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Start SubmissionSubmissions should be made electronically through this website.
Please ensure that you consider the following guidelines when preparing your manuscript. Failure to do so may delay the processing of your submission.
There are no set article lengths, though authors are encouraged to be as concise as their subject matter and approach allows.
Submissions normally should be structured as follows:
Title Page
Your title page must include the following information:
Title
Please ensure that your submission has a title that adequately describes its content. In the case of Book/Website reviews of a single work, the article title is the bibliographic information of the work under review. Book/Website reviews dealing with more than one work may have a title that is distinct from the works reviewed.
Author name, affiliation, and email address
Author names should be provided in the form and order you wish them to be published. Please include an affiliation for each author.
An email address should be provided for the corresponding author.
Abstract
Articles must have the main text prefaced by an abstract of approximately 300 words summarising the main arguments and conclusions: a good abstract provides the reader with a complete overview of the article. This must have the heading ‘Abstract’ and be easily identified from the start of the main text. The abstract should also be added to the article metadata during submission.
Keywords
Please provide a list of up to six keywords or phrases that describe the subject matter of your submission, separated by semicolons. The keywords should also be added to the article metadata during submission.
Main text
The body of the submission should be structured in a logical and easy-to-follow manner. A clear introduction section should be provided that allows non-specialists in the subject an understanding of the publication and a background of the issue(s) involved. The remainder of the article should be divided into appropriate subdivisions and labelled with descriptive headers. As a rule, no more than four levels of subdivision (and subheadings) should be used. Subheadings should use sentence case. If you use more than one level of subdivision and subheading, please indicate this clearly using a style hierarchy (e.g. “Heading 1,” “Heading 2,” “Heading 3” in Word or LibreOffice).
Acknowledgements (optional)
If your article has acknowledgements, please place these in a clearly-labelled section after the main body and before the references.
Competing interests (optional)
Competing and conflicting interests must be declared. Guidelines for competing interests can be found here. Please describe these (if present) in a clearly-labelled section after the main body and before the references.
Ethics and consent (if applicable)
Research involving human subjects, material, or data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Where applicable, the studies must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee and the authors should include a clearly labelled statement after the main body and before the references detailing this approval, including the name of the ethics committee and reference number of the approval (if applicable). Experiments using animals must follow national standards of care. Further information can be found here: http://bit.ly/1rBoe0S.
Author roles (multiple-author papers only)
Articles written by more than one author should describe the contributions of each author. We require the CASRAI CRediT contributor role typology. This typology should be placed in a clearly labelled section after the main body and before the references. Please use the following format. Authors are identified by lowercase initials only (without periods) separated by commas:
Details of what these terms mean can be found at http://dictionary.casrai.org/Contributor_Roles.
Works cited
All references cited within the submission must be formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style 16th Edition, author-year system and listed at the end of the main text file. Authors are strongly encouraged to use a citation manager to manage and format their references (e.g. Zotero, Paperpile, Mendeley). The journal reserves the right to charge a fee to authors whose references require significant copy-editing, formatting, and/or research during production. Please see below for sample formats.
Submission Language
The language of submission and publication in Digital studies/Le champ numérique is normally English. For the possibility of publishing in other languages, please contact the editors.
Font and character encoding
Please use a common font (e.g. Arial, Times New Roman, etc.) with a minimum size of 12 pt.
Because this font may change during production, you should not rely on distinctions in font to make substantive arguments. You should also avoid using custom or proprietary fonts and/or private-use Unicode characters. If your submission requires the use of custom fonts or private-use Unicode characters, please contact the editors.
Authors should not attempt to use fonts to produce type facsimiles mimicking the appearance of other documents (e.g. relative character size, font distinctions, etc.). If the appearance of another document is important for your argument, consider including a photographic facsimile.
In addition to the standard font-weight and face, authors may use italics, bold, and monospace to mark common distinctions in their text (e.g. foreign words, emphasis). Authors should avoid underline and other distinctive text forms. Italics and bold should be used sparingly for emphasis. Monospace should be used only for code.
Style
For detailed matters of style (punctuation, capitalisation, etc.), please consult the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition. The following guidelines address frequently asked questions.
Capitalisation
Please use Title Case for all English language titles, headings, and subheadings. Title case requires the capitalisation of all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions (i.e. as, because, although). Use lowercase for all articles, coordinate conjunctions and prepositions.
Titles in languages other than English are usually capitalised Sentence style according to the rules of the language in question (i.e. with the first word capitalised and other words capitalised as they would be in a sentence in the language in question, see Chicago Manual, §14.193). In German, for example, this would mean that the first word and all subsequent nouns would be capitalised. In French, this would mean only the first word and subsequent proper nouns.
