Author Guidelines
The Open Library of Humanities journal (OLHJ is no longer accepting general submissions. Please only use these guidelines if you are submitting an article to an open call for one of our Special Collections.
Submissions should be made electronically through the OLHJ website. Please ensure that you consider the following guidelines when preparing your manuscript. Failure to do so may delay the processing of your submission.
Submissions | Language and Text | Data and Symbols | Figures and Tables | References
Submissions
Article Types
All articles should be submitted to the correct Special Collection. When you submit your article to OLHJ, the list of current Special Collections will appear as a drop-down menu. Please click on the relevant collection at the point of submission, adding the name of the collection that you are submitting to in your notes to the editor. Please also note that Special Collections are time-sensitive and will ordinarily not appear in this drop-down menu after the deadline has passed for the Call for Articles.
Research articles must describe the outcomes of unpublished original research. These should make a substantial contribution to knowledge and understanding in the subject area. If appropriate, it should be supported by relevant figures and tabulated data. Research articles should be of an appropriate length for the discipline. While we recommend 8,000 words, this is flexible. All word limits include referencing and citation.
Introductions are written by the editor(s) of a Special Collection and must be agreed in advance with the OLHJ editors. They should introduce a specific Special Collection’s scope, aims, and offer an overview of the articles that sit within it. They should be in the region of 2000–6000 words, although longer introductions are acceptable. It is not a requirement for introductions to Special Collections to be peer-reviewed.
Referencing Style
This journal recommends, but does not require, the Harvard system of references. Please see the ‘Referencing’ section for examples of how to format references for your submission to OLHJ. Authors not submitting in the Harvard style will be responsible for ensuring that references are internally consistent within the manuscript.
Structure
Before submission, every effort must be made to ensure that author names are removed from the submitted manuscript. This must be done to protect the integrity of the double-anonymous peer review process that OLHJ operates. The following link provides information on ensuring an anonymous review.
Following successful peer-review, the following information will then be inserted into the manuscript during the copyediting stage. At this point, the title page on the final manuscript should include all of the below information, in the same order. No further information should be included:
- Title
- Full author name(s)
- Affiliation(s)
- Corresponding author’s email address (other author email addresses are optional)
Author names must include a forename and a surname. Forenames cannot include only initials.
- J. Bloggs is not permitted. The full name, Joe Bloggs is required
The affiliation should ideally include, in the following order: ‘Department’, ‘Institution’, ‘City’, ‘Country’. However, only the ‘Institution’ and ‘Country’ are mandatory.
Abstract
Research articles must preface the main text with an abstract of no more than 250 words summarising the main arguments and conclusions of the article. This must be given under the heading ‘Abstract’ and should be clearly separate from the start of the article’s main text.
A list of no more than six keywords should be placed below the abstract (although this is optional). The abstract and keywords should also be added to the article’s metadata; this is done when the initial online submission to OLHJ is made.
Main text
The body of the submission should be structured in a logical and clear manner. An ‘Introduction’ section should be given as the first heading, followed by further headings where appropriate.
Up to three level headings may be present and must be clearly identifiable using different font sizes, bold or italics. We suggest using Headings 1, 2 and 3 in MS Word’s ‘Style’ menu, found under ‘Format’.
Acknowledgements (optional)
Any acknowledgements must be given in a separate paragraph, titled ‘Acknowledgements’, placed after the main text but before the reference list.
Competing interests
Regardless of whether the author(s) have any competing interests, a declaration must be given as a short paragraph placed before the references section. Please read our guide, ‘How to Declare Competing Interests’, for further information on this.
Ethics and consent (if applicable)
Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Where applicable, the studies must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee and the authors should include a statement within the article text detailing this approval, including the name of the ethics committee and reference number of the approval. For most research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants (or their parent or guardian in the case of children under 16).
Notes
All notes for the article should be listed as endnotes in this section.
References
All references cited within the submission must be listed at the end of the main text file.
Language and Text
Submissions may be made in any language. Although we are primarily an Anglophone journal, we will make every effort to find experts to handle submissions in any language. However, this cannot be guaranteed and non-English submissions may take us slightly longer to handle.
Capitalisation
For the submission title:
Capitalise all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and subordinate conjunctions (i.e., as, because, although). Use lower case for all articles, coordinate conjunctions and prepositions:
- Slip-Sliding on a Yellow Brick Road: Stabilization Efforts in Afghanistan
- Person Recognition is Easier from Faces than from Voices
Headings within the main text:
- First level headings in the text should follow the same rule as the main title.
- For lower-level subheadings, only capitalise the first letter and proper nouns.
