new formations a journal of culture/theory/politics

Editor:
Jeremy Gilbert
j.gilbert@uel.ac.uk
Reviews Editor:
Peter Buse, School of ESPACH, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT P.Buse1@salford.ac.uk

GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS

Prospective writers are encouraged to contact the editors to discuss their ideas and to make reference to the style guidelines below. Please note that all articles will be anonymously peer-reviewed

The editor welcomes proposals from those wishing to 'guest-edit' an issue on a special theme.

Prospective book reviewers are encouraged to contact the reviews editor before submitting reviews.

General remarks
Editorial process
How to submit an article
Style guide
Book reviews style information
How to supply digital files

General Remarks
Our criteria for publication insist that normally all articles must meet recognisable international standards of originality, scholarship, significance and writing. We will occasionally publish shorter position pieces either from artists or from world-leading scholars - typically based on keynote conference presentations - which do not meet the normal standards of referencing, where the editors feel that the content is of sufficient value to warrant publication, and where it would be inappropriate to impose these standards on the piece in question.

new formations is edited by an editorial board who meet three times per year and take collective responsibility for determining the editorial policies of the journal. Most issues of new formations are commissioned as special themed issues, edited either by members of the editorial board or by guest editors. Proposals for themed issues are scrutinised and refereed - first by the editors and then by the editorial board - and are only approved subject to appropriate revisions, requests for which emerge from this scrutiny.

Editorial process
Proposals for themed issues
Potential guest editors are encouraged to contact the editors initially to discuss their ideas. If the editors think that the idea of a themed issue is appropriate, then the editor/s will be asked to submit a formal proposal consisting of a rationale for the issue (3-600 words), a list of contributors with biographical details, and a 200-word abstract for each proposed contribution.

Commissioned articles for themed issues
These are refereed in the following stages:
1. They are read first by the editors of the themed issue, who recommend revisions as appropriate.
2. They are then read by the journal editors, who recommend revisions as appropriate.
3. They are then passed to two peer-reviewers with appropriate expertise for blind review. Where appropriate these reviewers are drawn from the editorial or advisory boards. Where this is not appropriate, established colleagues with relevant expertise are consulted.
4. The journal editor then collates the responses of the reviewers and passes an informed response to the contributor, either directly or via the issue editor. This response may take the form of a rejection, a request for specified revisions, or an acceptance. Where the two reviewers have offered apparently contradictory responses, the article is sent to another pair of readers for blind review, with the total responses then being collated and acted upon by the editor. In theory, this process can continue indefinitely, although it is extremely rare for it to go beyond 4 reviewers in total.

Occasionally, the editors or other members of the board (with the agreement of the board) will commission articles from particular individuals outside of the context of a themed issue. These articles are subject to the same process outlined above, beginning at stage 2.

Unsolicited contributions
We also welcome unsolicited articles which are collated into occasional general issues (ideally we aim to publish one each year, although this is not always possible owing to the volume of quality themed issues that we publish). Potential contributors are encouraged to contact the editors to discuss their work or to send a first draft to them for initial inspection.

Normally, an article will only be submitted to the review process after a positive initial recommendation from the editors (and may occasionally go through a process of continuous revision at this stage, where the editors do not regard the article as ready for submission but do regard it as showing appropriate potential).

Once the editors regard an unsolicited article as ready for review, it is entered into stage 3 of the process outlined above for commissioned articles for themed issues, except that in this case it is sent to three readers to be reviewed.

How to submit an article
All commissioned or unsolicited submissions should be sent electronically to each of the editors (addresses at the top of this page), and should be sent as two separate documents: one containing the manuscript, but without the author's name or affiliation (so that it can be used, if appropriate, for anonymous peer-review), the other containing containing the title, 5-10 keywords, 100-200 word abstract, and an biographical note about the author/s.

Submissions should normally be between 7,000 and 10,000 words in length, including references.

Then include in this section the subheads on copyright, photography, references and notes, proofs, complimentary copies

Copyright
Submissions of a paper to new formations will be taken to imply that it presents original, unpublished work not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Authors will be asked to give such an undertaking when issued with a contract by the Publisher (see below). By submitting a manuscript the author agrees that he or she is granting the Publisher for a fixed term the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute the paper including reprints, photographic reproductions, microfilm or any other reproduction of a similar nature, and translations. He or she will not be required to assign the copyright.

