Monatshefte Guidelines for Contributors

Article Submissions

(Jump to Book Review Submissions)

Initial Submission of Manuscript

The first step consists in submitting a manuscript (in English or German), prepared in Microsoft Word together with an abstract of no more than 150 words in English. Your name should not appear in the actual document. This version of the manuscript should be a finished, carefully proofread text, but it does not yet have to be formatted according to the Monatshefte style sheet (see below). Only original articles not submitted simultaneously to other sources may be submitted. Based on an initial positive assessment by the editor, this manuscript will then undergo peer review.

Please send this as attachments to an email to: hadler@wisc.edu.

Preparing Your Manuscript for Publication after Peer-Review-Based Acceptance

You will be informed of the results of peer review of your submission usually within 3 months. Once your manuscript has passed peer review, the second step consists in making any changes requested and preparing and sending the final version of your manuscript for publication Please submit the following documents in three separate Microsoft-Word files to hadler@wisc.edu:
1. The paginated manuscript formatted according to the guidelines below
2. Your finalized abstract of no more than 150 words and written in English
3. Your name, reliable postal and electronic addresses, and your institutional affiliation, e.g.,

[Hans Adler
Department of German
University of Wisconsin
1220 Linden Drive
Madison, WI 53706
USA
hadler@wisc.edu]

Preparation of the Manuscript

Please format the submitted article as follows (we recommend Times Roman as font):

1. Title (14-point font regular; boldface, centered)
2. Subtitle (as title; if applicable)
3. Name of the author (12-point font small caps; e.g., William Scherer)
4. Institutional affiliation (12-point font italics; e.g., University of Wisconsin, Madison)
5. Text (12-point font regular)
6. Endnotes (11-point font regular) after the text
7. Works Cited/Zitierte Literatur (11-point font regular) after the endnotes
8. Your complete address (12-point font regular) including your email address, after the Works Cited/Zitierte Literatur list

A. The Text

• Prepare the text in Microsoft Word
• Format the text in 12-point font with one-inch margins and left justification
• Reduce the formatting to a minimum (e.g., no full justification, no running heads, etc.)
• Do not use hyphenation
• Paginate the manuscript at the top right of the page
• First paragraph of the entire article and first paragraphs of sections of the article are not indented. All other paragraphs are indented at 0.5 inch
• Use endnotes (not footnotes) and generate them with the Microsoft Word program
• Reduce the number of endnotes to the minimum necessary (no endnotes with bibliographical information only; see below for bibliographical information in the text)
• For articles written in German: follow the neue Rechtschreibung (Duden, 21st and following editions); quotes from texts written in alte Rechtschreibung stay as they are

B. Bibliographical Reference in the Text

• Include bibliographical references in an abbreviated form in parentheses in the running text, either with the author’s name and page number (e.g., Smith 56) or, if there is more than one title by the same author, chose a short title (italicized) and add it to name and page number (Smith, Earthquake 49)
• Do not provide mere bibliographical information in an endnote

C. Quotations
Please pay attention to the formatting differences between texts written in English and texts written in German. Articles written in English are completely formatted ‘the English way’; articles written in German are completely formatted ‘the German way’.

• Mark the quoted text by including it in double quotation marks (articles written in English: “…”; articles written in German: „...“)
• Mark quoted text within a quotation in simple quotation marks (articles written in English: ‘…’; articles written in German: ‚...’)
• If you omit passages from the quoted text mark the omission by a bracketed ellipsis […] (omissions by the quoted author will be given as an ellipsis without brackets)
• Mark your alterations to the quoted original text with square brackets [xxx]
• If a quotation is longer than three lines, format it as a block quote, i.e., omit the quotation marks, indent the entire passage at 0.5 inch, format it in 11-point font, with single-spaced lines

D. Works Cited/Zitierte Literatur List
The Works Cited/Zitierte Literatur list provides the full bibliographical reference for all texts cited at the end of the article.

The following comments and samples cover the most common entries.

• Each entry should be formatted in 11-point font, single-spaced, and with a hanging indent. Do not use “tab” or “space”.
• Mark printed sources at the end of the entry as “Print” and Website sources as “Web” (see sample below). It is not necessary to mark the entries as “Print” if the entire list provides printed sources only.
• For book/anthology/editions title give the information you find on the title page(s), not the entries you find in library catalogues.
• Some publishers enter their names for design purposes deviating from normal spelling (e.g., all in lower case: frommann-holzboog). Type the publisher’s name according to normal spelling (e.g., Frommann-Holzboog).
• University Press is always: UP (e.g., U of California P; Oxford UP).
• Articles written in German follow the German style, i.e., spell the names of the cities in German (e.g., München, not: Munich); abbreviate Herausgeber as: Hg. (not: ed.); use German quotation marks ( „...“ ,...’); Frankfurt am Main (not just: Frankfurt).
• Provide for articles in periodicals, books, etc. always the page numbers.
• Book titles are always given in italics.
• Titles of articles are given in double quotation marks.

Monographs

Rhine, Stanley. Bone Voyage: A Journey in Forensic Anthropology. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 1998. Print.

Monographs published in a series

Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf. Autobiographie. 2., aktualisierte und erweiterte Auflage. Sammlung Metzler 323. Stuttgart, Weimar: Metzler, 2005. Print.

Anthologies

Adler, Hans, and Wulf Koepke, eds. A Companion to the Works of Johann Gottfried Herder. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2009. Print.

Editions

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Werke. Hamburger Ausgabe in 14 Bänden. Hg. Erich Trunz. München: Beck, 1989. Print. Herder, Johann Gottfried. Frühe Schriften 1764–1772. Hg. von Ulrich Gaier. (J.G.H., Werke in zehn Bänden, Bd. 1.) Frankfurt am Main: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 1985.