- Movemements, such as ‘Modernism’ should be capitalised. When describing a noun, there should be no capitalisation: e.g., ‘the modernist poets’.
- Historical periods should also be capitalised: e.g., ‘the Reformation’.
Spelling
Authors submitting in English are welcome to use American or British spellings provided they are used consistently throughout the whole of the submission:
- Colour (UK) vs. Color (US)
- Centre (UK) vs. Center (US)
When referring to proper nouns and normal institutional titles, the official, original spelling must be used:
- World Health Organization, not World Health Organisation
For possession when a proper name ends in ‘s’, add an apostrophe and an additional ‘s’: e.g., Jesus’s.
Grammar
If submitting in English, American or English grammar rules are acceptable, provided they are used consistently and match the spelling format (see above). For instance, you may choose to use a serial comma or not to use one:
- ‘red, white, and blue’ or ‘red, white and blue’.
Font
The font used should be commonly available and in an easily readable size, for example, Times New Roman in 12pt. This will be changed during the typesetting process, so at this stage the font should be selected to aid clarity in the editorial process.
Underlined text should be avoided unless absolutely necessary (e.g., it is part of a quotation). Bold or italicised text to emphasise a point are permitted, although should be restricted to minimal occurrences to maximise their efficiency.
Italicisation
Generally, italicisation should primarily be used for the titles of books, films, collections (such as of essays or poetry) and most works excluding individual short poem titles or journal article titles:
- Ulysses (1922, James Joyce) – Novel
- The Shining (1980) – Film
- The Waste Land (1922, T S Eliot) – Long Poem
- Ariel (1965, Sylvia Plath) – Poetry Collection
- The Scream (1893, Edvard Munch) – Painting
Examples where italicisation should not be used, in particular for short works and essays/articles:
- 'The Double Session' (Jacques Derrida, Dissemination, 1972) – Essay in Collection
- 'Failures in Infinitives' (Bernadette Mayer, 1968) – Single Short Poem
It is occasionally acceptable to use italicisation for emphasis within an article's body text, however this should be used sparingly and with purpose, and should not be confusing in the context of the sentence (for example, it should not conflict with an italicised title of a work).
Lists
Use bullet points to denote a list without hierarchy or order of value. If the list indicates a specific sequence, then a numbered list must be used.
Lists should be used sparingly to maximise their impact.
Formatting Quotations
Use single quotation marks except for when nested quotes are used (e.g., speech contained within a quotation), in which case double quotation marks must be used.
Punctuation should always be left outside of the closing quotation mark, unless it belongs to the quote: e.g., Lembke writes that ‘pursuing pain is harder than pursuing pleasure’.
Quotations that are longer than three lines in length must be given as a block quotation, in an indented paragraph separate from the main text. Block quotations should not be surrounded by quotation marks, and nested quotations within a block quotation should use single quotation marks:
It was a lovely night, so warm that he threw his coat over his arm and did not even put his silk scarf round his throat. As he strolled home, smoking his cigarette, two young men in evening dress passed him. He heard one of them whisper to the other, ‘That is Dorian Gray.’ He remembered how pleased he used to be when he was pointed out, or stared at, or talked about. He was tired of hearing his own name now. Half the charm of the little village where he had been so often lately was that no one knew who he was (Wilde, 1890).
The standard, non-italicised font must be used for all quotes unless the quotation contains italics, bolding or any other formatting that is directly replicated from the source.
It must be clear from the text and/or citation from where the quote has been sourced. If quoting from material that is under copyright, then permission will need to be obtained from the copyright holder prior to submission. The OLHJ editors must be informed of this in the ‘Comments to Editor’ field at the point of the article’s submission.
If some of the original quote is omitted, either an ellipsis with a space on either side or an ellipsis enclosed in square brackets with a space either side must be used to break the text:
- ... each sample was processed in identical environments ...
- [...] each sample was processed in identical environments [...]
Words added to the quoted original text, to enhance clarity, must be placed within square brackets:
- ... the country [France] was ranked number one for cuisine ...
Emphasis may be added to a quotation by the author where absolutely necessary in the context of the article's argument but this must be made absolutely clear in the citation information following the quotation:
- ... the subjects may have been consulted prior to the experiment (Smith, 1998; emphasis my own).
Acronyms, Initialisms, Borrowed Terms and Other Abbreviations
With abbreviations, the crucial goal is to ensure that the reader—particularly one who may not be fully familiar with the topic or context being addressed—is able to follow the argument.
Spell out almost all acronyms/initialisms on first use, indicating the abbreviated form in parentheses immediately thereafter. Use the abbreviated form for all subsequent references:
- Research completed by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows ...
