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Guide for Contributors to The Journal

1. Introduction

The Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research is published quarterly, in March, June, September and December. The Hon. Editor welcomes Articles, notes and documents from members and non-members of the Society on any aspect of the history and traditions of the British Army, including the Militia and Volunteer Forces, and armies levied by the Crown in earlier times. Submissions on the history of land forces in the countries of the Commonwealth and former British Empire are also most welcome. The Hon. Editor wishes to point out that articles accompanied by good-quality colour or black-and-white illustrations are especially welcome. All articles are peer refereed and are abstracted in Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life.

Contributions submitted for consideration should be, so far as possible, compiled in accordance with the guidelines below. Items accepted for publication may be returned to the author for corrections to bring them into conformity with these guidelines, if they do not so conform when submitted. Ideally, Articles and Communications should be no longer than 9,000 words with approximately 500 words allowed for notes. Foot notes should primarily be references and should not be additional paragraphs of text that could appear in the main body of the article. Contributions for the Notes and Queries section do not usually run to more than 1,500 words. Articles should be typed using double spacing and with as little embedded formatting as possible. Headers are not necessary. The optimum positions for illustrations should be marked in the text, but they should not be ‘pasted into’ the document. They must be supplied as separate attachments. All illustrations must be provided with a caption and, where appropriate, an acknowledgement of the source from which they come. Authors must retain a further copy for reference. It is anticipated that provision of material in electronic format will be the norm.

In general, for all matters of style, authors should consult:

  1. Ritter, R.M., (ed.), The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors (Oxford: OUP, 2000)
  2. Ritter, R.M., (ed.), The Oxford Guide to Style (Oxford: OUP, 2002)

Please note that the editor will also accept as style guides the New Hart’s Rules (OUP, 2006) and the New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors (OUP, 2006).

It may, however, be easiest for prospective authors simply to look at recent issues of the Journal, say back to 2015, and follow the style that is exhibited therein.

2. Notes and quotations

All notes must be inserted using the software in your computer and must not be inserted "manually". They may be presented either as endnotes or footnotes and as long as they are 'software-inserted', they can be changed from one to the other for ease of editing. They should also be double spaced. As far as possible, they should be restricted to references only - See 12 below. The editor will cut unnecessary text in notes.

3. Quotes

Within the text single quotation marks should be used. Double quotation marks should be used only for quotations within quotations. Quotations of over fifty words should be indented, without quotation marks and should appear in italics.

4. Dates

  1. Dates including a year may appear without st, th, rd: 19 June 1976 but ordinal numbers may be used - 19th June 1976. Whichever style is adopted must be used consistently throughout the article. Dates appearing without a year (that year being obvious from the context of the paragraph) should appear with st, th, rd. Dates with years or months should never be preceded by ... the ..., but if neither month nor year is given, the definite article is appropriate ... on the 18th this happened, on the 20th that happened.
  2. Spell out century numbers in full: the nineteenth century (but remember to hyphenate the adjective: nineteenth-century fashion).
  3. For a year that covers more than one calendar year, such as an academic or financial year, use an oblique stroke: 1987/8.
  4. Do not abbreviate months except in notes where (excepting May, June, and July) months should be abbreviated to their first three letters.
  5. Decades should be 1930s, not 1930’s, thirties, or Thirties [note: there is no apostrophe].
  6. Dates before the introduction of the Julian Calendar in 1752, which made 1st January the beginning of the New Year, must be expressed in the appropriate form. Prior to 1752 the year began on Lady Day, 25th March, and dates that fall before that day must appear in the form 17th February 1643/44 so that it is clear what year in the 'modern' era is being referred to.

5. Abbreviations and Contractions

Distinguish between the two. Terminate with a full stop only when the last letter is not present: Thus Mr, Dr, Ltd, St, Cpl, Sgt, Capt., Maj., Brig. Note that abbreviations of ranks should only appear in footnotes and statistical tables. Otherwise, ranks should be written in full. Do not use full stops with abbreviations (i.e., BBC), only with initials of names (i.e., J.B. Smith).

6. Numbers

  1. In general, use words for numbers up to ten.
  2. From 11 upwards, use figures.
  3. Figures should be spelt out when starting a sentence, but sentences must never start with a numerical unit designation, e.g. 5th Division moved on the next day ... Such a sentence should start On the next day 5th Division moved ...
  4. Use a comma in thousands or above, i.e. 9,750, 10,650.
  5. Figures must be used before abbreviations, i.e. 6 km.
  6. Figures are always used for percentages except when starting a sentence. Per cent should appear as % and not per cent.
  7. Write 0.5, not .5.
  8. Page ranges should be as follows: pp. 786-789, not 786-89.
  9. Use numbers for ages, e.g. 45 years old.

