80 to 120 words),
which will be placed on the last page of your article, should
be written in the third person. It should begin with your name
(e.g., "John Smith is . . . "), and it might include
such information as your academic position and rank (or your
city of residence if you are an independent scholar); a selection
of your most important publications, including dates, or a description
of any work in progress; your major field of interest (or, alternatively,
what led you to write this article); or where and with whom
you studied. The following format is typical:
John Smith is Professor of History at Anytown University, where
he has taught since 1989. He is the author of Political Poetry
in Russia after Perestroika (Prestigious University Press, 1994)
and co-editor with Jane Jones of The Face of Politics in the
Former Soviet Union (Prestigious University Press, 1999). He
is currently working on a history of political cartoons.
Please send your abstract and bio as an e-mail attachment to
Jane Lyle (jlyle@indiana.edu). If you are unable to use e-mail,
you can fax your statements to us at 1-812-855-5827.
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The footnote style used by the AHR generally
follows the conventions recommended by The Chicago Manual
of Style. If you do not find your citation problem discussed
here, please consult Chicago or contact us for advice.
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Placement of Notes. A footnote number should come
at the end of a sentence or at least at the end of a clause
wherever possible. Footnote numbers always follow quoted
or cited material; they should not be placed after authors'
names or other references preceding the cited matter.
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Number and Length of Notes. An excessive number
of notes can detract from your argument, and lengthy notes
make page layout difficult. Space at the foot of the page
is limited, so please combine notes where you can and keep
them as concise as possible.
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Acknowledgments. Please use an unnumbered note,
placed at either the beginning or the end of the text, to
provide any desired reference to previous forms of the article
(e.g., a paper delivered at the annual meeting of the AHA)
and to acknowledge the assistance of colleagues or grants
from foundations (be sure to include the year and number
of the grant). Do not number it as a footnote.
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Citing Books. The first citation of a book should
take the following format:
Gerhard L. Weinberg, A World at Arms: A Global
History of World War II (Cambridge, 1994).
Abraham Lincoln, The Collected Works of Abraham
Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, 9 vols. (New Brunswick, N.J.,
1953-55).
Jules Romains, Verdun, trans. Gerard
Hopkins (1938; repr. ed., London, 2000).
Subsequent citations should take the following
format:
Weinberg, A World at Arms, 132-33.
Lincoln, The Collected Works, 3: 46.
Romains, Verdun, 101-02.
Note that only the last name of the author is
provided in a subsequent reference, along with a shortened
version of the title. The publication information is not repeated.
The short title should use words in sequence from the main
title only. In shortening foreign language titles, be careful
not to omit a word that changes the capitalization or governs
the case ending of a word retained in the short title.
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Citing Book Chapters. A book chapter or essay should
take the following format:
John H. Hanson, "Islam and African Societies,"
in Phyllis M. Martin and Patrick O'Meara, eds., Africa,
3rd ed. (Bloomington, Ind., 1995), 97-114.
Subsequent citations should take the following format:
Hanson, "Islam and African Societies," 98.
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Citing Articles. A journal or newspaper article
should take the following format:
Christopher Steiner, "Another Image of Africa: Toward
an Ethnohistory of European Cloth Marketed in West Africa,
1873-1960," Ethnohistory 32, no. 2 (1985): 91-110.
"La Muse de Paris," La Fronde, July 11,
1898, 11.
Subsequent citations should take the following format:
Steiner, "Another Image of Africa," 97, 99.
"La Muse de Paris," 11.
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Citing Unpublished Materials. Information from archives
can be cited in order either from specific to general or
from general to specific; we simply ask that you be consistent.
General to specific: Archivio di Stato, Venice, Avogaria
di Comun, Balla d'Oro (hereafter, BO) 163, fols. 216r.
Specific to general: Minutes, July 13, 1897, Special Committee
on Pensions, City Club of Chicago, Box 2, p. 216, Archives
of the City Club, Chicago.
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Citing Classical, Literary, and Legal Works. We
prefer to spell out rather than abbreviate, in order to
be as clear as possible for a general audience. Thus Thucydides
2.40 is preferable to Thucy. 2.40, and Faerie Queene,
2.8.12 is preferable to FQ 2.8.12. Please note our
preference for Arabic rather than Roman numerals.
Legal case names are italicized: United States v. Dennis,
183 F.2nd 201 (2nd Cir. 1950).
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Abbreviations.