A number of abbreviations are so common that they do not require the full text on the first instance. Examples of these can be found here.
Initialisms should usually be in capital letters without full stops:
- USA, not U.S.A
Common abbreviations originating from Latin do not follow this rule and should be lower case and can include full stops:
- e.g., i.e., etc.
Terms such as 'Ibid.' and 'Op. Cit.' should not be used as the parenthetical author-date citation system accounts for multiple citations from the same author/place in the source text where required.
Borrowed common terms from other languages that do not require a direct translation, such as 'fin-de-siècle' from French, may be italicised where appropriate to emphasise their difference to English and can be used in the context of the argument where appropriate; however, their use and italicisation is a stylistic choice for the author.
Parentheses
Parentheses (curved brackets) should be used sparingly to include brief additional information within a sentence that is related and supplementary. They are also used to denote in-text citations (see the ‘References’ section below), and information such as dates:
Since the 18th century, translators have struggled to translate the poem (although many have tried).
Picasso’s The Weeping Woman (1933) was stolen in 1969.
Translations
For titles of works, names, and other very short translations from a language other than English that will be reused throughout an article, authors must either provide the untranslated title in square brackets in the first instance or vice versa; either the translation or untranslated title may then be used throughout the rest of the article:
Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers [Tournesols] (1887) was painted in Paris.
Foucault’s Les mots et les choses [The Order of Things] (1966) analyses three epistemes.
Short translations of quoted text should be given in the same manner, within square brackets, but also enclosed within single quotation marks.
Fischer oscillates between a lustful fascination with Ellen, a violent defiance towards the forest, and a horrified sense of mythic justice closing in as the trees come together ‘in judgement’ [‘zum Gericht’] (Döblin, 2001 [1912]: 62).
Translations from a language other than English longer than three sentences, or poems and lyrics that require formatting, may be presented as a block quotation. The source text must first be given, followed by the English translation, and they do not need to be enclosed within square brackets.
Longer translations of a text into English that appear in the main text of an article may also be provided in the original language as an endnote, with the citation details also contained within the endnote (see ‘Use of endnotes’ for more information).
Translated quotations, if translated by the author, should be credited as such in the parenthetical citation for the text:
‘In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer’ (Camus, 1968; translation my own).
If the translation is not the author’s own, the text should be cited in the usual manner from the source in which it was found.
Trade Names
To ensure impartiality, trade names should be avoided in favour of generic names, unless absolutely necessary. If a trade name is mentioned, then its inclusion must be put in context and explained/justified.
Use of Endnotes
Endnotes should be used only where crucial clarifying information needs to be conveyed. Endnote markers should be formatted as Arabic numerals (e.g., 1, 2, 3, etc.) and they should be superscript.
Avoid using endnotes for the sole purpose of referencing, as this should be done in-text. However, longer translations of a text into English that appear in the main text of an article may be provided in the original language as an endnote, with the citation details also contained within it. If a citation is required within an endnote, it must also follow the parenthetical author-date citation format used by OLHJ.
Please insert the endnote marker after the end punctuation of a sentence (e.g., the endnote number should appear after a punctuation mark, and not before it):
This argument has garnered widespread praise from many organisations.1
This is also true of sentences that are entirely enclosed within parentheses:
(Jacob Brown also raises inconsistencies with this reading of the text.)1
In more complicated sentences, combining multiple endnotes into one single endnote at the end of the sentence is preferrable, however it may be necessary in specific cases to have multiple endnote marker indices within a sentence where there is further extraneous or tangential information that cannot easily be combined into one endnote:
The collection has been praised by The British Library,1 the Bodleian,2 yet criticised by The National Library of Wales.3
Data and Symbols
Symbols
Symbols are permitted within the main text and datasets, as long as they are commonly in use or have explanatory definition on their first usage.
Hyphenation, En and Em Dashes
Generally, hypenation should occur when two or more words are functioning as an adjective before (but not after) the noun they are describing. There is no set rule on the use of hyphenation between compound words, which should be used when doing so enhances readability; these should, though, be handled consistently throughout the submission.
En dashes can be used to replace ‘to’ when indicating a range. No space should be around the dash:
- 10–25 years
- pp. 10–65
Em dashes should be used sparingly. If they are present, they should denote an aside or change of thought, emphasis, or interruption to the main sentence that can replace commas, parentheses, colons or semicolons:
- The president’s niece—daughter of his younger brother—caused a media scandal when ...
- This century has seen many media scandals—this will not be the last.
