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Submissions Guidelines

For submissions enquiries please contact Dianne Kirby

Peer Review
All research articles are subject to a process of double-blind peer review.  The editors are happy to offer feedback on prospective papers at an earlier stage of development, to establish the suitability of the paper for submission and a schedule for peer-review.  Wherever appropriate, prospective contributors are ecouraged to make such contact at the earliest point.

General information and house style guidelines

Submissions of work in other languages than English
Twentieth Century Communism is an English-language journal and we are not normally able to provide translations of work in other languages. However, we are committed as far as possible to making available in English research that may have been carried out in other languages. We may therefore be able to review a paper in its original language before the author commits to having an English version made.  We also provide full editorial support in the case of contributions where English is not the first language. In all such cases, feel free to contact the editors for further information. 

Originality
Any submission must be the original work of the author that has not been published previously or is soon to be published. As per above, we make exceptions for work that has been published in a language other than English. 

Word count
The target length for an article is 8,000 to 9,000 words excluding notes.
The target length for a book review is 1,000. 

Abstract, keywords, biography
For all articles except reviews please include an abstract (maximum 200 words); keywords (maximum 6), and a short author biography (maximum 5-6 lines per contributor).

For reviews, please indicate your institutional affiliation if applicable.

Title and subheadings
Use minimum capitalisation in title and all subheadings (initial capitals for first word and proper nouns only). 

Spelling conventions
We use British spellings except in citing from original sources or referring to non-British institutions, e.g. –ise rather than –ize spellings throughout. 

Hence: the Labour Party (UK) or the labour movement (generic) but the Farmer-Labor Party (USA)

Layout 
Use tabs for new paragraphs, not spaces. Use single spaces. 

References 

  • Footnotes will appear in Twentieth Century Communism as ‘endnotes’ after the author’s name. 
    Contributors should normally use the footnote facility with MS Word.
  • Footnote references should avoid brackets.
  • Give full details of each publication the first time it occurs. On second and further references cite only the author’s surname and the title, shortened if necessary.
  • Ibid. is acceptable and refers specifically to the last reference used.
  • It is acceptable to use et al. in the text for works with more than two authors.
  • Use semicolons to separate multiple references.
  • Keep notes brief. Incorporate material into the main text if necessary. Notes should rarely exceed 5-10 per cent of the text.
  • No separate reference list is required.
  • Single author
    Raphael Samuel, The Lost World of British Communism, London: Verso, 2006, pp15-25.
  • Chapter in an edited volume
    Sue Bruley, ‘Women and Communism: A Case Study of the Lancashire Weavers’, in Geoff Andrews et al (eds), Opening the Books. Essays on the Social and Cultural History of the British Communist Party, London: Pluto Press, 1995, p64.
  • Periodicals and journal articles 
    Raphael Samuel, ‘Staying power: the lost world of British communism part 2’ in New Left Review, 156, 1986, pp18-19.
  • Unpublished archival material
    Use the file designation employed by the archive (for example CPGB/EC/09, CPGB archives Manchester).
  • Websites/online sources:
    • Do not include http:// if www is included.
    • Do not underline or italicise.
    • Give dates when the sites were accessed.

Biography of Johannes Rutgers (1850-1924), Huygens ING: http:// resources.huygens.knaw.nl/bwn1880-2000/lemmata/bwn3/rutgersj (accessed 7 June 2021).

Punctuation
The use of additional full-stops in abbreviations should be avoided. Hence: CPGB (rather than C.P.G.B.).
References to page numbers should not include a full-stop. Hence: pp22-4 rather than pp.22-4.

