Would you like to publish an article in CSSH? Please refer to our guidelines for manuscript submission below. You’ll also find some frank and helpful tips here.

CSSH welcomes submissions from authors in any academic field. Essays should be written in a way that makes complex issues intelligible and appealing to erudite readers who are not specialists in the subject under investigation. Submissions should be characterized by a comparative perspective in their theoretical, geographic, temporal, methodological, or disciplinary focus. The following guidelines are intended to help authors prepare their articles for review; please read them carefully before submitting your manuscript. Papers which do not conform with these guidelines may be returned to their authors. Note that CSSH does not publish special issues.

Format

Length: Manuscripts for review must be fourteen thousand words or less in length, including notes and bibliography and abstract. Essays exceeding this limit will not be accepted for review. Please do not request that we waive this rule. The editors may ask that even articles within this limit be shortened further as a condition of acceptance. Recommendations for specific cuts may be made at the copyediting stage as well, even in manuscripts that were accepted at their original length. Abstracts may not exceed 250 words in length.

Style: All manuscripts must be double-spaced throughout, including extracts, notes, and bibliography, with one-inch margins on all sides. Use twelve-point Times New Roman font for all body text and endnotes, footnotes, and References sections. Do not double-space after periods. The journal’s default style is based on The Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition). Please note that the journal uses spellings of the American variant, rather than allowing authors to choose the British style (e.g., use “utilize” not “utilise”; double-quotation marks; periods and commas within quotation marks). We will accept papers employing British spellings and style for the purposes of manuscript review; but they both must be changed to the American style before the copyediting stage in any paper accepted for publication.

Non-standard fonts and symbols: When providing a digital copy of the manuscript, authors must also supply copies of any non-standard fonts or characters (such as diacritica) used in their essay. “Non-standard” is defined as any font or character not provided by Microsoft Corporation with their most recent Word academic software package. Please keep in mind that such materials must be provided in full compliance with existing copyright law: unauthorized or pirated copies of fonts or other software will not be accepted. We expect authors to provide proof of such authorization when submitting the files.

References: The journal does not enforce a single house style for references or bibliographic citations: authors are free to utilize styles accepted for work in their own discipline, though they must be consistent throughout. This is done out of consideration for the widely varying disciplinary backgrounds of the journal’s contributors. This lack of standardization makes proofreading more difficult, however, and authors should check the consistency of their citations very carefully. Within any particular reference style, we may adjust aspects of references to bring them in line with CSSH’s use of that style. You must provide the full, inclusive page numbers of journal articles in your references. Do not put your full references in both the notes and a references section, though abbreviated citations in the notes and text that refer to a References section are fine: (Smith 2005: 125–28). If you use such in-text citations, cross check that all references cited in the text, notes, and captions are listed in the References, and vice-versa. Or, you may include your full references in notes only and not use a References section at all. If you do that, use a shortened version of the citation after its first occurrence. However, authors must not use both styles and thereby duplicate their references. Notes should be numbered in a single continuous sequence, from the beginning of the paper to its end. The notes must be attached to the note numbers in the text, so that clicking on the note number will bring up the note. Acknowledgments must be formulated in a single, unnumbered note appearing at the top of the notes section. If a manuscript is published, the acknowledgments will appear as an unnumbered footnote at the bottom of the article’s first page. Please place a page break at the start of the endnotes, and at the start of your References section if you have one. Endnotes will be converted to footnotes at publication. Samples of CSSH citation styles are available on request, or authors can simply look at a recent issue.

Figures

While we welcome images, we must be selective. Authors should clearly number the figures in the desired sequence, include the number in the image file’s name (e.g., Smith figure 1), and provide a numbered caption list (see “caption list” below). Indicate also where each figure should be located in the text. Do not embed images in the text. Cambridge University Press prefers that each figure be referred to in the text where possible, for example, (see figure 2).  Lower-resolution figures are preferable when submitting an essay for review, since we typically email them to reviewers, but authors must furnish high-quality (usually TIFF) images if the article is accepted. A Cambridge University Press guideline sheet for images is available on request. You must also provide any necessary permissions for any images before publication of the manuscript. CSSH will not publish copyrighted images or figures until the necessary permissions are on file in the journal office: failure to provide permissions will delay or prevent publication of the manuscript. Any fees for copyrighted materials are the responsibility of the author.

Images in accepted papers: Once the article is accepted, images may be submitted in the form of high-quality digital files (for photographs, etc.) and Microsoft Excel files (for tables and charts). This is a common problem for authors whose articles employ maps, since professional cartographers often design their work in formats not accepted by the Cambridge University Press typesetters. Because of schedule and professional restrictions, the journal staff cannot assist authors with file conversions: please convert your materials into one of the accepted formats before sending us electronic files. Note that if you are sending us a large number of high-resolution image files you can send them via a file-sharing service rather than as email attachments. Be sure and retain your own high-quality copies of any images that you send to us. Each image should be in its own file, numbered in its caption to match the caption list: (Smith image 1).

Caption text: Caption text should not be written in the digital file. Instead, provide all captions and legends in a separate Word file, making sure that each caption clearly corresponds to a numbered figure. The captions should include the author’s name and the image number (Smith image 1, Smith image 2, etc.) Include in the captions an acknowledgment to the source, even in cases where this is not legally required, since for images in the public domain the custom is nonetheless to note the source in the following fashion: Courtesy [name of the archive or other source]. Please mark the first page of the caption text clearly.

Digital images: Cambridge allows CSSH to publish images in color online without cost to the author. Production editors at Cambridge University Press will resize and sometimes, with the author’s permission, crop images as necessary. 

Seeking Permission for Copyrighted Material

If your article contains any material in which you do not own copyright, including figures, charts, tables, photographs or excerpts of text, you must obtain permission from the copyright holder to reuse that material. As the author it is your responsibility to obtain this permission and pay any related fees, and you will need to send us a copy of each permission statement at acceptance. Read about how to do this here.

Publishing Ethics

This journal publishes in accordance with Cambridge University Press’s publishing ethics guidelines, which apply to authors, peer reviewers, the editorial office and the journal as a whole. Anyone who believes that these guidelines have not been followed should raise their concern with the editor or email [email protected]