SHIBBOLETHS:
A JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE THEORY
שבולת
ISSN 1993-0844
 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: ESSAYS

Contact Information:

All submissions should be sent via e-mail as an attachment (in the form of a Word, Wordperfect or .rtf document) to the Editorial Committee by clicking here. 

Your submission should be accompanied by:

• a brief abstract (which should not exceed 100 words);

• a brief bio (including your name and institutional affiliation – your name should not appear anywhere on the essay itself); and

• contact information (this should include a functioning e-mail address which you regularly access and, where applicable, the URL of a homepage, faculty page and / or other information available online).

Format:

In preparing your essay for submission, please observe the following guidelines:

• Your submission should typically be no more than 10,000 words in length.

• Please use the English as opposed to the American model of spelling (e.g. 'colour' is preferable to 'color').

• Your submission should be single-spaced throughout.

• The font used should be Verdana (10 point) throughout.

• Page numbers should also be in Verdana (10 point) and located in the top right hand corner of each page.

• Your title should be written in BOLD CAPITALS and centred at the top of the first page.

• Paragraphs should not be indented.  Rather, a single space should be inserted between paragraphs.

• In all matters of documentation, etc., you should follow the MLA Style as set out in the MLA Handbook.

  (Please click here for links to useful information on essay writing in general and the MLA Style in particular.)

• Each paper should be accompanied by a list of Works Consulted which should commence on the page following the conclusion of your essay and be formatted according to the MLA Guidelines.

• Footnotes should be used rather than endnotes:

  • note numbers should be placed outside full stops (i.e. like this.¹).

  • notes should be used primarily for clarification and expansion of points made in the main body of your essay, rather than for documentation of sources; all relevant bibliographical information should be found in your list of works consulted.

• Quotations:

  • short quotations (i.e. up to two to three lines) should be indicated by double-inverted commas (i.e. "like this");

  • longer quotations (i.e. three lines or more) should be double-indented (i.e. indented from each margin) without quotation marks.

  • page references should be placed in brackets immediately following the quotation and should not be preceded by 'p.' or 'pp.'  For example: Harris terms the nineteenth century realist novel a "novel of persuasion" (22).  Relevant documentation information should not be included here but in the list of works consulted (see above).

  • Quotes inside quotes should be indicated by single-inverted commas.

• Titles:

  • books, anthologies, collections, etc.: the titles of these should be underlined

  (e.g. Hamlet)

  • lyric poems, short stories, essays, etc.: the titles of these should be placed in double-inverted commas (e.g. "Lycidas").

• Full stops:

  • should be followed by two spaces;

  • should be placed within the appropriate quotation mark (e.g. "Stevens was a remarkable poet.")

• Single quotation marks should be used to isolate particular items (e.g. the term 'creolisation' is a contested one) while italics should be used for emphasis (e.g. various theories of the mind amount to no more than metaphors).

Where there is uncertainty, please refer to essays previously published in SHIBBOLETHS for clarification or contact the Editorial Committee by clicking here.

Submissions which fail to follow these guidelines may be returned to the author for revision prior to consideration.

Review Process:

SHIBBOLETHS is a fully peer-reviewed journal that normally employs a 'blind' review process (except in the case of specially invited submissions). 

In the first stage of the review process, the editors inform the author upon receipt of his or her submission.  In the second stage, the submission is forwarded anonymously to at least two reviewers for their comments.  Where no consensus exists concerning the quality of the submission, the submission is normally forwarded to a third reviewer.  Authors should allow up to three months for this stage of the process to be completed, though reviews are normally finished in less than two months.  In the third stage, on the basis of the reviewers' comments, the editors inform the author whether the essay has been accepted for publication and / or whether further revisions are required.  In the fourth and final stage, authors of accepted submissions receive a copy of their work to proof-read and are given the opportunity to make any corrections necessary.  Given publication deadlines, authors are normally allowed no more than two weeks to complete this stage of the process.