Dates and numbers

  • These should appear in the format [plain date] [month] [year]: as in 14 September 1940 (rather than: September 14th 1940).
  • To refer to decades, use ‘1930s’ (rather than: ‘30s’ or ‘thirties’) avoid 1930’s.
  • Numbers to fifteen should be provided in words, number upwards of 15 in figures, except where used idiomatically, e.g. ‘there were three thousand mourners at the funeral’. A comma is placed every 3 decimal places for numbers larger than 999. The decimal point is shown with a period (full stop). For example: 1,234.
  • Spell out currencies: US dollar, euro, GB pound.
  • In providing covering page references, use shortened versions (pp225-7, not pp225-227 or 225-27) except for the teens (pp115-17, not 115-117 or 115-7).
  • Always use digits with ‘per cent,’ which should appear spelled out rather than %. For example 7.5 per cent.

Quotations 

  • Quotations shorter than about five lines long should be in the text and placed in single quotation marks.
  • Quotations longer than about five lines should be extracted.
  • Use ellipses to indicate missing material within a quote. Ellipses are not needed at the beginning or end of a quote.
  • Use square brackets to indicate material that has been added by the author.
  • Use single quotation marks. Double quotation marks should be used only for a quotation within a quotation.
  • The closing quote mark should be before punctuation unless in original quote.
  • Indent the extracted quotations on a new line, with a space above and below.
  • Do not italicise the quotation or enclose it in quotation marks.

Foreign terms
Please italicise all foreign terms and provide a translation in parentheses with the first occurrence, e.g., Communistische Bond (‘Communist League’). 

Acronyms
Acronyms should be spelled out with the first occurrence, e.g. the Young Communis League (YCL) or Communistische Partij van Nederland (‘Communist Party of the Netherlands’ or CPN). 

Capitalisation
Use minimum capitalisation.

Examples: 

  • The President (referring to a specific individual) but a president and a presidential candidate.
  • Marx and Marxism, Stalin and Stalinism, Mao and Maoism, Bolshevism and Bolshevik, but socialist and socialism, feminist and feminism, and communist and communism.
  • The Crown.
    The Government (specific) but government (general).
  • House of Commons and House of Lords.
  • The Communist Party of Great Britain, the Communist Party, but the party.
  • The Lavender Scare, the Third Period, Popular Front, Cold War, the Bolshevik Revolution, Second World War (not WWII), the Vietnam War.
  • Northern Ireland, but northern England.
  • Catholic, Protestant, Calvinist, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, the Bible, the Quran.

References to standard inner-party organisations and bodies should normally appear in lower case. Hence: central committee; executive committee; party congress. However, capital first letters may be used for non-standard organisations, or when referring to a particular instance of that organisation or body. Hence: ‘the party established the new Policy and Procedure Sub-Committee’. 

Italic and bold
Avoid using italic for emphasis unless absolutely necessary. Italic may be used for key terms of glossary terms; in which case it should not be used for emphasis elsewhere.
Use italics for titles of publication including books (except the Bible, the Quran etc.), journals, films, TV and radio programmes, plays etc. 
Avoid bold type except to indicate heading style. 

Language
Authors must familiarise themselves with the terms generally in use by the specific people they are writing about and the reasons certain terms are preferred. 

Twentieth Century Communism requests that authors take responsibility for their language choices. 

Race and ethnicity:

  • Use the capital letter when discussing different ethnic groups, e.g. Irish Travellers, Roma and Sinti.
  • ‘Indigenous peoples’ is the preferred term for native groups. However, as this is not a homogenous category, use the specific name of the people being discussed wherever possible.
  • Capitalise racial/ethnic groups: Black, White, Asian, Native American etc.

Gender and gender identity:

  • Use gender-neutral language where possible.
  • Transgender is an adjective, referring to transgender people or a transgender person. Transgender does not only refer to binary identified trans women and men. Many trans people are non-binary.
  • Trans is not an abbreviation of transgender.
  • Always use a person’s correct name and pronoun. Do not use terms such as ‘preferred pronoun’. People know what gender they are. Describe someone as being a particular gender, not as identifying as a particular gender.

Illustrations
We welcome suggestions for a cover image where the author has the necessary permissions to use the image.

We regret that, except where these are basic to the sense of a particular article, Twentieth Century Communism is unable to carry any illustrations except for line illustrations. If you have identified line illustrations that would significantly enhance your article, please inform the editors.

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