Members of the editorial board of Essays in History will work with authors to prepare accepted manuscripts for publication. Manuscripts are accepted with the expectation that the author will cooperate with the editorial board in this process. Once an author agrees to the publication of an accepted manuscript in an article in Essays in History, it is understood that the manuscript will be withdrawn from consideration for publication in any other format without the express, written consent of the Editor-in-Chief of Essays in History.
Essays in History generally adheres to the standards set forth in The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993). Notable exceptions are listed below.
Because Essays in History is a journal of general interest to historians of various periods, authors should take care to make their submissions interesting and comprehensible to a scholarly, nonspecialist audience. They should avoid jargon and should not assume that readers have detailed knowledge of their subjects or fields.
The language of publication is American English. Unless quoting, avoid use of other varieties of English and of other languages. Foreign terms should be italicized unless they form part of a long quotation—generally, three or more words—in the foreign language. A definition should accompany the first use of any foreign term that will be used repeatedly.
Italicize only short, unquoted foreign terms and the titles of books and other long works. Do not italicize proper names of persons or places.
Short quotations (shorter than three typed lines) may be accommodated within text; simply use quotation marks. Longer quotes should be block-indented and do not require quotation marks.
In most cases, write out numbers between one and one hundred. However, use Arabic numerals if these numbers are intermingled with larger numbers, when referring to chapters of a book ("chapter 1") or adhering to a conventional usage ("43 Squadron of the Royal Air Force"), as well as with the word "percent." Use Roman numerals only when referring to pages so numbered, such as the prefaces of modern books; do not use Roman numerals for volumes in a series, acts of a play, or anything else that is not a page number.
Dates should be written out in the following fashion: "3 January 2000." Note that there is no comma. Years are assumed to be AD unless otherwise specified. Decades and centuries are written out ("sixteenth century") and require a hyphen when used adjectivally ("sixteenth-century art").
Please be consistent in use of place names. If a place has changed names over the years, bring this to the reader's attention, but choose one form to use throughout your paper.
If a place is not well-known, then identify with reference to better-known places and political subdivisions appearing on maps.
Please cite in conformity with the models in The Chicago Manual of Style. Articles in Essays in History appear endnoted, with hyperlinks connecting the numbers in the text to the notes. A list of works cited follows each article.
Although the editorial staff of Essays in History will attempt to ensure that all citations conform in style to the guidelines listed here, authors bear primary responsibility for the accuracy of citations in their submitted work.
Citations should emphasize clarity over brevity. A nonspecialist should be able to find the cited source easily. Do not use any abbreviations, even those often considered standard within a certain field, without explaining them at first use.
The web format used by Essays in History makes incorporation of photographs, graphs, maps, charts, and other such materials relatively easy. Since pagination is not an issue in this format, illustrations may be placed wherever in the text they will be most relevant. They need not be numbered or given captions, but may be incorporated directly into the text.