Presentation and Formatting
Manuscript Style
Submissions should be in English. Authors should obtain assistance, if necessary, in the editing of their papers for correct spelling and use of English grammar. MEL publishing standards are very high and technically good papers are often rejected due to poor writing style and/or command of the English language. Please use UK English spelling throughout.
Articles should normally not exceed an all-inclusive MS-Word count of 8000 words, be written clearly and concisely, and avoid unnecessary jargon. Articles must be preceded by an abstract of not more than 200 words, and six keywords suitable for indexing and online search purposes. The abstract should set out clearly the issues to be investigated; the paper's contribution to existing knowledge; the methodology used, and the main conclusions(s). Preferably the abstract should be written in non-technical language.
It is essential that the article concludes with a section where the author(s) summarise their main conclusions, possible need for further research, as well as the potential impact of the article on business, government or policy-making. To the extent possible, this section should be written in a way that is broadly understandable to the non-specialist.
Important
Authors are expected to be aware of, and make reference to, relevant works published earlier in MEL. Abstracts of earlier works can be accessed here.
A running head of not more than 30 characters should be supplied for papers with longer titles.
Footnotes should be limited to the absolute minimum as they can be disruptive to the natural flow of the argument.
The MS-Word Equation Editor should be used for mathematical expressions.
Figures which contain only textual rather than diagrammatic information should be designated as tables. Figures and tables should be numbered separately and consecutively, and presented at the end of the typescript. Their position in the text should be indicated in the manuscript. Tables should have a short title above, and figures a legend below. If more information must be included, this should appear as a 'note' below the table or figure.
Authors are requested to follow our instructions on how to prepare and submit their figures.
Reference Style
The journal uses the Chicago-based reference style is used in the humanities based on the specifications given in the Chicago Manual of Style. Please adhere to the following guidelines when preparing your manuscript:
- Do not abbreviate journal names; they are always written out.
- Do not abbreviate the given names of the authors if they were submitted in full.
- Follow the author regarding capitalization of titles of an article, chapter, or book but ensure it is consistent according to either the 16th edition (upper and lower case titles) or 15th edition (capitalize only the first word in the title of an article, chapter, or book and any proper nouns) of the Chicago Manual of Style. If creating a list from scratch, standardly follow the 15th edition.
Text Citations
As a rule, all the references given in the list of references should be cited in the body of a text (i.e., in the text proper, any appendix, any footnotes to either of these, figure legends, or tables). Of course, any reference may be cited more than once. Citation may take one of two forms:
- By number, whether sequential by citation or according to the sequence in an alphabetized list
- By name of cited author and year of publication Only one form of citation is permitted within a publication.
Reference citations within an abstract of a journal article must be treated differently since a reader may only have the abstract (and not the text or the list of references). Regardless of the style of citation otherwise used, in an abstract a reference citation should take the form, for example, "as reported by Smith (JAMA 352:24-28, 2004)."
References
Examples of reference entries according to Chicago style
Please note, examples are styled here according to The Chicago Manual of Style 15th edn. Retain capitalization of titles if provided by the author according to the 16th edition)
Number | Type | Example |
1. | Journal article | Alber, John, Daniel C. O’Connell, and Sabine Kowal. 2002. Personal perspective in TV interviews. Pragmatics 12: 257–271. |
2. | Article by DOI (with page numbers) | Slifka, M.K., and J.L. Whitton. 2000. Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. Journal of Molecular Medicine 78:74–80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s001090000086. |
3. | Article by DOI (before issue publication and without page numbers) | Suleiman, Camelia, Daniel C. O’Connell, and Sabine Kowal. 2002. ‘If you and I, if we, in this later day, lose that sacred fire...’: Perspective in political interviews. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015592129296. |
4. | Article in electronic journal by DOI (no paginated version) | Slifka, M.K., and J.L. Whitton. 2000. Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. Online Journal of Molecular Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s001090000086. |
5. | Newspaper article | Schultz, Sean. 2011. Lessons to be learned in systems change initiatives. Independent, December 28. |
6. | Book | Cameron, Deborah. 1985. Feminism and linguistic theory. New York: St. Martin’s Press. |
7. | Book chapter | Cameron, Deborah. 1997. Theoretical debates in feminist linguistics: Questions of sex and gender. In Gender and discourse, ed. Ruth Wodak, 99-119. London: Sage Publications. |
8. | Book, also showing a translator | Adorno, Theodor W. 1973. Negative dialectics. Trans. E.B. Ashton. London: Routledge. |
9. | Modern editions of the classics and classic poems and plays. Year of edition is given not original publication | Shakespeare, William. 1982 . Hamlet. Arden edition. Edited by Harold Jenkins. London: Methuen |
10. | OnlineFirst chapter in a series (without a volume designation but with a | Saito, Yukio, and Hyuga, Hiroyuki. 2007. Rate equation approaches to amplification of enantiomeric excess and chiral symmetry breaking. Topics in Current Chemistry. |
11. | Book, also showing a translated edition [Either edition may be listed first.] | Adorno, T.W. 1966. Negative Dialektik. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp. English edition: Adorno, T.W. 1973. Negative dialectics (trans: Ashton, E.B.). London: Routledge. |
12. | Online document | Frisch, Mathias. 2007. Does a low-entropy constraint prevent us from influencing the past? PhilSci archive. http://philsci- archive.pitt.edu/archive/00003390. Accessed 26 June 2007. |
13. | Online database | German emigrants database. 1998. Historisches Museum Bremerhaven. http://www.deutsche-auswanderer- datenbank.de. Accessed 21 June 2007. |
14. | Supplementary material/private homepage | Doe, John. 2006. Title of supplementary material. http://www.privatehomepage.com. Accessed 22 Feb 2007. |
15. | FTP site | Doe, J. 1999. Trivial HTTP, RFC2169. ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in- notes/rfc2169.txt. Accessed 12 Nov 2006. |
16. | Organization site | ISSN International Centre. 2006. The ISSN register. http://www.issn.org. Accessed 20 Feb 2007. |
Spelling
Use either US or UK spellings consistently throughout. For UK spellings, take as a guide the new edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary and the Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors; Websters Collegiate for US spellings. UK spellings will therefore prefer '-ize' to '-ise', as a verb ending (e.g. realize, specialize, recognize, etc.).
