Submissions

Please consider the following guidelines when preparing your manuscript. Failure to do so may delay processing your submission.

All word limits include referencing and citation.

Title page
To ensure anonymous peer review, please only list the title and abstract on the submitted manuscript file.

The names of all authors, affiliations, contact details, 100-word biographies, and the corresponding author details must be completed online as part of the submission process. All authors must fit within the journal's definition of an author, available on the Authorship policy page.

Author names should include a forename and a surname. Forenames cannot include only initials.

• J. Bloggs is not preferred. The full name, Joe Bloggs is required (this will enhance the 'findability' of your publication).

The affiliation should ideally include ‘Department, Institution, City, Country’. However only the Institution and Country are mandatory.

Abstract
Research articles must have the main text prefaced by an abstract of no more than 250 words summarising the main arguments and conclusions of the article. This must have the heading ‘Abstract’ and be easily identified from the start of the main text.

A list of up to six key words may be placed below the abstract (optional).

The Abstract and Keywords should also be added to the metadata when making the initial online 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 given that allows non-specialists in the subject an understanding of the publication and a background of the issue(s) involved.

Up to three level headings may be present and must be clearly identifiable using different font sizes, bold or italics. We suggest using Headings 1, 2 and 3 in MS-Word’s ‘Style’ section.

Data Accessibility

NOTE: If data used in the research project has not been made available, a statement confirming this should be added, along with reasoning why.

The journal's data policy is available on the Editorial Policies page.

Ethics and consent (if applicable)
Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Where applicable, studies must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee and the authors should include a statement within the article text detailing this approval, including the name of the ethics committee and reference number of the approval. The identity of the research subject(s) should be anonymised whenever possible. For research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from participants (or their legal guardian) and added to this statement. If a study involving human subjects/tissue/data was exempt from requiring ethical approval, a confirmation statement from the relevant body should be included within the submission.

Experiments using animals must follow statutory standards of care.

Acknowledgements (optional)
Any acknowledgements must be headed and in a separate paragraph, placed after the main text but before the reference list. Please ensure that all individuals mentioned in the Acknowledgements section have given permission to be included.

Funding Information (if applicable)
If your research received a funding grant please provide details of the grant provider and grant number.

Competing interests
If any of the authors have any competing interests then these must be declared. A short paragraph should be placed before the references. Guidelines for competing interests can be found here. If there are no competing interests to declare then the following statement should be present: The author(s) has/have no competing interests to declare.

Authors' contributions
If the article is authored by more than one individual please include a sentence or a short paragraph detailing the roles that each author held to contribute to the authorship of the submission. Individuals listed must fit within the definition of an author, as outlined in our authorship guidelines. 

References
All references cited within the submission must be listed in the footnotes of the main text file.

Permissions

The author is responsible for obtaining all permissions required prior to submission of the manuscript. Permission and owner details should be mentioned for all third-party content included in the submission or used in the research.

If a method or tool is introduced in the study, including software, questionnaires, and scales, the license this is available under and any requirement for permission for use should be stated if required. If an existing method or tool is used in the research, it is the author's responsibility to check the license and obtain the necessary permissions.

Language & Text

Capitalisation
For the submission title:

Capitalise all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and subordinate conjunctions (i.e. as, because, although). Use lowercase for all articles, coordinate conjunctions and prepositions.

• Slip-Sliding on a Yellow Brick Road: Stabilization Efforts in Afghanistan

Headings within the main text:

First level headings in the text should follow the same rule as the main title.

For lower-level subheadings, only capitalise first letter and proper nouns.

Headings should be under 75 characters.

Spelling
Submissions must be made in English. Authors are welcome to use American or British spellings as long as they are used consistently throughout the whole of the submission.

• Colour (UK) vs. Color (US)

When referring to proper nouns and normal institutional titles, the official, original spelling must be used.

• World Health Organization, not World Health Organisation

Grammar
American or English grammar rules may be used as long as they are used consistently and match the spelling format (see above). For instance, you may use a serial comma or not.

• red, white, and blue OR red, white and blue

Font
The font used should be commonly available and in an easily readable size. This may be changed during the typesetting process.

Underlined text should be avoided whenever possible.

Bold or italicised text to emphasise a point are permitted, although should be restricted to minimal occurrences to maximise their efficiency.

Indicate that emphasis has been added by stating ‘The emphasis is mine’ in your footnote.
Use italics for foreign words or phrases which have not been fully accepted into the English language: please check your dictionary.

Always use italics for titles of publications – i.e. books or periodicals – but not chapters or articles.