Numbers
For numbers zero to nine please spell the whole words. Please use figures for numbers 10 or higher:
- This study looked at five case studies
- This study looked at 12 case studies
However, figures should always be used for years, decades and centuries. For examples, see ‘Months and Years’ below.
Authors may use either words or figures to represent large whole figures (i.e., one million or 1,000,000), as long as the usage is consistent throughout the text.
If the sentence includes a series of numbers, then figures must be used in each instance:
- Artefacts were found at depths of 5, 9, and 29 cm.
If a number appears as part of a dataset in conjunction with a symbol or as part of a table, then figures must be used.
If a number is presented with a symbol, then the figure must be not separated from the unit by a space:
- This study confirmed that 5% of...
A sentence that starts with a number must give the number as a word, or the sentence should be re-written so that it no longer starts with the number:
- Fifteen examples were found to exist...
- The result showed that 15 examples existed...
When a number consists of more than four digits it must be split by a comma after every three digits to the left of the decimal place:
- 23,654
Do not use a comma for a decimal place:
- 2.43 not 2,43
Numbers that are less that zero must be written with a ‘0’ preceding the decimal point:
- 0.24 not .24
Months, Years and Dates
In the article’s main text, months must be written in full. If displayed as part of a dataset, then a shortened version, followed by a full stop, is acceptable as long as the meaning is still clear. Months should always begin with a capital letter:
- January or Jan.; February or Feb., etc.
For full dates given in the body text of an article, the accepted standard should not contain 'th' or 'rd' and should, for example, follow this format:
- 11 March 2010
Use figures for years, decades and centuries. Do not include an apostrophe before the ‘s’:
- 1995
- 1980s
- 16th century
When referring to centuries, ‘c’ is not usually capitalised unless the century is part of a title. Hyphenation occurs when the century is used as a phrasal adjective that describes a noun (e.g., ‘20th-century artists’), otherwise no hyphenation is used when referring to the century itself as a noun (e.g., ‘artists of the 20th century’).
Units of Measurement
Symbols following a figure to denote a unit of measurement must be taken from the latest International System of Units (SI) brochure. See the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures' website for the brochure and further information.
Data
‘Data’ can be used in its singular and plural form:
- The data are inconclusive (plural)
- The data is stored securely (singular)
Formulae
Formulae must be proofed carefully by the author. Editors will not edit formulae and will assume these are correct. If special software has been used to create formulae, please ensure that they are provided in a readable, MS Word-compatible format. Formulae will appear in the published article exactly as they have been laid out in the manuscript.
Fractions
When presented in the main text, fractions must be written in non-hyphenated words, not figures.
- Three quarters of the study sample.
Currencies
- £ for British Pound Sterling, € for Euro, e.g., £50, €100
- US$, C$, NZ$, A$ to distinguish between the different dollar currencies
If the currency may be unclear, to some readers, from the symbol, then it must be written in full for the first use and then abbreviated thereafter:
- 45 Egyptian Pounds (E£ or EGP)
There must be no space between the currency symbol and the number.
Figures and Tables
Figures
Please note that permission to reproduce images must be obtained from the copyright holder prior to submission, and details of the permissions obtained, including a copy of any agreed licensing terms, should be included with your submission. Image permissions should permit open access publication with no restrictions on duration of use or recurring renewal costs.
Figures, including graphs and diagrams, must be professionally and clearly presented. If a figure is not easy to understand or does not appear to be of a suitable quality, the editor may ask for it to be re-rendered, or may decide to omit it.
All figures must be cited within the main text, in consecutive order using Arabic numerals (e.g., Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.).
Each figure must have an accompanying caption with a descriptive main title. This should clearly and concisely summarise the content and/or use of the figure image. A short, additional figure legend is optional to offer a further description.
Figure captions and legends should be placed directly underneath the figure content. Figures should be placed in the main text of the article as close to their first in-text mention as possible (ideally below the paragraph containing the mention), or as a list after the ‘References’ section.
The source of the image should be included in the caption, along with any relevant copyright information and a statement of authorisation (if needed). If using images from an archive, then please provide the name of the archive, the collection and the acquisition number:
Figure 1: Firemen try to free workers buried under piles of concrete and metal girders. Photo: Claude-Michel Masson, published in Le Figaro (16 January 1964), p. 18. Reproduced with permission of the photographer.
If your figure file is a rendered image that includes text, then please present the font as Arial, Helvetica, or Verdana. This will ensure that the figure is clearly legible in a sans-serif font.