Spelling
Authors should use a consistent spelling system throughout their article. Canadian spelling is preferred; this is the same as U.K./Commonwealth, except, primarily, for automotive terms, which are spelled as in American. When referring to proper nouns, technical terms and institutional titles, the official, original spelling must be used:
In-line Quotations
Quotation marks are used to enclose:
Quotation marks are not used for:
When you are using quotation marks, please follow Chicago style (see esp. §6.10):
Quotation marks should be used the same way in all circumstances—for quotations, translations and glosses, “scare quotes,” etc. Do not use single quotation marks in some cases and double quotation marks in others.
Italics should not be used to set-off quotations unless they are used in the original text.
Block quotations
Quotations that are three lines in length or longer should be in block quotation format. This means that their left margin should be indented from the left margin of the main body (1 cm or the equivalent of one tab stop is usually sufficient). Do not italicise block quotations unless they are italicised in your source.
URLs
URLs should be styled using your default word processor style (usually blue and underlined).
Always spell out the complete URL, including the initial protocol (i.e. https://).
URLs should always be explicit. Do not use blog-style hyperlinked text where the URL is hidden (i.e. “more information can be found here”). See belows for details on how to cite URLs.
Code
Whenever code is quoted, it should be in monotype. The emphasis in quoting code should be on clarity: use block quotation style for complex examples or you are quoting more than a line or two of code.
You should use code style whenever you are quoting information inputted to, outputted from, or used by a computer processor. The following are all examples of code:
Exceptions include Graphical User Interface (GUI) prompts (e.g. “Do you want to delete this text?”), the text of GUI buttons (e.g. “Save”) and menu paths (i.e. File > Templates > Save As Templates). Prompts and Button Texts should be placed in quotation marks. Menu paths should be reproduced in the default text with individual steps being indicated with a greater than sign.
If a user must enter text into a GUI prompt, this should be treated as code.
Acronyms & Abbreviations
With abbreviations, the crucial goal is to ensure that the reader – particularly one who may not be fully familiar with the topic or context being addressed – is able to follow along. The normal rule is to spell out acronyms on first use, indicating the acronym in parentheses immediately thereafter. Use the acronym for all subsequent references.
A number of abbreviations are so common that they do not require the full text on the first instance (e.g. USA, UK, HTTP).
Abbreviations should usually be in capital letters without full stops.
Common examples from Latin origin do not follow this rule and should be lowercase and can include full stops.
Avoid footnotes/endnotes: In an online format, notes are extremely disruptive and should be avoided whenever possible. Authors will be asked to eliminate footnotes/endnotes during the copy-editing process.
Footnotes or endnotes containing bibliographic references only (e.g. “(Frye 1969)” or “See Frye 1969”) will not be accepted.
Symbols
Symbols are permitted within the main text and datasets as long as they are commonly in use or have explanatory definition on their first usage.
Hyphenation, em and en dashes
Hyphens should not be used in your submission to divide words at the end of a line. Hyphens should be used to separate compound adjectives. Otherwise, consult a style guide for preferred practice.
Please indicate em dashes using a double hyphen or the em-dash character. There is no space between an em-dash and the preceding or following words.
En dashes can be used to replace ‘to’ when indicating a range. No space should surround the dash.
Numbers
In mathematical or coding contexts or when reporting measurements or similar data, figures should be used for all numbers. For counts (i.e. “15 examples”), you may use figures or spelled out numbers as the context warrants.
Outside of mathematical, coding, or data-reporting contexts, the numbers from zero to nine should be spelled out (see Chicago Manual, §9.3 “alternative rule”). Please use figures for numbers 10 or higher.
Authors may use either words or figures to represent large whole figures (i.e. one million or 1,000,000) as long as the usage is consistent throughout the text. Authors should not use abbreviations such as “k” for thousands, or “mil” for million. Except in mathematical contexts, authors should not use exponent notation (i.e. 1×105).
If the sentence includes a series of numbers then figures must be used in each instance.
If the number appears as part of a dataset, in conjunction with a symbol or as part of a table then the figure must be used.
If a sentence starts with a number it must be spelled out; if a figure must be used, please recast the sentence so that the number no longer begins the sentence.
Use a comma to separate thousands and a period to indicate a decimal place (do not use a comma to indicate a decimal place):
Numbers that are less than zero must have ‘0’ precede the decimal point.
Units of measurement
Symbols following a figure to denote a unit of measurement must be taken from the latest SI brochure. See http://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si_brochure_8_en.pdf for the full brochure.