Photography
Photographs should be supplied at at least 300dpi.. Permission to reproduce them must be obtained by authors prior to submission, and any acknowledgements should be included in the captions (or as captions). It is preferable to discuss pictures and how to supply them with the editors at an early stage of the submission process.

References and Notes
For style, please see below. In general, authors are asked to integrate into the text remarks made as notes, and to use notes - which now appear beside the text in the journal, rather than as endnotes - where possible for references only, for the sake of clarity and economy. Files should be submitted with notes given as numbered endnotes; these will be converted to marginal notes on proof. Files submitted with a 'non-new formations-style' (eg Harvard System) or inconsistent system will be returned for amendment by the author.

Proofs
Page proofs will be sent for correction to each author, together with a contract. The difficulty and expense involved in making amendments at page proof stage make it essential that authors regard their submitted typescripts as fair copies. Any alterations (other than corrections to literals and typographical errors) are strongly discouraged. Authors are requested to check and return proofs to the editor, together with a signed copy of their contract, as promptly as possible.

Complimentary Copies and Offprints
Offprints will not normally be supplied, but every author will naturally receive a free copy of the issue to which he or she has contributed, and may purchase further copies (and back numbers) on trade terms. A pdf of your article is available on request.

Style Guide

• Generally consistency is all-important, but please follow these rules.

• Extracts (quotations of 60 words or more): indent without quotation marks, with a line space above and below, giving reference by superscript numeral and endnote.

• Italics: for names of ships, play titles, newspapers (only The Times and The Economist have 'The' as part of title), paintings, film titles, books, magazines, journals, TV programme names. Poem, essay and short story titles in roman and single quotes.

• Quotations (less than 60 words): single quote marks, but double for quotation within quotation. Square brackets for author/editor's insertion of words not in the original, eg 'in many respects [hers is an] exemplary biography.' All signs of punctuation used with words in quotation marks must be placed according to sense, as in the following examples

  'Why does he use the word "poison"?'

  But I boldly cried out, 'Woe unto this city!'

  Alas, how few of them can say, 'I have striven to the very utmost'!

• S/Z: s spellings preferred (eg organise, apologise, etc).

• Dashes: spaced 'en' rules - to be typed thus.

• Ellipses: three dots with spaces on either side thus ... even if a sentence ends of starts with one. Omit all other punctuation even if, for example, a sentence ends before the ellipse.

• Paragraphs: indicate by double hard return. No indent.

• Hyphens: maintain consistency (keep list if in doubt): compound nouns, eg film-maker, make-up (but not established compounds, eg soundtrack, comeback, breakdown, etc); double adjectives, eg well-timed (but not adverb and adjective, eg widely known); clashing vowels, eg co-operate, re-introduce (but not rewrite, rethink etc); words with two meanings (eg recreation and re-creation); adjectival phrases, eg middle-class (but not the noun, eg the working class); hyphenate five-year-old but not no one.

• Foreign words/phrases: check with Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors for accents and italicization. Roman only for words/phrases in common usage, eg rendezvous, role, regime (note: no accents).

• Contractions: omit full point of contractions (which end in last letter of word), e.g.: Dr, Mr, Mrs, St, edn, eds, Ltd; and after metric unites (preferred to Imperial measures, but please be consistent), e.g.: cm, m, km, kg, etc. No full point for etc if followed by other punctuation.

• Abbreviations: end with full points (since truncated), e.g.: p.m., ed., vol., no., etc. And for initials of people, e.g.: R. A Butler, Edward W. Said, etc. No full points with initials for organizations etc, e.g.: RAC, BBC, SWP, HMSO, USA, etc.

• Dates: use 1950s, not fifties, or '50s or 1950's. Use 1984, not '84; and use 1914-18, unless 1899-1902. For complete dates, give thus: 25 June 1992 (not 25th June 1992, or June 25, 1992). Spell out nineteenth century, not 19th century (and note hyphenation of adjectival usage, e.g.: a nineteenth-century tradition).

• Numbers: spell out to 100 (e.g.: eighty-nine), then use numerals (e.g.: 253). The exceptions are measurements (see below) and millions/billions (e.g.: £7.8 million). Thousands: use comma only in five- or six-figure numbers, ie. 4000 but 45,000.