Article in a Book

Kasper, August. “The Doctor and Death.” The Meaning of Death. Ed. Herman Feifel. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959. 259-70. Print.

Article in a Journal

Friedberg, Lilian. “Dare to Compare: Americanizing the Holocaust.” American Indian Quarterly 23.3 (2000): 353-80. Print.

Websites

Sources from the Internet may be given with the URL or just with the indicator: Web. Both forms, however, require the information about the date of access. Hyphenate lengthy URLs after slashes only and do not insert the hyphen sign (-).

a) with URL:

Magrane, Brian, M.G.F. Gillilan and Dana M. King. “Certification of Death by Family Physicians”, American Family Physician 56.5 (1997) http://www.aafp.org/afp/971001ap/magrane.html [date of access, e.g., October 3, 2013; or: 3. Oktober 2013].

b) without URL:

Magrane, Brian, M.G.F. Gillilan and Dana M. King. “Certification of Death by Family Physicians”, American Family Physician 56.5 (1997) Web. [date of access, e.g., October 3, 2013; or: 3. Oktober 2013].

E. Endnotes
Endnotes should be used for information that cannot be integrated into the body of the text and goes beyond the mere bibliographical reference. Generate endnotes with the Microsoft Word program. Endnotes are placed between the text and the Works Cited/Zitierte Literatur list and appear in 11-point font and single-spaced. The number of endnotes should be reasonable in order not to overwhelm the text proper.

F. Illustrations
Please see the guidelines for illustrations at: https://wwwtest.uwpress.wisc.edu/journals/preparing_illustrations.html
Two points are crucial:
1. technically: All illustrations must be submitted as .jpg or .tiff files with at least 300 dpi (dots per inch)
2. legally: The authors must have the rights to publish the image (copyright)

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Book Review Submissions

Book Reviews are solicited by the Book Review Editor and submitted by prior arrangement.

If you wish to be considered as a reviewer, please send a brief CV or bio-bibliographical statement to the Book Review Editor (sgross@wisc.edu) along with a list of topics/areas of expertise and interest for possible reviews.

Reviewed books become property of the reviewer and need not be returned. You may take up to five months after receipt of the book to complete and send us your review, but we encourage and appreciate faster turnaround. A length of 800-1200 words is acceptable. (Please do not exceed this length unless by prior arrangement with the Book Review Editor.) Thank you, and we look forward to your review!

General Guidelines

• Font = Times New Roman, 12 point
• Be careful to differentiate between O (oh) and 0 (zero), as well as between l (el) and 1 (one)
• Use left justification (not full justification)
• Indent the beginning of all paragraphs except the first, but do not leave an extra line between paragraphs
• Avoid esoteric fonts such as Greek, if possible
• Für deutsch abgefasste Beiträge: Bitte folgen Sie den seit August 2006 gültigen Regeln der neuen Rechtschreibung (Duden 24. Auflage) in Ihrem Text. Aber bitte beachten: Alle Zitate aus Quellen werden unverändert in originaler Orthografie wiedergegeben.

Do Not

• Use hyphenation
• Paginate
• Use extraneous coding (tab settings, centering, etc.)
• Use headers and/or footers of any sort

Note for new reviewers

For the information of your readers, you should:

• Include an overview of the books contents (for edited volumes: include number of contributions)
• Situate the volume with respect to existing and current research on the topic in question
• Provide a fair assessment of its strengths and weaknesses
• Give readers a sense of the intended audience

Specific Guidelines

Review Heading
Please follow the examples below, noting arrangement, punctuation, and italics/boldface:

• a) German title
  • Das andere Labyrinth. Imaginäre Räume in der Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts.
  • Von Matthias Hennig. München: Fink, 2015. 275 Seiten + 5 s/w Abbildungen. €39,90.
• b) English title
  • Adalbert Stifters Late Prose: The Mania for Moderation.
  • By Helena Ragg-Kirkby. Rochester, N.Y.: Camden House, 2000. x + 137 pages. $55.00.
• Omit the series title, e.g. Abhandlung zur...
• For edited works, please use the following format:
  • Works in German: Herausgegeben von...
  • Works in English: Edited by...
• Other examples of currencies include: sFr 55,00; £12,50 [or GBP 12,50] (If you do not know the price, do not worry—we will insert that information)

Quotations and Citations

• Do not use end- or footnotes. References should be incorporated into the text via brief parenthetical notation, for example: This volume complements a recent study by Eve Gardener (The Pineapple, Honolulu 2009).
• When quoting or referring to specific pages within the work under review, cite the page number(s) within parentheses, omitting the abbreviations p. for page or S. for Seite.
• Mark material you have omitted in a quote by a bracketed ellipsis [...].
• Place commas and periods inside quotation marks [= MLA usage] in both English and German reviews.
• When referring to titles in your review, please italicize book titles, but place titles of shorter works in quotation marks.

Name and Affiliation

• Your name and affiliation should come at the end of your review in the following form. You need not include the location of your institution unless there are several campuses. Example:
  Southern Illinois University-Carbondale               —Frederick Betz

Proofing and Copies

• Generally, proofreading of reviews is done by the Book Review Editor and editorial staff.
• One complimentary copy of the issue in which the review appears will be sent to the reviewer via mail within a few weeks of publication.
• Two copies of the review will be sent to the publisher of the book under review.

Submitting Your Review

• Please save reviews as either .rtf (rich text format) or .doc (MS Word) and send as an email attachment to office@monatshefte.org

We will acknowledge your review promptly by email. If you havent heard from us within one week of sending your review (two weeks during summer or Dec./Jan. break), please contact us. Thank you!

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Revised 4/2016