Formulae and code
Formulae and code must be proofed carefully by the author. Editors will not edit formulae or code. If special software has been used to create formulae, the way it is laid out is the way they will appear in the publication.
Please use the correct unicode operators for mathematical equations and formulae, e.g. × (Unicode point 00D7) for multiplication, not x (Unicode point 0078).
Figures
Figures, including graphs and diagrams, must be professionally and clearly presented. If a figure is not easy to understand or does not appear to be of a suitable quality, the editor may ask to re-render or omit it.
All figures must be cited within the main text, in consecutive order using Arabic numerals (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.).
Each figure must have an accompanying descriptive main title. This should clearly and concisely summarise the content and/or use of the figure image. A short additional figure legend is optional to offer a further description.
Each figure or illustration should have its own caption and figure number. If two images must use a single caption or figure number, they will be combined into a single image during production.
If your figure file includes text then please present the font as Arial, Helvetica, or Verdana. This will mean that it matches the typeset text.
NOTE: All figures must be uploaded separately as supplementary files during the submission process, if possible in colour and at a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Each file should not be more than 20MB. Standard formats accepted are: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS. For line drawings, please provide the original vector file (e.g. .ai, or .eps).
Tables
Tables must be created using a word processor's table function, not tabbed text.
Tables should be included in the manuscript. The final layout will place the tables as close to their first citation as possible.
All tables must be cited within the main text, numbered with Arabic numerals in consecutive order (e.g. Table 1, Table 2, etc.).
Each table must have an accompanying descriptive title. This should clearly and concisely summarise the content and/or use of the table. A short additional table legend is optional to offer a further description of the table. The table title and legend should be placed underneath the table.
Tables should not include:
NOTE: If there are more columns than can fit on a single page, then the table will be placed horizontally on the page. If it still can't fit horizontally on a page, the table will be broken into two.
All references cited within the submission must be formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style 16th Edition, author-year system and listed at the end of the main text file. Authors are strongly encouraged to use a citation manager to manage and format their references (e.g. Zotero, Paperpile, Mendeley). The journal reserves the right to charge a fee to authors whose references require significant copy-editing, formatting, and/or research during production.
In-text citations
Every use of information from other sources must be cited in the text so that it is clear that external material has been used.
If the author is mentioned near the insertion point of the reference, then the year should follow the name within parenthesis.
If the author name is not mentioned near the insertion point, then the surname and year should be inserted, in parenthesis, after the relevant text. If in doubt, include the author name:
Multiple citations should be separated by semicolons:
If three or fewer authors are cited from the same citation then all should be listed. If four or more authors are part of the citation then ‘et al.’ (with the period) should follow the first author name.
If citations are used from the same author and the same year, then a lowercase letter, starting from ‘a’, should be placed after the year. The order of these lowercase letters should match the order in which the references appear in the Works Cited section.
If specific pages are being cited then the page number should follow the year, after a comma.
For publications authored and published by organisations, use the short form of the organisation’s name or its acronym in lieu of the full name. Such organisations also should be alphabetised by their acronym in the Works Cited.
Normally, web pages should be treated as citations and documented in the Work Cited. In such cases, URLs should not appear in the main text of the article. Exceptions can be made in the case of URLs that are cited for corporate identification purposes only, provided the URL in question is short, optimized for use by humans (i.e. natural language), and refers to the site as a whole (i.e. does not contain a specific filename or query or parameter information).
Examples of unacceptable URLs include:
When making in-text URL references, do not include an initial www. unless it is required for the URL to resolve. Always include the protocol (i.e. http://, https://, ftp://, etc.).
Works cited list
All citations must be listed at the end of the text file, in alphabetical order of authors’ surnames, acronym, or organisation name. Only works actually cited in your submission should be included in the Works Cited list. If you wish to provide additional references, these should either be worked into the text as citations or presented as a separate, bibliographic section (i.e. as an appendix).
General notes
Title case
All English language titles should be Title Case. Title case requires the capitalisation of all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions (i.e. as, because, although). Use lowercase for all articles, coordinate conjunctions and prepositions. Title in languages other than English should be capitalised using Sentence case (i.e. first word capitalised and then the rest of the title capitalised as required by the language [see Chicago Manual, §14.193]). In German, for example, this would mean that the first word and all subsequent nouns would be capitalised. In French, this would mean only the first word and subsequent proper nouns.
