Proceedings n Transactions n Memoirs
Scholarly Publishing Since 1771
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
nPublications Policyn
Manuscripts submitted for the Proceedings,
Transactions, and Memoirs are sent to at least two outside
reviewers, and then are discussed at a Committee on Publications meeting. Depending
on the complexity of the manuscript and time of year that it is submitted, the initial
review process can take as long as a year, although the average time is about
six to nine months. No manuscript that is being considered by another press
will be reviewed by the Society. The Committee on Publications meets in
February, June, and October.
Although the word "philosophical"
appears in our title, most of the works accepted by our Committee on
Publications are in other scholarly disciplines, including history,
archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, and science (natural and applied).
Authors whose works are accepted have completed postdoctoral work and the manuscripts
submitted are the results of primary research. Philosophical treatises are not
accepted.
Because the American Philosophical Society is a
nonprofit institution, it does not pay royalties to authors. Honoraria for
reviewers, manufacturing, advertising, and editorial costs far exceed income.
To save on the cost of typesetting, authors are asked to submit accepted works
on a CD or an IBM-compatible, 3 ½ inch diskette, preferably in Word or Word
Perfect, together with a hard copy that is unbound, double-spaced, and printed
on one side only. In some cases, manuscripts will not be accepted unless the
author can provide camera-ready copy generated on a laser printer.
Copyedited CDs, diskettes, and manuscripts are
returned to authors so that final corrections can be made before typesetting
costs are incurred.
Authors may be held financially responsible for
corrections made at a later stage of production, i.e., page proof, if they cost
more than 5 percent of the total typesetting charge.
Each author of a book or monograph receives 10
gratis copies of his/her work and a 40 percent discount on other copies
ordered. Authors of articles in the Proceedings receive 50 gratis
offprints and can order more at the rate charged by the typesetter.
Copies of books published in both the Transactions
and Memoirs series are sent for reviews and appropriate mailing lists
are rented to advertise new publications. Authors are asked to supply names and
the most recent addresses of review journals and professional associations to
which the book should be mailed.
If any of the material in the manuscript, text,
or illustrations is copyrighted by someone else, it is the author's
responsibility to obtain permission to use it and to send us a copy of such
permission. It is also the author's responsibility to obtain and pay for copies
of illustrations.
Each author is expected to produce an index for
his/her book or monograph. A useful guide to indexing is provided in The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, Chapter 18. The Society also uses the Chicago
Manual for footnotes and bibliographical style—depending on whether the
subject is in the humanities or sciences. Questions about alternate styles
should be directed to the Editorial Office.
SOME STYLISTIC CONSIDERATIONS
Authors are encouraged to read Strunk and
White's The Elements of Style before submitting manuscripts. Some
particular forms are:
·
Percent is written as
one word.
·
A.D. precedes the year;
B.C. follows it.
·
Write decades (1890s,
for example) without the apostrophe.
·
Use "point of
view" instead of "viewpoint."
·
Avoid use of "the
fact that" and "as to whether."
·
Correct style for
punctuation with quotation marks is: [ ,"] [."] [";].
·
Ibid, idem, op.cit., et
al, and ca are roman. We prefer short titles instead of op.cit.
·
Acronyms of well-known
agencies, societies, associations, and journals may be used in the text but the
names should be written out the first time they are used.
·
Quotations longer than
five lines or 50 words should be set off as extracts and quotations within them
should be set off with double quotation marks.
·
Single quotation marks
are used for definitions following words in linguistics and phonetics.
·
American spellings are
preferred to British; exceptions are made, of course, when the author of the
work is British.
·
Footnotes are preferred
to endnotes and footnote numbers should be consecutive; duplicate numbers with
a and b are not allowed. An exception is made for scientific treatises where
full citation is placed at the end of an article.
·
Manuscripts submitted
should be double-spaced and blank on the reverse side and numbered
consecutively from beginning to end. Because they must be copied for review, 8
1/2 x 11 inch paper is preferred.
·
Illustrations may
include black and white glossy photographs, line drawings, and maps. Very few
four-color illustrations are permitted because of the cost; the number
permitted is negotiable.
·
If an author uses both
footnotes and a bibliography, the notes should follow the shortened form
described in the Chicago Manual.
·
Foreign words and
phrases used frequently should be italicized the first time they appear but not
thereafter.
·
The subjunctive mood is
rarely used.
1. Use it when a
construction is contrary to fact. "She wished that her brother were there
to help her."
2. Do not use it to
express condition or contingency.
·
Indexing is the author's
responsibility and the preferred style is:
1. Letter by letter
alphabetizing;
2. Caps for proper
names, lowercase for other words;
3. Subentries are
indented one space underneath the main entry.
ABOUT CDs
AND/OR DISKETTES
1. They should be formatted on an IBM computer.
MAC high-density disks may be
used but these will have to be converted and usually some formatting is lost—especially
diacritical marks.
2. ASCII versions of manuscripts on IBM are
acceptable.
3. Manuscripts should be stored on CDs or 3 1/2
inch disks.
4. Manuscript text lines should be double-spaced
(footnotes and bibliography/references may be single-spaced); lines should be
unjustified. Footnotes should not be formatted into the text, but placed at the
end of the work for easier editing. Titles and other entities that are to be
italicized should not be underlined on diskettes—use italics.
ABOUT SIZES OF MANUSCRIPTS
Proceedings
articles are usually under 60–75 double-spaced manuscript pages; they average
30 double-spaced pages.
Transactions
monographs (6 3/4 x 10 inch, paper cover) usually run between 125 and 300 double-spaced
manuscript pages. Exceptions are made. The Transactions series has been
published since 1771 and is the oldest scholarly publication in the country.
Memoirs
volumes are usually case bound unless they are small books. Manuscripts for Memoirs
may be from 150 to 500 pages or more.
Publications from the Lightning Rod Press, our
new series, are volumes placed online on the APS website as read-only files.
Instructions for print-on-demand are given on the site for those interested in
purchasing the title.
If you have questions, please call or write:
Mary McDonald, Editor
Publications Department
American Philosophical Society
Phone: [215]440-3425 Fax: [215] 440-3450
mmcdonald@amphilsoc.org