Journals
Style Sheet

This page supplements the Guidelines for Authors page by listing our editorial preferences. For small matters, see Usage.

GENERAL

Tone. Matter-of-fact (no exclamation points), brief, clear. Normal expectations of scholarly civility will apply. Criticism of others' work is in order when relevant, but personal hostility is not acceptable. Mention directly relevant scholarship, but do not undertake a literature survey (this is not your PhD thesis).

Ethics. Your work must be your own. Relevant results of others must be properly credited, and conclusions of others, when cited, must be accurately described.

Methodology. We accept, and recommend, standard humanistic critical methods, for history in general and for texts in particular.

Acknowledgement of grant or other support, if required by the donor, may be made in an unnumbered first footnote. General expressions of gratitude to advisors or colleagues, or dedications to persons, are inappropriate for these brief articles. Specific information or assistance from others is best acknowledged in a footnote at the relevant point.

FORMAL

Length. We seek short articles, typically 2-4 pages as printed; 20p maximum (for material of unusual interest)..

Titles should be both brief and clear. We do not allow subtitles. A title may include, but should not consist wholly of, Chinese (or Greek, or Hebrew) characters. (See further below; note that Chinese (or Hebrew) characters will be omitted from the italicized running head). Greek words may be used in titles (and in running heads) if that is more suitable to the subject.

Introduction. The first paragraph, however labeled, should function as an abstract, stating the problem and summarizing the conclusion. Orient the reader.

Argument. An extended data set may be treated as an Appendix, to avoid interrupting the argument visually.

Conclusion. The last paragraph(s), however labeled, should pull the argument together, or suggest implications. Do not introduce new data at this point.

Works Cited. Expand all in-text short citations in this section, at the end of the paper. Give only what is needed for ILL purposes: Author, Title, Publisher, and Date; for articles or chapters, give the page range. Some frequently mentioned works do not require inclusion here (see the list at the end of each volume). As far as possible avoid citing web pages; they are evanescent. See further the Citations page.

TECHNICAL

Dates BC should be given with a leading zero, thus 0479 = 479 BC; for centuries, 03c, 3c, etc. Give uncertain dates as ranges (0347/0332), or as circa dates (c0340). See further under Dates.

Tables or other graphic aids are welcome, but must be within the capacity of WordPerfect 7, or submitted as a graphics file (JPG or better TIF) of modest size.

Romanization of Chinese. Authors may use any system, but must indicate tones. If a paper lacks tones, the Editors, in adding them, will also convert to the journal's preferred system, Common Alphabetic. Conversion Tables for CA and two other systems appear at the end of each volume of WSP. For further details see the Division page. For transcribed Greek or Japanese, use the forms ê and ô. For Hebrew, use Biblical rather than modern values (eg, Babli, not Bavli).

English Usage. Individual style is permitted; we do not wish the articles to look like the same person wrote all of them. Briticisms (eg "colour") are acceptable from Continental authors, and will not be standardized. For a list of minute preferences, see the Usage page.

Latinisms. With JAOS and other journals, we recommend that authors avoid ibid, op cit, and loc cit, deservedly the most hated abbreviations in scholarly writing. But some Latinisms are useful. When appropriate, give in lower case, without periods: ad loc (ad locum, "at the passage in question"), aet (aetate, "at the age of"), ap (apud, "next to, in connection with"), cf (confer, "compare; see also"), eg (exempli gratia, "for example"), ie (id est, "that is"), qv (quod vide, "which see"), sv (sub verbo, "under the rubric or heading of"), and vs (versus, "as against").

Italics should be limited to sentence emphasis. Do not use italics to distinguish foreign from English words, or book titles from article titles. Book titles and article titles are treated exactly the same in Project journals. See further the Citations page.

Boldface is reserved for section headings, for keywords in citations, and for emphasized portions of quoted texts. For technical reasons, boldface may not be combined with italics.

Places. It may be helpful to give unfamiliar place names (and many archaeological sites are unfamiliar) with map coordinates to the nearest minute, in the form 35° 36 N, 117° 58 E.

Citations of certain standard works do not require expansion in the Works Cited section at the end of the paper, and familiar journals may be listed by acronym. Some recurring works and journal acronyms are given at the end of the volume. The content of those pages may change with the needs of authors in any given volume.

EDITORIAL

Appended Discussions. Discussion by others, transcribed from conference tapes, assembled from written or E-mailed comments, or provided by the Editors, may be appended to an article at the discretion of the Editors. Authors will have an opportunity to add their own responses to the comments of others.

Notes will be placed at the bottom of the page. We arrange the journal so that readers do not have to keep a finger at Page A while reading Page B.

Copy will be edited for concision, or to avoid breaking a paragraph, or a note, over a page turn. Authors will see the result, and are free to suggest alternate solutions.

Schedule. Authors will see proof (in PDF form). If not corrected and returned within a reasonable time, the Editors will proofread in good faith and go to press with the result, in the interest of maintaining the publication schedule.

Thank you for your interest, and best wishes with your work.

 

21 Mar 2014 / Contact The Project