The following abbreviations (and, where applicable, their
plurals) are acceptable for use in your notes: bk., cf.,
chap., diss., ed. ("editor" or "edited by"),
e.g., et al., etc., fig., fol., ibid., i.e., n.d., no.,
n.p. ("no place"; "no page"), n.s.,
par., pt., repr., rev., sec., vol. We do not use op. cit.
or loc. cit.; please use author's last name and shortened
title for subsequent citations of a fully cited work. We
do not use f. or ff. ("and following") or passim;
please provide the actual page range numbers for the reference.
Please use 2nd and 3rd, not 2d and 3d.
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If for some reason you are not able to send your article
as an electronic file, the manuscript should be printed
out double-spaced, on letter-size paper, in a font that
is easy to read.
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If your images will be in electronic format, please try
to supply them as TIFF (.tif) files. JPG files (.jpg) are
acceptable if that is all you can get, but you (and we)
will be happier with the reproduction quality if you give
us TIFFs. They should be scanned at a resolution of 300
dpi and at a size of 5 x 7 inches. If your are scanning
an image from a printed source (e.g., a book, magazine,
or newspaper), you will need to use the scanner's decreen
filter for best results, and you may want to increase the
resoultion. Contact us if you have any questions.
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For best results, any photographs that need to be submitted
in hard copy should be black and white glossy images, measuring
at least 4 by 6 inches (5 by 7 is better). We strongly prefer
not to use slides. We will return your photos to you, but
please don't send us irreplaceable originals; there is always
some risk that a package will be lost in transit to or from
the journal.
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Potential cover illustration should be in color, and they
should be vertical in format.
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Do not use tape or paperclips on photographs, and do not
write on the backs with a marker or pen. You can label them
with sticky notes or by marking them lightly with a soft
pencil. Please put slips of paper between photos in a stack
so that the surfaces cannot get scratched, and so that any
writing on the back of one will not transfer to the front
of the one underneath.
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Mark each illustration with a number so that it is clearly
identified, and indicate the approximate placement for each
image in the text with a notation such as <FIG. 1 NEAR
HERE>.
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You are responsible for contacting the owner of each image
and obtaining permission in writing for its reproduction.
There is no fair use of images, so any image covered by
copyright must be accompanied by the requisite permission
to publish. Please provide captions, credits, and courtesy
lines; be sure to follow any special requirements that are
set out in your permission letter. If possible, obtain permission
for the illustrations to be used in the online version of
your article as well.
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Maps, charts, and graphs should be professionally drawn
to your specifications and submitted "camera ready."
Please proofread them carefully before sending the final
versions to us. Tables can be created in your word-processing
program, but they should be in a separate electronic file,
not embedded in the article text. Tables should be designed
so that no vertical rules (lines separating the columns)
are necessary. You may wish to look at recent issues of
the AHR for examples of graph and table design. Abbreviations
in graphic materials can be confusing to the reader, so
please try to avoid them. Any footnotes should remain with
the illustration they belong with; they should not be numbered
with the notes to the main text.
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If you are submitting your article as an electronic file,
whether by e-mail attachment or on disk, let us know what
software you used to create it. If you have used something
other than Microsoft Word, please do not attempt to convert
the file yourself; we will convert it here. If you are also
sending a printout, make sure that it matches the electronic
file exactly; there should be no marks or additions on the
hard copy that do not appear in the e-file.
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The AHR will request
that you transfer copyright of your accepted article to the
American Historical Association. The agreement we use makes
provisions for your personal use of your work, reprints, and
scholarly or classroom uses after publication. All other rights
become the property of the AHA, which will serve as a clearinghouse
for reprint requests and make sure that your work is printed
in full, with accompanying footnotes. To review a copy of
the entire agreement, please call our office manager or see
www.historycooperative.org/ahr.
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In addition to correcting obvious errors of grammar, spelling,
punctuation, consistency, and tense and applying the AHR's
house style, our aim in copy-editing your article is to
be a "fresh set of eyes" for you. We will suggest
or request fixes for such things as ambiguities, missing
or unclear antecedents, jargon that may not be understood
by those outside your particular field, redundancies, and
repetition of words, phrases, and structures. We probably
will spot-check the citations in your notes, but we cannot
verify the accuracy of all of them; providing the correct
information is your responsibility.
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Before your article is typeset, and after it has been
proofread in-house by a team of specialists, the copy-edited
version will be sent to you for your approval. Please let
us know whether you want further explanation of any of our
changes, and inform us if any factual errors have inadvertently
been introduced into the text during editing and proofreading.
We are your partners in this process, and we are always
happy to discuss the edits or to answer any questions you
may have. The articles editor, Jane
Lyle, can be reached most easily by e-mail, or by phone
at 812-855-0026. Our production manager, Patti
Torp, can be reached by e-mail, or by phone at 812-855-0024.
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Updated
10/02/06
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