All figures must be uploaded separately as supplementary files during the submission process, in colour (if possible) and at a resolution of at least 300dpi. Each file should not be more than 20MB in size. Standard formats accepted are: .JPG, .TIFF, .GIF, .PNG, .EPS. For line drawings, please provide the original vector source file (e.g., .EPS, .SVG or .AI).
Tables
Tables should be used to display information that is most clearly represented in a grid, with clear column and/or row headings. They must be created using a word processor’s table function; using tabbed text to construct a table is not acceptable and this will not be displayed as a table in the final article. Tables should be included in the main text of the manuscript, as close as possible to their first in-text citation.
All tables must be cited within the main text, numbered with Arabic numerals in consecutive order (e.g., Table 1, Table 2, etc.). The shortened word ‘Tab’ should not be used to cite a table.
Each table must have an accompanying, descriptive title in the form of a caption. This should clearly and concisely summarise the content and/or use of the table. A short, additional table legend is optional to offer a further description of the table. The table caption and legend should be placed directly underneath the table.
Tables should not include:
- Rotated text
- Colour to denote meaning (as this will not display the same on all electronic devices)
- Images
- Vertical or diagonal lines
- Multiple parts (e.g., ‘Table 1a’ and ‘Table 1b’). These should either be merged into one table, or separated into ‘Table 1’ and ‘Table 2’.
If there are more columns than can fit on a single page, then the table will be placed horizontally on the page. If it still cannot fit horizontally on a page, the table will be broken into two parts.
References
The following guidance is largely based on what has come to be known as the Harvard system of referencing (author-date). For citation formats not listed here, authors may consult this document for guidance on the Harvard style. However, priority should be given to OLHJ’s distinctive author-date format where possible. Authors not submitting in the Harvard style will be responsible for ensuring that references are internally consistent within the manuscript.
Please note that any references listed in the 'References' section of an article that are not cited within the body text of the article should be removed. This is to ensure that only relevant sources are present in the article for the reader, which also streamlines the editorial process. A complete bibliography or literature review should not be given in the context of a research article unless a very specific reason is offered to the editor upon the article's submission. The editors will consider if such a request is reasonable and it is their discretion as to whether this request is honoured.
In-text citations
Every use of information from other sources must be cited in the text so that it is clear that external material has been used.
OLHJ uses parenthetical citations in the author-date format. These should, where possible, be placed before the punctuation mark following the quotation or material being referenced, ideally at the end of the sentence before the full stop. However, in some specific cases it may be appropriate to give the parenthetical citation directly after the quotation, especially where multiple works and authors are cited within the same sentence and it would otherwise be confusing to list all citations in one set of parentheses.
If the author is already mentioned in the main text, then the year should follow the name within parenthesis:
Both Jones (2013) and Brown (2010) showed that ...
If the author name is not mentioned in the main text, then the surname and year should be inserted, in parenthesis, after the relevant text. Two citations may be conflated in the same set of parentheses and should be separated by semi-colon. These citations may be listed alphabetically or in chronological order but this must be consistent throughout the article. Three or more citations follow the same structure and the final citation must still be preceded by a semi-colon (not ‘and’):
This argument has since been disputed (Brown, 2010).
Existing work clearly shows this to be untrue (Brown, 2010; Jones, 2013).
The study has been analysed by others (Brown, 2010; Jones, 2013; Smith, 2016).
If three or fewer authors are cited from the same citation, then all should be listed. If four or more authors are part of the citation then ‘et al.’ should follow the first author name. This abbreviation should be followed by a full stop:
- (Jones, Smith and Brown, 2008)
- (Jones et al., 2008)
If citations are used from the same author or source and are the same year, then a lowercase letter, starting from ‘a’, should be placed after the year:
- (Jones, 2013a; Jones, 2013b)
If specific pages are being cited then the page number should follow the year, after a colon:
- (Brown, 2004: 65; Jones, 2013: 143)
If a citation refers to a range of pages in the source, this may be given as a range using an en dash:
- Brown, 2004: 21–5; Jones, 2013: 97–101)
Multiple, specific pages can be listed for a single citation and separated by a comma:
- (Brown, 2004: 32, 76)
Multiple works by the same author, including their page ranges or specific pages, can be given as:
- (Purdon, 1932; 1945: 1–13; 1948: 45, 67)
For publications authored and published by organisations, use the short form of the organisation’s name or its acronym in lieu of the full name:
- (ICRC, 2000) and not (International Committee of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2000)
For some anonymously authored work, such as non-attributed newspaper or magazine articles, it may be appropriate to cite the name of the magazine or newspaper followed by the date:
- (Herald-News, 1980)
For sacred texts, such as the Bible, please state the name of the text followed by the book, then chapter/verse as appropriate:
- (Holy Bible, Revelation: 1.8)
If no author is known, and there is no organisation or established publication such as a magazine or newspaper attached to the source, then ‘Anon’ may be used to signify the author’s anonymity:
- (Anon, 2003)
If no date is known for a work by an author, 'n.d.' should be used:
- (Peters, n.d.)