Lists
Use bullet points to denote a list without hierarchy or order of value. If the list indicates a specific sequence then a numbered list must be used.

Lists should be used sparingly to maximise their impact.

Quotation marks
Use single quotation marks except for quotes within another speech, in which case double quotation marks are used.

Quotations that are longer than three lines in length must be in an indented paragraph separate from the main text,

and without quotation marks. Block quotations should be introduced by a colon.
Within a quotation use the spelling and punctuation of the original. Use [sic] in such quotations to indicate that the original really spells or reads thus. Your interpolations, if any, are contained within square brackets.

If omitting material from a quotation, use three ellipsis points … If your omission occurs after a complete sentence, you will, of course, have four periods.

Do not use ellipses to introduce or end quotes.

The standard, non-italicised font must be used for all quotes.

It must be clear from the text and/or citation where the quote is sourced. If quoting from material that is under copyright then permission will need to be obtained from the copyright holder.

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. Spell out almost all acronyms on first use, indicating the acronym in parentheses immediately thereafter. Use the acronym for all subsequent references.

• Research completed by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows …

A number of abbreviations are so common that they do not require the full text on the first instance. Examples of these can be found here.

Abbreviations should usually be in capital letters without full stops.

• USA, not U.S.A

Common examples from Latin origin do not follow this rule and should be lower case and can include full stops.

• e.g., i.e., etc.

Use a full stop after an abbreviation, as Vic., vol., ed.; but not after a contraction which ends with the same letter as the word itself, as eds, vols, Mr, Dr etc.
Symbols for currency or units of measurement have no full stop: 5 km, 25 lb, £160 10s 6d.

For abbreviations which consist of capitals, use no full stops as PRONI, except for personal names (H. Norman Bethune).

For personal names that use a number of initials, please place a gap between them (e.g. J. G. A. Pocock)

When a person’s name is introduced give the name in its entirety. Later uses should be of the surname or given name but not both.

Use of footnotes/endnotes
Use footnotes rather than endnotes (we refer to these as ‘Notes’ in the online publication). These will appear at the bottom of each page.

All notes should be used only where crucial clarifying information needs to be conveyed.

Avoid using notes for purposes of referencing, with in-text citations used instead. If in-text citations cannot be used, a source can be cited as part of a note.

Please insert the footnote marker after the end punctuation.

Data & Symbols

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
There is no set rule on the use of hyphenation between words, as long as they are consistently used.

Em dashes should be used sparingly. If they are present, they should denote emphasis, change of thought or interruption to the main sentence and can replace commas, parentheses, colons or semicolons.

• The president’s niece—daughter of his younger brother—caused a media scandal when…

En dashes can be used to replace ‘to’ when indicating a range. No space should surround the dash.

• 10-25 years
• pp. 10-65

Numbers

Numbers and ordinals of up to one hundred are spelled out: twenty-five, three Rs, twentieth century.

Numbers over one hundred are given in figures: 279; except for round numbers: two hundred, five thousand, six million.
For percentages: 91 per cent, not 91%.

If the sentence includes a series of numbers then figures must be used in each instance.

• Artefacts were found at depths of 5, 9, and 29 cm.

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.

• This study confirmed that 5% of…

If a sentence starts with a number it must be spelt, or the sentence should be re-written so that it no longer starts with the number.

• One hundred and twelve examples were found to exist…
• The result showed that 112 examples existed…

Do not use a comma for a decimal place.

• 2.43 NOT 2,43

Numbers that are less than zero must have ‘0’ precede the decimal point.

• 0.24 NOT .24

Dates

Dates are shown as: 16 October 1970.

Months, whether in the text of footnotes, should be spelled out in full.

Please avoid using an apostrophe when referring to decades: 1870s, 1900s.

A span of years is given as 1872–5. Or, for dates between the ‘10s and ‘20s as 1916-18.

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.

Formula
Formulae must be proofed carefully by the author. Editors will not edit formulae. If special software has been used to create formulae, the way it is laid out is the way they will appear in the publication.

Figures & Tables

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.

• Figure 1: 1685 map of London.
• Figure 1: 1685 map of London. Note the addition of St Paul’s Cathedral, absent from earlier maps.

Figure titles and legends should be placed within the text document, either after the paragraph of their first citation, or as a list after the references.

The source of the image should be included, along with any relevant copyright information and a statement of authorisation (if needed).

• Figure 1: Firemen try to free workers buried under piles of concrete and metal girders. Photo: Claude-Michel Masson. Reproduced with permission of the photographer.

If your figure file includes text then please present the font as Ariel, 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 300dpi. 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, and 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 above the table.

