The following notes provide guidelines on the preparation of papers for publication in a volume of the Proceedings of the British Academy, and include information on how to prepare illustrations and tables. The recommendations made here must be followed carefully. This will ensure that levels of consistency are maintained throughout the volume and that your text will pass smoothly through the editorial process.
Please note, it is the author’s responsibility to clear all permissions prior to submitting your final work to production.
The typescript
You are advised to use 12 pt Times New Roman for your main text.
Quotations
Single quotation marks ‘ ’ should be used, with double quotation marks “ ” being reserved for quotes within quotes.
Displayed quotations; quotations which are longer than five lines when typeset (roughly, more than 60 words) should be indented with no quotation marks.
Sub-headings
Ensure the text is broken up at regular and appropriate intervals by main headings and sub-headings. Sub-headings should not be numbered and should not be capitalised. Please avoid the use of more than three levels of heading. For clarity in the typescript, a level 1 sub-heading should be bold centred, a level 2 sub-heading should be bold aligned left, a level 3 sub-heading should be italic aligned left.
Cross-referencing
- Cross-references should be given in a way that makes them useful in both the print and digital versions of your paper.
- Point readers to a specific target. Don’t use ‘see above’ or ‘see below’.
- Avoid instances of cross-referencing by page number alone because the layout of the online material may be different from the printed page.
- Cross-referencing by heading works well in both print and digital formats, for example ‘(see Chateaux Inventories: Chapels)’.
- Cross-refer to the lowest level heading as appropriate.
- Avoid including cross-references in headings.
Lists
- Arabic numbers should be used for lists, with no parentheses around the number and no full points.
- Bullet-points for non-hierarchical lists are also acceptable.
Spelling
- The British Academy uses British spelling.
- Please note that the house style is to use the endings -ise/-isation in cases where an alternative in -ize/-ization exists: civilise, civilisation.
Illustrations
Illustrations are included if they amplify the text; they should not be merely decorative.
All illustrations, whether line diagrams, maps or half-tones (photographs), should be described as Figures. ‘Figure’ should never be abbreviated to ‘Fig.’ in the text or the caption.
Digital image file types, and resolution
All illustrations should be supplied as digital images. Do not embed illustrations within the Word text file; supply each illustration as a separate file. Digital images must be of sufficient resolution to be reproduced at the desired final size. Photographic illustrations should be supplied as tiffs or jpegs; the minimum resolution needed at the image’s final size is 300 dpi. Line diagrams should be supplied as tiffs; the minimum resolution needed at the image’s final size is 600 dpi. Please ensure any text labels on diagrams are in Times New Roman, and a legible font size.
Size
The maximum page frame size = 180 mm high × 115 mm wide. If you do not wish all of a particular image to be reproduced, please indicate in your list of illustrations that cropping is necessary and also supply a scanned version with the cropping indicated on it.
Colour
Colour should only be included when it is absolutely necessary for a full understanding of the illustration. We may ask that you obtain a grant towards the extra production costs if substantial colour printing is required. The publishing department ([email protected]) will be happy to advise you.
Labelling
There should be a minimum of labelling on the illustration itself: explanations should generally be included in the caption. Where needed, labelling should preferably be set in a sans-serif typeface (such as Arial), and it should be large enough that when the image is reproduced at the desired final size the labelling font size is 8-9pt.
Positioning
The final position of any illustration will not be determined until proof stage. Each Figure will be inserted as close as possible to its first mention in the text, unless you indicate a different location in the typescript.
Tables
All tables should be submitted as individual Word files, not embedded within the text. Place markers in red in the text to indicate where tables should be placed once typeset. The correct method for referring to the table in the text is ‘as shown in Table 1’. The following example illustrates the correct layout of a table:
Detailed points of editorial style
Quotations
- Relative position of a closing quotation mark and punctuation. Punctuation should be inside the quotation mark only if there was punctuation at that point in the material quoted, otherwise it should be outside.
- Points of omission ... should be typed as three points with a space either side of the three. If the matter before the omission points ends a complete sentence, it will have its own close-up full point, which is quite independent of the points of omission. ...
Italics
- Book titles, etc. Use italics for published books (except books of the Bible), journals, plays and works of art.
- Foreign words and short phrases that have not been naturalised are in italic. Foreign institutions are in roman.
- Italics in abbreviations. Most of the common Latin abbreviations are kept in roman type (cf., e.g., i.e., vice versa and viz.) but c., et al., et seq. are italic.
- Emphatic italics. Use italics rather than bold for emphasis, but sparingly.
Abbreviations
- Avoid unnecessary abbreviations. If you are using any that may be unfamiliar to a non- specialist reader, please explain them at their first occurrence.
- Italics should only be used in abbreviations where the expanded version is in italic: OED (Oxford English Dictionary); but LSJ (A Greek–English Lexicon by Liddell, Scott and Jones).
- Use of full points. Do not put full points in abbreviations consisting entirely of capitals: ‘OUP’ not ‘O.U.P.’. Abbreviations consisting of a mixture of capital and lower-case letters take a full point: B.Phil., Ph.D., etc. But omit the full point after contractions (abbreviations that include the first and last letter): St (Saint), Revd, Dr, Mr, Mrs, etc. Abbreviations of units of measurement should not be given a full point: ‘cm’ not ‘cm.’.
- The apostrophe. Note that there is no apostrophe in plural forms such as MPs, QCs, etc.
Numbers and dates
- Page references. In page references, elide as many figures as possible, but retain the penultimate digit for the sequence 10–19 in any hundred: 4–8, 9–15, 17–18, 19–33, 24–8, 45-56, 99–111, 112–18, 132–8, 145–56, etc.
- Numbers. It is usual to spell out numbers up to nine in continuous text, and to use figures for 10 and above. If the context is overtly statistical, or units of measurement are being given, use figures: 5 mm, 3 per cent, a 6-year-old child. Where the context is not statistical, it may sometimes be appropriate to spell out larger numbers: ‘I felt a hundred times better’. Avoid beginning a sentence with figures.
- Percentages. Normally ‘per cent’ should be spelt out in the text: use % in tables.
- Dates. Use the form ‘16 August 1979’, without commas. (If the day of the week is given, then a comma should be inserted after it: ‘Sunday, 25 October 1953’.)
- Decades. 1960s, the ’60s, or (where appropriate in the context) the Sixties.
- Centuries. 5th century BC, 20th century, 17th-century literature.
- BC and AD are the Proceedings’ normal usage, but you may use BCE and CE if you prefer.
- Elision of dates. Keep all the figures when the extent covers more than one century: 1820–1910. Do not elide dates BC. Otherwise elide dates according to the rules above for page references: 23–5 December, 1826–8, 1914–18, etc. En-rules are used for date spans, not hyphens.
References
The Proceedings of the British Academy series embraces a wide range of disciplines, each with its own preferred conventions. Please refer to your Editor’s confirmed reference style for the volume.
Footnotes reference guide outlines the ‘short title’ system of footnotes for bibliographical references.
Harvard reference guide outlines the author-and-date system of references. The full references are given in a list of ‘References’ at the end of the paper, and references in the text (including any in the footnotes) are by author and date.