new formations a journal of culture/theory/politics

Editors: David Glover and Scott McCracken
Reviews Editor: Ben Highmore

GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS

Prospective writers are encouraged to contact the editors to discuss their ideas and to make reference to the style guidelines below.

Manuscripts should be sent in triplicate. They will be anonymously refereed. Manuscripts will not be returned.

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
Style Guide
Book Reviews
Instructions for Authors using discs / sending ms digitally

General Remarks

Submissions

It will be assumed that authors will keep a copy. Authors should submit three copies of their paper to:

David Glover
co-editor
new formations
School of Humanities
University of Southampton
Southampton
S017 1BJ

Tel: 023 80593156
Fax: 023 80592859

Email: dg6@soton.ac.uk

Book reviews (and books for review) should be sent to:

Ben Highmore
Reviews Editor new formations
EDB
University of Sussex
Falmer
Brighton
BN1 9RG

Ben.Highmore@blueyonder.co.uk

 

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Submissions of a paper to new formations will be taken to imply that it presents original, unpublished work not under consideration for publication elsewhere.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.

Manuscripts

Submissions should be typed in double spacing on one side of the paper, of A4 size, leaving a 40mm left-hand margin. Articles should normally be in English and of a maximum length of 8000 words. Tables or figures should be included on separate sheets, with its desired position in the text indicated by a marginal note.

Photography

Photographs should be high contrast black and white glossy prints. Permission to reproduce them must be obtained by authors prior to submission, and any acknowledgements should be included in the captions (or as captions).

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. Authors' manuscripts should be submitted with notes given as numbered endnotes; these will be converted to marginal notes on proof. Manuscripts 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 unless specifically requested, 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.

Right of Rejection

The Editor reserves the right to reject submitted material at any time up to the issuing of a contract to the author.

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:

• Manuscripts: 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.

Instructions for Authors using discs / sending ms digitally

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. Make sure you always save corrections and always send us the most recent version. It is preferable to delete earlier versions, or at least to date them. If we receive hard copy which does not match the digital version, we will asume the digital version is the correct one. We will charge for our time if it turns out that we have been sent the wrong disc.
5. Put about 30-50 kilobytes (about 20 pages / one essay) on each file.
6. 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. Don't submit tables on disk - it is usually not worth it in our experience. Send hardcopy and typesetter will set.
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 English (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 --.