Tables should not include:

• Rotated text
• Colour to denote meaning (it will not display the same on all devices)
• Images
• Vertical or diagonal lines
• Multiple parts (e.g. ‘Table 1a’ and ‘Table 1b’). These should either be merged into one table, or separated into ‘Table 1’ and ‘Table 2’.

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.

References

First Reference

NOTE: DOIs should be included at the end of the first reference for all items where possible

Books. All references should contain the following information in the order given: author’s initial(s) or given name(s) as used on the title page, and surname; title of the book, place of publication and year of publication; page reference if appropriate.

Standard reference
Joep Leerssen, Remembrance and Imagination: Patterns in the Historical and Literary Representation of Ireland in the Nineteenth-Century (Cork, 1996), 37.

Translations
Gilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition, trans. Paul Patton (1968; London, 1968).

Multi-volume works
James Seaton Reid, History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (3 vols, Belfast, 1853), III, 444.

William Drennan to Martha McTier, 20 January 1778 in Jean Agnew (ed.), The Drennan-McTier Letters 1776-1793, vol. 1 (Dublin, 1998).

Articles in journals
Christopher Whyte, ‘Masculinities in Contemporary Scottish Fiction’, Forum for Modern Language Studies, 34 (1998), 274–85.

C. S. L. Davies, ‘The Cromwellian Decade: Authority and Consent’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th series, VII (1997), 177-8.

Geraint H. Jenkins, ‘Clio and Wales: Welsh Remembrancers and Historical Writing, 1751–2001’, Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, new series, 8 (2002), 119–36.

Chapters in books
Ian McBride, ‘William Drennan and the Dissenting Tradition’ in David Dickson, Dáire Keogh and Kevin Whelan (eds), The United Irishmen: Republicanism, Radicalism and Rebellion (Dublin, 1993), 49–61.

Reprinted works
Dane McNeil [Neil M. Gunn], ‘President of Éire: The True Value of Tradition’, Scots Magazine, 29 June 1938, 180; reprinted in A. McCleery (ed.), Landscape and Light (Aberdeen, 1987), 187.

Magazines & Newspapers
Editorial article, Spectator, 6 October 1933, 434.

The Scotsman, 10 November 1973.

Encyclopaedia articles
James Ward, ‘Psychology’, Encyclopaedia Britannica, ninth edition, vol. XX (Edinburgh, 1886), 44–5.

Theses
Peter Toner, The Rise of Irish Nationalism in Canada, 1858-1884 (Ph.D. thesis, National University of Ireland, 1974).

Unpublished manuscripts
Anonymous, ‘Lectures on Moral Philosophy delivered by Professor Dugald Stewart Session 1789-90’, Edinburgh University Library (hereafter EUL), Gen. 1987–9, 1989, n.p.

Archival references
Eliza McCrone to Reverend John Tennent, 3 January 1800, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (hereafter PRONI), Tennent papers, D/1748/A/1/2/1.

Minutes of the Protestant Ministerial Association of Montreal 1854-1876, 13 February 1866, Archives nationales du Québec (hereafter ANQ), Fonds Interdenominational Committee of Montreal, P628, contenant 624, doc. 3/2/1.

Notes for Lords Debate on Wolfenden, 4 December 1957, National Archives of Scotland (hereafter NAS), Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution (Wolfenden Committee), HH 60/265.

Parliamentary publications.

Journals of the House of Commons of the Kingdom of Ireland (21 vols, 1796–1802) (hereafter Commons Journals, Ireland), viii, 437-8, 20 November 1771.

Websites/PDFs.
Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies, http://www.abdn.ac.uk/riiss/, [Last accessed 15 May 2008].

Philip Stephens, ‘Salmond bids for the best of both worlds’, FT.com, 12 May 2008, Available at http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto051220081438503654, [Last accessed 14 August 2012]

2. Second and later references

Use shortened author names and titles for subsequent references to the same source, unless the source was cited in the immediately preceding footnote, in which case ibid. can be used (as ibid. is an abbreviation of ibidem, it is followed by a period):

Ivor Bowen (ed.), The Statutes of Wales (London, 1908), 75.
3 Bowen (ed.), Statutes of Wales, 87.
4 Ibid., 75–6.

Idem is used to indicate ‘the same person or thing’ in order to avoid repetition within a footnote (as idem is not an abbreviation, it is not followed by a period):

Geoffrey R. Elton, The Tudor Revolution in Government (Cambridge, 1953); idem, Policy and Police: The Enforcement of the Reformation in the Age of Cromwell (Cambridge, 1972); idem, Reform and Renewal: Thomas Cromwell and the Common Weal (Cambridge, 1973).