Submission Guidelines
Submissions are closed for the Spring 2024-2025 issue!
Philologia is devoted to publishing quality scholarship from the diverse group of disciplines that span the College. The editorial team aims to celebrate the value and scope of the liberal arts education, and showcase the importance of undergraduate research across the range of disciplines represented in CLAHS. Published articles include an array of subjects, such as literature, linguistics, international relations, political policy, sociology, music, and modern culture among other areas in the liberal arts and human sciences. Digital and multimedia submissions are welcome.
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Submission Details
- Submissions must have been written for a CLAHS class, and be accompanied by a faculty endorsement.
- Submissions written in languages other English must be accompanied by a detailed 200-300 word abstract summarizing the argument, methods, and evidence/texts discussed.
- We do not publish opinion pieces, apologetics, or works that fall outside the practices, norms, and methods of scholarly production represented by the disciplines housed in CLAHS.
- We do not accept submissions currently under review at another journal.
- Submissions should be sent electronically to the Philologia email (philologia@vt.edu) and require a faculty endorsement as a supplementary file.
- All accepted submissions will undergo a thorough process of editorial review and revision in collaboration with the Philologia editorial team and, where appropriate, CLAHS faculty members.
- Ethics and consent (if applicable) must be in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
- There is no set word count. Authors, however, should strive for concision and legibility.
- Authors may only submit one paper for consideration.
Article Types
- Research articles must describe the outcomes and application of unpublished original research. These should make a substantial contribution to knowledge and understanding in the subject matter and should be supported by relevant textual evidence.
- Methods articles should outline and test new techniques and discuss potential applications and significance of the technique. In addition, articles that critique or modify extant methodologies and approaches are welcome. Authors should provide a detailed summary of the protocol followed and establish replicability within the body of the paper.
- Reviews can cover topics such as current controversies or the historical development of studies as well as issues of regional or temporal focus. Papers should critically engage with the relevant body of extant literature.
There is no word limit.
Faculty Endorsement
The faculty endorsement should be a brief statement attesting to the overall quality, originality, and scholarly or artistic merit of the submission. In so doing, it may address the submission’s engagement with, and contributions to, current scholarship or other forms of disciplinary practice; the submission’s mastery of disciplinary methods and practices; and/or the submission’s most exemplary aspects.
Structure
Title page
To ensure blind peer review, please only list the title and abstract on the submitted manuscript file.
The names of all authors, affiliations, contact details, biography (optional) and the corresponding author details must be included in the email with the submission.
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 summarizing 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. Methods, results, discussion and conclusion sections may then follow to clearly detail the information and research being presented.
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.
Supplementary Files
All submissions must include a faculty endorsement as a supplementary file. The faculty endorsement is the recommendation for the publication of the article. Submissions without faculty endorsements will not be considered.
Any other supplementary/additional files that should link to the main publication must be listed, with a corresponding number, title and option description. Ideally the supplementary files are also cited in the main text.
e.g. Supplementary file 1: Appendix. Scientific data related to the experiments.
Note: additional files will not be typeset so must be provided in their final form. They will be assigned a DOI and linked to from the publication.
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 anonymized whenever possible. For research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from participants (or their legal guardian).
Experiments using animals must follow national standards of care. For further information, check the ICMJE Recommendation Guidelines.
Acknowledgements (optional)
Any acknowledgements must be headed and in a separate paragraph, placed after the main text but before the reference list.
Funding Information (optional)
Should the research have received a funding grant then the grant provider and grant number should be detailed.
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. 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 (optional)
A sentence or a short paragraph detailing the roles that each author held to contribute to the authorship of the submission.
References
All references cited within the submission must be listed at the end of the main text file.
Language & Text
Capitalization
For the submission title:
Capitalize 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 capitalize first letter and proper nouns. Headings should be under 75 characters.
Spelling
English language submissions must be made in American English, using American spelling, grammatical, and punctuation practices.
When referring to proper nouns and normal institutional titles, the official, original spelling must be used.
- World Health Organization, not World Health Organisation.
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 italicized text to emphasize a point are permitted, although should be restricted to minimal occurrences to maximize their efficiency.
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 maximize their impact.
Quotation marks
Use double quotation marks except for quotes within another speech, in which case single quotation marks are used. Quotations that are longer than three lines in length must be in an indented paragraph separate from the main text. The standard, non-italicized 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 in the Wikipedia Manual of Style.
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 of footnotes/endnotes
Use endnotes rather than footnotes (we refer to these as ‘Notes’ in the online publication). These will appear at the end of the main text, before ‘References’. All notes should be used only where crucial clarifying information needs to be conveyed. Avoid using notes for purposes of referencing and instead use in-text citations. If in-text citations cannot be used, a source can be cited as part of a note. Please insert the endnote 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
For numbers zero to nine, please spell the whole words. Please use figures for numbers 10 or higher. Authors may use either words or figures to represent large whole figures (i.e. one million or 1,000,000) as long as the usage is consistent throughout the text. If the sentence includes a series of numbers then figures must be used in each instance.
- Artifacts 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 spelled, or the sentence should be re-written so that it no longer starts with the number.
- Fifteen examples were found to exist…
- The result showed that 15 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
Units of measurement
Symbols following a figure to denote a unit of measurement must be taken from the latest SI brochure. See https://www.bipm.org 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 summarize the content and/or use of the figure image. A short additional figure legend is optional to offer a further description. 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). 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 color 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. The final layout will place the tables as close to their first citation as possible. All tables must be cited within the main text, 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 summarize 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 underneath the table.
Tables should not include:
- Rotated text
- Color 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
Every use of information from other sources must be cited in the text so that it is clear that external material has been used.
Because this is a multidisciplinary journal intended to reflect the diversity of scholarly and creative work done in the College, we do not impose an overarching citation format. Rather, the citation format of individual papers should follow accepted norms of the discipline within which they were written. Authors will work with editors on ensuring that their citations are in conformity with the most recent edition of the relevant style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago).
Reference list
All citations must be listed at the end of the text file, in alphabetical order of authors’ surnames.
All reading materials should be included in ‘References’ – works which have not been cited within the main text, but which the author wishes to share with the reader, must be cited as additional information in endnotes explaining the relevance of the work. This will ensure that all works within the reference list are cited within the text.
Submission Preparation Checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission’s compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
- The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
- Any third-party-owned materials used have been identified with appropriate credit lines, and permission obtained from the copyright holder for all formats of the journal.
- All authors qualify as authors, and have given permission to be listed on the submitted paper.
- The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal. Every effort has been made to ensure that author names are removed from the manuscript.
- Tables are all cited in the main text and are included within the text document.
- Figures are all cited in the main text and are uploaded as supplementary files. Figures/images have a resolution of at least 150dpi (300dpi or above preferred). The files are in one of the following formats: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS (to maximize quality, the original source file is preferred).
Copyright Notice
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms. If a submission is rejected or withdrawn prior to publication, all rights return to the author(s):
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Submitting to the journal implicitly confirms that all named authors and rights holders have agreed to the above terms of publication. It is the submitting author’s responsibility to ensure all authors and relevant institutional bodies have given their agreement at the point of submission.
Note: some institutions require authors to seek written approval in relation to the terms of publication. Should this be required, authors can request a separate license agreement document from the editorial team.
Privacy Statement
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