For specific works from an archive cited in-text, if the author is known then they should be cited in the standard author-date manner. However, if the author is unknown and the work is curated by an archive, 'Anon' should still be used along with the date, with the full reference given in the 'References' section.
If an archive's entire collection is being specifically cited with no author, then the name of the collection should be given in the body text of the article, or given in the parenthetical citation in full if not mentioned in the body text:
(Miniatures from a 12th-century Medical and Herbal Collection, The British Library, n.d.)
Additionally, if there is a specific folio or section that is being cited from an archive, this can be given in the same manner as a page range (following a colon), or after the page range in the format the archive supplies, given in square brackets.
It is possible to abbreviate texts for articles in some fields where texts are well-known for simplicity of in-text citations. However, these abbreviations should be defined separately in full in the 'References' list under a separate 'Abbreviated Works' heading for clarity. Because this is an abbreviated citation, a colon or comma may be used depending on the adopted style in the field. For example, this citation refers to James Joyce's Finnegans Wake:
- (FW, 34) or;
- (FW: 34)
If there are multiple editions of an abbreviated text, this should be denoted in square brackets in this manner and made clear in the 'Abbreviated Works' section:
- (FW [1950], 34) or;
- (FW [1950]: 34)
Similarly, if you are citing lines or sections from a well-known poem or text without specific page ranges, these can be cited in the same manner as an abbreviated text with page ranges, as long as the full reference is given in the 'References' section under an 'Abbreviated Works' heading. For example, with Dante's 'Inferno' from The Divine Comedy you might use:
- (Inf, 16.124) or;
- (Inf: 16.124)
Please do not include Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) in parenthetical citations, but rather cite the author or page title, and then include all details, including the URL, in the references list at the end of the article.
References list
All sources that are cited in the main text of the article must be listed as full references at the end of the text file, in alphabetical order of the authors’ surnames. Only author names at the start of the reference are to be given in bold font. Subsequent names within a reference listing (such as editors or translators) should not be in bold.
All cited materials should be included in the ‘References’ section. Works which have not been cited within the main text, but which the author wishes to share with the reader, must be cited as additional information in endnotes that explain the relevance of the work. This will ensure that all works within the reference list are cited within the text.
If multiple works by the same author are being listed, the author’s name must be listed for each individual entry. A long dash should not be used.
For referenced titles, capitalise all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and subordinate conjunctions (i.e., as, because, although). Use lower case for all articles, coordinate conjunctions and prepositions.
Abbreviate editor(s) to (ed.) or (eds.) and translator to (trans.); this information should be placed after their name(s).
Unlike the in-text citations, in the reference list all authors of the work should be listed in full; 'et al.' must be avoided. This helps both to identify the source precisely and acknowledge the importance of all contributors.
Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) should be included for all reference entries, where possible.
Reference Format
Books
Author, A A Year Title. Place of publication: Publisher.
Adam, D J 1984 Stakeholder Analysis. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Silverman, D F and Propp, K K (eds.) 1990 The Active Interview. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Achebe, C 1995 Colonialist Criticism. In: Ashcroft, B et al. (eds.) The Post Colonial Studies Reader. London: Routledge. pp. 57–61.
Piaget, J 2014 The Child’s Conception of the World. Tomlinson and Tomlinson, A (trans.). London: Gallimard.
Milani, F 2001 Le Fantôme de l’Opéra [The Phantom of the Opera]. Paris: Leroux.
For anonymously published books, or if no author can be attributed to a book:
Anon 1996 Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics. New York: Vintage.
Ebooks
If an online ebook:
Ubelaker, D H (ed.) 2013 Forensic Science: Current Issues, Future Directions [ebook]. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. https://www-dawsonera-com.proxy.library.lincoln.ac.uk/ abstract/9781118373873 [Last Accessed 14 May 2015].
If an ebook reader format, e.g. Kindle:
Wu, T 2010 The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires [Kindle DX e-book]. London: Atlantic Books.
Sacred texts
Holy Bible [authorised King James version]. London: Collins Bible.