Author names
As a rule, you should follow the name format used by the authors you are citing in the work being cited (e.g. Roberto Rosselli Del Turco, Dan Katz, Fred C. Robinson, P.J. O’Donnell). An acceptable alternative is to use a single style for all authors, regardless of how they appear in the original source (e.g. last name and initials only). Authors whose work appears with minor differences in the form of their name (e.g. sometimes with a middle name, sometimes with a middle initial) may be silently normalised if a failure to do so would create bibliographic confusion.
Non-English names should be treated in general as in the original language (see Chicago Manual §8.6-8.17).
Corporate names
Corporate names should be cited and alphabetised in their short form, with the full form given in parenthesis before the date if necessary:
Reference format
This journal uses the Chicago Author-Date referencing system. See below for examples of how to format some common works. Authors are strongly encouraged to use a citation manager to manage and format citations (e.g. Zotero, Mendeley, PaperPile).
General Rules
All references must be discoverable. This means that
If a resource is no longer available at its original location, alternatives should be provided whenever possible (e.g. reference to an Internet Archive snapshot or similar, where available).
When citing a resource that changes frequently and you are citing specific details or language, please provide the URL to the specific version you are citing, if this is available (e.g. Wikipedia permanent page links).
When citing restricted resources, please try to use a permanent URL, DOI, or other subscriber-independent reference whenever possible. Pay particular attention to avoid links to subscriber only library databases that require student or employee status at your institution.
In the following examples, information marked with an asterisk is required if applicable. If required information is not available, please note this in your bibliography.
Books (complete volume)
Minimal required information:
Examples
Book Sections (e.g. chapters)
Minimal required information:
Examples
Conference papers published in proceedings
Conference papers published in proceedings are treated like book chapters or journal articles depending on the nature of the proceedings:
Examples
Conference papers (unpublished)
Please supply as much information as possible about the presentation, including session name and date where available. See §14.226.
Minimal required information:
Example
Nowotny, Helga. 2014. “Excellence Attracts Excellence--and What about the Rest? Reflections on Excellence and Inclusion.” Lecture presented at the EMBO-EMBL Anniversary Science and Policy Meeting, Heidelberg, July 2. http://www.helga-nowotny.eu/downloads/helga_nowotny_b160.pdf.
Journal articles
Minimal required information:
Examples
Newspaper articles
Minimal required information:
Example
Swaim, Barton. 2016. “Donald Trump Has Made Political Correctness Credible Again.” The Washington Post, November 1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-has-made-political-correctness-credible-again/2016/11/01/0f397c0c-9fb1-11e6-a44d-cc2898cfab06_story.html?utm_term=.36fd818c3b2b.
Encyclopedia entries:
Minimal required information (author known):
Minimal required information (author not known):
Examples
Web pages, reports, and grey literature
Grey literature described informally published or unpublished documents or published documents that have limited or incomplete bibliographic information. Many web pages and reports fall into this category. In such cases, your goal should be to provide enough information to make the resource discoverable by the reader. The most important information in such cases is:
If you can find any of the following, these should also be included:
Examples
Unpublished Thesis
(Note: European-style theses, which are published by presses, are treated like books).
Minimal required information:
Example
Morrison, Heather Grace. 2012. “Freedom for Scholarship in the Internet Age.” PhD Thesis, Vancouver: Simon Fraser University, School of Communication: Communication, Art & Technology. http://summit.sfu.ca/item/12537.
Blog posts (See also grey literature)
Blogs are a specific kind of grey literature. Contemporary blog software usually provides a fair bit of bibliographic information, though the particular implementation or style may not use this correctly or provide information in all categories. Provide as much as you can of the following:
Minimal required information:
Example
Hathcock, April. 2016. “Making the Local Global: The Colonialism of Scholarly Communication.” At The Intersection. September 27. https://aprilhathcock.wordpress.com/2016/09/27/making-the-local-global-the-colonialism-of-scholarly-communication/.
Tweets
Minimal required information:
Example
@merriamwebster. 2016. “.@smarick Not to Mention, an Affront to People Who Are Trying to Say Things without Getting Stopped for Pointless, Pedantic Reasons.” Twitter. July 4. https://twitter.com/merriamwebster/status/749248017954377728.
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
This journal is published by the Open Library of Humanities. Unlike many open-access publishers, the Open Library of Humanities does not charge any author fees. This does not mean that we do not have costs. Instead, our costs are paid by an international library consortium.
If your institution is not currently supporting the platform, we request that you ask your librarian to sign up. The OLH is extremely cost effective and is a not-for-profit charity. However, while we cannot function without financial support and we encourage universities to sign up, institutional commitment is not required to publish with us.
Fee waivers do not apply at the Open Library of Humanities because our funding model does not rely on author charges.