Preparation and Submission of Manuscripts

• Please keep your electronic file as simple as possible, with a minimum of special formatting, to minimize the chances of conversion problems.

• We do not use subheadings in the journal, so please indicate a section break by adding an extra line space. If you have to delete descriptive subheadings in the process, you may need to revise the first sentence in each new section to clearly mark the transition.

• Do not hyphenate words at the ends of lines, either manually or by using your word processor's hyphenation feature. Let the lines wrap naturally.

• 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 paragraph is acceptable if it is appropriate to the context or needed for rhetorical effect.

• Use "American-style" dates: February 23, 2005, not 23 February 2005.

• Please include first as well as last names for all individuals when referring to them for the first time in the text or notes. Do not use initials only, unless the individual is most commonly known that way.

• 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 are not 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.

• Please consolidate notes where possible, and please try to keep them brief, so that the pages of your article will not consist of more footnote text than regular text.

• Footnotes cannot be used within the captions for illustrations. Footnotes attached to tables, graphs, or charts will remain with those tables, graphs, or charts; they should not be numbered with the text notes.
  

• 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.

• Please double-check the accuracy and consistency of your citations. We will spot-check your notes, but we will not check every reference.
  
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1. 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.

2. 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. If you are unable to use e-mail, you can fax your statements to us at 1-812-855-5827.
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Citation Style

• 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.

• 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. Do not use a footnote to build on your argument.

• 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).

• 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., 1953-1955).

  Jules Romains, Verdun, trans. Gerard Hopkins (1938; repr. ed., London, 2000).

  Subsequent citations should take the following format:

  Weinberg, A World at Arms, 132-133.

  Lincoln, The Collected Works, 3: 46.

  Romains, Verdun, 101-102.

  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; use the entire main title if it is not overly long. 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.

  Please use the form "Cambridge, 1992" for works published in Cambridge, UK, and "Cambridge, Mass., 1992" for works published in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
  

• 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.
  

• 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.
  

• 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.
  

• 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).
  

• 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., esp., 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 the author's last name and a shortened title for subsequent citations of a fully cited work, as shown above. 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 you are submitting a new manuscript for the editors' consideration, your article will be sent out for peer review, so please do not use a header (running head) or footer that includes your name. If you are sending hard copy in addition to 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 obtain TIFF (.tif) files. JPG files (.jpg) are acceptable if that is all you can get, but you 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-and they should be saved as TIFF at the time they are scanned; opening a JPG file and re-saving it as TIFF will not restore the image quality that is lost when a file is saved in JPG format.

• If you are scanning an image from a printed source (e.g., a book, magazine, or newspaper), you may need to use the scanner's descreen filter for best results, and you may want to increase the resolution. Contact us if you have any questions.

• For best results, photographs 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). Illustrations to be considered for the cover should be in color, and they should be vertical in format. 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.

• 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.

• 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>.

• 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; otherwise we will have to omit them.

• 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. 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.

• When submitting an article for consideration by mail or courier service, please send two copies of the manuscript.
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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 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.

• 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, Dawn Ollila, can be reached at 812-855-0024.
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Updated 2/26/07