Journal articles
Author, A Year Title. Journal name, vol(issue): page. DOI
Please include DOIs for all journal articles where possible, using ‘https’ and without using ‘dx’ in the domain name, as shown in the following format: https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx
Martin, L 2010 Bombs, Bodies and Biopolitics: Securitizing the Subject at Airport Security. Social and Cultural Geography, 11(1): 17–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649360903414585
If you wish to reference an article or chapter found within a book, follow:
Crouch, D and Grassick, R 2005 Amber Films Documentary and Encounters. In: Crouch, D, Jackson, R and Thompson, F (eds.), The Media and the Tourist Imagination: Converging Cultures. London and New York: Routledge. pp. 42–59.
Archives, Collections and Archival Work
Archival works accessed physically (in person) that have an author should be referenced in the same way as other works, following this format:
Legh, P 1729 Letter to Francis Leicester July 24th (DLT C35/74). Leicester-Warren Family of Tabley Records. Cheshire Archives and Local Studies, Chester.
Online accessed archival work:
Davis, D 1992 This wonderful life. Broadsheet, 9(3): 29–34. National Association for the Teaching of Drama Archive [Online]. http://www.mantleoftheexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/NATD.v.9.3-1993.pdf [Last Accessed 21 April 2017].
Collections from archives that have been cited but have no identifiable author should be referenced in the following format, leading with the name of the archive/library itself and concluding with the relevant shelfmark, etc.:
The British Library n.d. Miniatures from a 12th-century Medical and Herbal Collection. London. Sloane 1975.
Artwork
If seen in a gallery/collection/museum:
Monet C 1896 Flood Waters [oil on canvas]. London: The National Gallery.
If seen online:
Monet C 1896 Flood Waters. London: The National Gallery. http://www. nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/claude-monet-flood-waters [Last Accessed 30 June 2015].
If seen in book:
Rodchenko, A 1936 Ready for Work and Defence. In: Ewing, W A (ed.) 2000 The Century of the Body: 100 Photoworks 1900-2000. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 107.
Audio-visual material
Film on DVD:
Lean, D (dir.) 1945 Brief Encounter [DVD]. Granada Ventures.
Radio or television programme:
David Attenborough Meets President Obama 2015 [television]. BBC One. 28 June 2015, 22:30.
Radio or television series:
Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming 2012 [download]. Sky Atlantic, Season 1, Episode 1.
Recorded programme in an online archive:
Women’s World Cup Quarter-Final: England v Canada 2015 [television]. BBC One. 27 June, 00:05. http://bobnational.net/record/302674 [Last Accessed 30 June 2015].
Video sharing website:
University of Lincoln 2015 Visiting Lecturer: Jason Bradbury [video]. https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=zezHyLr5iEw [Last Accessed 29 June 2015].
Newspaper articles
Author, A Year Title. Newspaper, date of publication, page.
Tate, P 2007 Illicit Organ Trade Increasing. The Jordan Times, 6 June, p. 3.
Pakey, J 2015 Sir Bradley Wiggins Team Tweets Line-up for National Championships. Lincolnshire Echo, 22 June. http://www.lincolnshireecho.co.uk/ Sir-Bradley-Wiggins-team-tweets-line-National/story-26742932-detail/story.html [Last Accessed 22 June 2015].
If the newspaper or magazine article does not have an author, use the newspaper title, in itaclics and bold font, where the author’s name would usually appear:
The Guardian 2020 Wednesday Briefing: Last Orders in Fight to Avoid Lockdown, 23 September. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/23/wednesday-briefing-last-orders-in-fight-to-avoid-lockdown [Last Accessed 22 June 2020].
Letters, emails and voice conversations
Letters:
Author, A 2001 Unpublished letter to Anon, 4 January.
You may reference (and cite) letters from within sources such as collected works by the author’s name:
Author, A 1998 Letter to Anon, 16 May. In: Smith, J et al. (eds.) Collected Letters. London, Publisher, 2015. pp. 6–7.
Emails:
Author, A 2020 Email to Anon, 25 June.
Voice conversations:
Author, A 2016 Telephone interview conducted by Joseph Brown, 2 March.
Music
Contemporary album:
Florence and The Machine 2015 How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful [download]. London: Island Records. https://itun.es/gb/q-CF5 [Last Accessed 25 June 2015].
Contemporary track:
Jess Glynne 2015 Why Me [download]. 3 mins. 31 secs. I Cry When I Laugh. London: Atlantic Records. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Me/dp/B00XDD4WC8/ref=sr_1_1 ?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1434981993&sr=8-1&keywords=jess+glynne+why+me [Last Accessed 22 June 2015].
Classical track:
Wagner, R 1966 Tristan und Isolde [CD]. Böhm, K (cond.). Hamburg: Polydor.