7. Capitalisation

Should be used for the specific rather than for the general, as, for example: God, the Queen, the British Army, Regulars, the Regular Army. When referring to individuals, write of ‘Colonel John Burgoyne, 16th (Light) Dragoons’. Elsewhere, you might refer to him as John Burgoyne, colonel of a regiment of Light Dragoons. In the cases of ‘Militia’, ‘Highlanders’, ‘Volunteers’ and other military organisations, when a formed unit is directly referred to, the capital letter should be used (eg ‘The Black Watch captured the position and the Highlanders then continued their advance’). Otherwise use lower case, as ‘the attacking force was largely composed of volunteers’. Other Ranks meaning non-officers must be spelt with capital O and R.

8. Ranks and Regiments

Designations of rank should be given in full in the text, but abbreviated in footnotes.

9. Italics

Please type in italics where necessary, principally in long quotes. Italics should be used for emphasis only sparingly. The following rules are a guide as to what should and should not be italicized:

  1. Titles of published books (but NOT the Koran, the Bible). Titles of newspapers or other periodicals, long poems, paintings, plays, films, operas and oratorios (but NOT TV or radio programmes, which should be in roman and quotes).
  2. Names of ships should be italicized.
  3. Foreign words or phrases in an English sentence should be italicized, but foreign-language quotes should be treated as normal quotes.

10. Abbreviations

Those to be used are: L/Cpl, Cpl, Sgt, Sgt-Mjr, 2nd Lt, Lt, Capt., Maj., Lt-Col, Col, Brig., Maj-Gen., Lt-Gen., Gen., FM.

11. Regimental names

These should be given in full as they appear in the Army List for the years under discussion on the first occasion when the regiment is mentioned. Thereafter, and if there are repeated references to the same regiment or a battalion thereof, the title may be abbreviated. This abbreviation should appear in round brackets after the first full usage.

The King's Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB)

12. References/Notes

These should be supplied as endnotes. They should be full enough when first cited to be readily identifiable. Any further citation should be indicated by a clear abbreviation. Avoid art.cit., loc.cit., op.cit. When a reference to a particular page or folio of a single work is followed in the next footnote by a reference to the same item, ibid. (not italic) may be used, but for the sake of clarity it should never be used after citations of more than one work. References to books should indicate author(s) by forename(s)/initial(s) and surname, title in italics, place of publication followed by a colon, the publisher followed by a comma and date in round brackets, and, finally, page number p. 5 or numbers pp. 36-41. For archival sources list the collection from which it comes, followed by the catalogue reference, then the details of the document (sender, recipient, date).

Example One (book): A. Woolrych, Soldiers and Statesmen: The General Council of the Army and its Debates 1647-1648 (Oxford: OUP, 1987), p. 280.

Thereafter use

Woolrych, Soldiers and Statesmen, pp. 234-256.

Example Two (edited volumes): First references to edited volumes should indicate the title in italics, the editor(s), number of volumes, place of publication and date in round brackets, volume and page.

H.L. Snyder, (ed.), The Marlborough-Godolphin Correspondence (3 vols, Oxford: OUP, 1975), Vol. II, p. 28.

Thereafter use either:

Snyder, Marlborough-Godolphin Correspondence, Vol. II, pp. 25-28.

Example Three (book chapters/articles): References to articles and essays should indicate author, title of article in single quotation marks, journal or title of edited essays in italics, editors of essays, place of publication and date in round brackets, volume where appropriate, and page:

R. Davis, ‘English foreign trade, 1660-1700’ in E.M. Carus-Wilson, (ed.), Essays in Economic History (3 vols, London: Eyre & Spottiswood, 1957-62), Vol. 2, pp. 257-272.

Thereafter use:

Davis, ‘English foreign trade’, p. 264.

H.C. McCorry, ‘Rats, lice and Scotchmen: Scottish infantry regiments in the service of France, 1742-62’, Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, Vol. 74 (1996), pp. 1-38.

Thereafter use:

McCorry, ‘Rats, lice and Scotchmen’, p. 45.

Example Four (archives): First references to manuscripts should always give the location and collection in full, indicating an abbreviation in round brackets for further references:

(1) National Army Museum, 7805-63, Typescript of letters of Capt. Nicholas Delacherois, 9th Foot, f. 45.

Thereafter use:

NAM, 7805-63, Delacherois Letters, f. 56.

(2) The National Archives (UK), Secretary at War Out-letters, WO4/48, f. 45 - Fox to Lt. Smith, 9.1.1752.

Thereafter use:

TNA, S-a-W Out-letters, WO4/48, f. 56.

The title of the file or series of documents must be given.

13. Acknowledgements

Should be made at the end of the article and must not be attached to an endnote. They should be headed Acknowledgements. No numbered endnote should be attached to a word in the title of the article or to the name of its author.

14. Autobiographical note

Authors are required to submit a very brief autobiographical note, which will be printed in a supplementary section of the Journal.

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