• Measurements: use figures (numerals), e.g.: 8 km, 15 hectares, etc. Film/camera lens measurements thus, 16mm, 35mm (closed up as shown).

• Percentages: use figures, and spell out per cent (two words) (e.g.: 20 per cent).

• Notes and References: these are now displayed as marginal notes in new formations for ease of reference. Check that they are complete and corresponding correctly to superscript numerals in text, placed outside punctuation: e.g.: ... as Fredric Jameson notes.17 When giving references follow this style: author's (or editor's) surname (with first name preferably, or initial[s]), title (italicized) and subtitle, publisher, place and date, e.g.:

  Books:
  Fredric Jameson, Political Unconscious, London, Methuen, 1981, pp206-280.
  Dorothy Richardson, Pilgrimage, Vol. 3, London, Virago, 1979, p61.

  Edited Collections:
  Stuart Hall and Martin Jacques (eds), The Politics of Thatcherism, London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1983.

  Chapters in books:
  Judith Butler, 'Burning Acts: Injurious Speech', in A. Parker and E. Kosofsky-Sedgewick (eds), Performativity and Performance, New York, Routledge, 1995, pp197-227.

  Journals:
  Richard Menke, 'Telegraphic Realism: Henry James' In the Cage', PMLA, 115, 5 (2000), 975-90.

  Other periodicals:
  Alex Hamilton, 'Clogs by the Aga', Guardian, 11 January 1994, p7.

  Only add page references where appropriate at end. Use ibid. and op. cit., eg. Hall and Jacques, op. cit., pp49-53.
  Or:
  Ibid., p45.
  Op. cit., p37.

• Capitalisation: check with Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors for capitalisation of proper names etc. Do not normally capitalise socialism, communism, fascism, the left, the right, etc. For chapter/section headings use upper case, e.g. THE END OF FORDISM AND ORGANIZED CAPITALISM.

Book Reviews

Reviewers should note the following variations from the main style guidelines:

• Extent: The maximum length is usually 2000 words. new formations also carries short reviews or 'booknotes' of 300-400 words.

• Reference and Notes: Footnotes should be kept to an absolute minimum. Page references to the book(s) reviewed should be incorporated in the text (eg: 'as the author herself claims (p23) ... '). References to other works requiring footnotes should be avoided where possible.

• Book Title: Publication details of books under review should include the number of pages and the price of paper and cloth editions where appropriate, eg.: Robert Markley (ed), Virtual Realities and their Discontents, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1996, 171pp; £12.50 paperback, £32 cloth.

How to supply digital files

1. Please use Word in a PC compatible form. Send files as rtf files.
2. Please follow the style sheet.
3. Always label files clearly and obviously - eg with your surname and (abbreviated if necessary) title.
4. Put about 30-50 kilobytes (about 20 pages / one essay) on each file.
5. Keep an up-to-date backup of everything.

Keying guidelines

1. Keep layout simple, but you can put in italics, bold, etc - these will transfer if you are going from Word to rtf. Do not use underline.
2. Don't indent for paras - use double return.
3. Send tables or illustrations as separate files and mark in the text where they should go.
4. Don't use different fonts, stick with Times New Roman all the way.
5. Use correct character - eg don't type 0 (number) for O (letter) or I (letter) for 1 (number).
6. Only leave a single space after punctuation.
7. Don't hit return key at the end of lines, let the word processor do the lines. Don't hyphenate words that occur at the end of lines because the hyphens will fall in the wrong place in the set copy.
8. Don't justify.
9. Try to be consistent in your spelling, style, etc. That way, any changes can be made globally.

Basic checks to do

1. Do a spell check but not a grammar check (Word's grammar is not very good). Make sure your spellcheck language is E nglish (British). Always check Word's suggestions, they are not always right.
2. Do a global search and replace for double spaces. Also do a global check for inverted commas, which often change format when transferring from one programme to another. Do a check for dashes which should be thus -- not thus -. But, contrastingly, hyphens should be thus - not thus --.

Subscription rates

Note to overseas subscribers: you can use your local credit card to pay in sterling, money will be paid in sterling and deducted from your account in local currency

All online articles published by Lawrence & Wishart are licenced under a Creative Commons Licence. If you teach at a university please email us detailing use. Commercial media must contact us for permission and fees.