Score:
Berlin, I 1994 There’s No Business Like Show Business [score]. In: The Irving Berlin Anthology. Milwaukee, USA: The Irving Berlin Music Company. pp. 236–241.
Advertisements
University of Lincoln 2015 Promotional Video for the University of Lincoln [advertisement]. https://www.youtube.com/user/UniversityofLincoln [Last Accessed 15 May 2015].
Games and computer software
Jagex Games Studio 2013 Runescape [game]. Cambridge: Jagex Games Studio. https://www.runescape.com/game [Last Accessed 28 June 2015].
Robert Gordon University 2016 WinDiets student [software]. [Last Accessed 18 April 2016].
Conference papers and proceedings
If viewed in person:
Abbott, K and Seymour, J 1997 Trapping the Papaya Fruit Fly in North Queensland, paper presented at the Australian Entomological Society Conference. Melbourne, 30 September 1997.
If viewed online:
Bayne, S and Ross, J 2007 The ‘Digital Native’ and ‘Digital Immigrant’: A Dangerous Opposition, paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE). Brighton, Sussex, 13 December 2007. http://www.malts.ed.ac.uk/staff/sian/natives_final.pdf [Last Accessed 11 October 2011].
As a published proceeding:
Gleeson, L 1996 Inside Looking Out. In: Claiming a Place: Proceedings from the Third National Conference of the Children’s Book Council of Australia. D.W. Thorpe, Port Melbourne. pp. 22–34.
Organisational print publications/Grey literature
Author group Year Title. Place of publication: Publisher.
World Health Organization 2010 The World Health Report – Health Systems Financing: The Path to Universal Coverage. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO.
Webpages / Organisational reports / PDFs
Author, A Year Title. Place of Publication: Publisher. URL [Last Accessed].
Nursing and Midwifery Council 2015 The Code for Nurses and Midwives. London: Nursing and Midwifery Council. http://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/nmc- publications/revised-new-nmc-code.pdf [Last Accessed 29 June 2015].
Hewitt, G 2015 Greek Debt Crisis: A Country on the Brink. London: BBC. http:// www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33303417 [Last Accessed 28 June 2015].
Official documents
Bill before parliament:
Access to Palliative Care Bill. [HL] Bill 13, 2015-16. London: TSO. http://services. parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/accesstopalliativecare.html [Last Accessed 26 June 2015].
Use square brackets to enclose the abbreviated form of the House the Bill was heard in e.g., [HC] for House of Commons or [HL] for House of Lords. You can find the Bill number by going to the PDF version of the Bill. Follow this with the Parliamentary session.
Act of Parliament:
Modern Slavery Act 2015 (c.30). London: TSO. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/30/ contents/enacted [Last Accessed 15 June 2015].
In parentheses put c. (the abbreviation for chapter) and the chapter.
Green, white and command papers:
Home Office 2014 Improving Police Integrity: Reforming the Police Complaints and Disciplinary Systems. CM8976. London: HMSO. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/ system/uploads/attachment_data/file/385896/45363_Cm_8976_Accessible.pdf [Last Accessed 16 June 2015].
Theses and dissertations
Author, A Year Title. Unpublished thesis (PhD), institution. Web address [Last Accessed].
Casey, S 2011 Tagging Amongst Friends: An Exploration of Social Media Exchange on Mobile Devices. PhD, University of Lincoln. http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/4924/ [Last Accessed 25 June 2015].
Social media
Author, Initials Year. Title of page [Social media type] Day/month post written. URL [Last Accessed].
Andrews, A 2012 Customer Focus Group [Facebook]. 11 November. https://www.facebook.com/andrews [Last Accessed 11 November 2010].
Big Red Corporation 2013 New Products for Cars [Twitter]. 17 May. https://twitter.com/bigredcorporation/promotions [Last Accessed 13 November 2010].
BBC Radio 4 2015 The California Gold Rush [podcast]. 2 April. http://www.bbc. co.uk/podcasts/series/iot/all [Last Accessed 27 April 2015].
Abbreviated Works/Texts
If your article uses abbreviated forms of texts in parenthetical in-text citations, there must be an 'Abbreviated Works' or 'Abbreviated Texts' list at the start of the 'References' section to your article. This should contain 1) the abbreviated form of the work/text, followed by 2) the full reference of the work in the standard reference format. The list should be ordered alphabetically as with the rest of the 'References' list. All other references should then follow underneath with the heading 'Other References'. An example entry for an abbreviated work might look like this:
FW – Joyce, J 2020 (1939) Finnegans Wake. Richmond UK: Alma Books.