ARCHIVES: Notes for Contributors
Submission of Text
One copy should be submitted to the Hon Editor either on paper or preferably electronically by e-mail attachment or on disk. The paper copy is non-returnable. The text should be double-spaced A4, with generous margins. Do not justify the right hand margin. Notes should be created as endnotes, double-spaced and numbered consecutively. Pages should be numbered. The text should be prepared by the author for blind review: all indications of the author's name and institutional affiliation must be removed prior to submission. Final copy should be submitted electronically, preferably in Word for Windows. A paper copy may be required at this stage for copy editing purposes. Articles should normally be no more than 8,000 words, including footnotes and references. Shorter submissions are welcome.
Manuscript and other quotations
- Use the original spelling but please be sparing: don't pepper your text with quotations simply because they are in archaic spelling.
- Short quotations: use single quotation marks within the text.
- Long quotations of 50 words or more: double-spaced without quotation marks, and indented from the margin as a separate block of text.
- Quotations within quotations: use double quotation marks.
Spelling
Please follow English (as opposed to American) conventions. In words with alternative endings -ise or -ize, we prefer -ise (e.g. realise rather than realize).
Capitals
- Use lower case for offices: the chancellor, king, bishop of Durham, duke of York.
- Use upper case if ambiguities are likely (e.g. the Speaker, the Chinese Secretary), and when titles immediately preface names (Bishop Smith, Queen Maud, Earl Haig).
- Use upper case for specific institutions: the East India Company, the Church of England.
- Use lower case for generic institutions: the crown, the church, the city, but follow the standard UK convention of capitalising references to the City of London when intending a specific reference to the local government unit governed by the corporation
Dates
- Use '25 October 1815' in the main text; '25 Oct 1815' in notes.
- Abbreviate months in the notes as: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, June, July, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec.
- c.1410; 1716-17; 1623-4.
- the 1430s (for decades).
- the sixteenth century (noun), a sixteenth-century bishop (adjectival), the mid-sixteenth century; '16th century' in notes.
Numbers
- Spell out numbers from one to a hundred, but use figures for 101 or more: nine; thirty-three; 413; 5,000; 43,222.
- Exceptions: use figures before abbreviated units of measurement (5lb, 10ft), and before percentages (7%).
- For numbers in series use maximum elision except for the teens: 18-19, 212-13, but 20-2, 63-4, 223-5.
Italics
Where used foreign languages (French, Latin etc.) should be italicised but translations must be provided, preferably in the endnotes.
Diagrams, maps, tables, illustrations
Illustrations should be supplied as high resolution (300 dps) scans; prints and diagrams should be scanned at 800 dps.
Short edited documents
Please provide a short introduction explaining the significance (and location) of the document concerned. Follow the advice in P D A Harvey, Editing Historical Records (British Library, 2001) and R F Hunnisett, Editing Records for Publication (British Records Association, 1977).
Citation of archival sources
Please identify the location and reference of all documents used.
Location of documents from only one source. This can be done in an initial note. E.g. 2. All documents cited in this article are kept by the London Metropolitan Archives. Henceforward, they will be cited by reference only.
Location of documents from several sources. This can be done in an initial note. E.g. 3. Documents cited in this article are kept by the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) and the Devon Record Office (DRO). Henceforward, these locations will be cited as LMA and DRO.
For references to documents, please use the citation guidance given by the holder of the documents you cite. If in doubt remember that you need to give sufficient information to enable readers to locate and identify the document(s) in question.
For internal references within documents, please use:
- p and pp for page and pages
- no and nos for numbered items
- f and ff for folios or leaves of bound volumes
- v for the verso or reverse of a folio e.g. f 7v, f 8, f 8v
- rot and rots for rotulets in parchment rolls sewn together at the top
- m and mm for membranes in parchment rolls sewn end to end
- d for the dorse or back of a membrane or rotulet e.g m 223d
If internal references do not fit these patterns, please make sure that whatever system is used as clear as possible.
Citation of published sources and secondary works
- The first reference to sources is to be punctuated, spelt out or abbreviated, and capitalised as in the examples. Use first name or initials as given on the title page, and convert volume number to lower case roman numerals
- Gareth Jones, History of the Law of Charity 1532-1827 (Cambridge, 1969), 98-103.
- Sussex Coroners' Inquests 1485- 1558, ed. R F Hunnisett (Sussex Record Society, vol lxxiv, 1985), 12-15.
- A Wood, 'The Place of Custom in Plebeian Political Culture: England 1550-1800' in Social History, vol. xxii, 1997, pp 46-60.
- Martin Ingram, 'Reformation of Manners in Early Modern England' in The Experience of Authority in Early Modern England, ed. Paul Griffiiths, Adam Fox and Steve Hindle (Basingstoke, 1996), 47-88.
- G M Townend, 'Political Career of Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland', (Edinburgh University Ph.D. thesis, 1985).
- For subsequent references use the surname and short title: Jones, Charity, 125; Hunnisett, Sussex Coroners' Inquests 1485-1558, 30-1; Ingram, 'Reformation of Manners', 49.