The Journal of the Western Society for French History, published from 1974 to 2015 as the Proceedings, is a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal published in an open-access, online format with the Scholarly Publishing Office at the University of Michigan Library. Volumes are available at http://quod.lib.umich.edu/w/wsfh/. The journal is indexed in Historical Abstracts; America: History and Life; PapersFirst; and ProceedingsFirst with full online access and without subscription charges. Please encourage your university library to link the site to its catalog. Authors who publish with the Journal of the Western Society for French History maintain ownership of their copyright, and may republish their articles in other venues, so long as they acknowledge publication with The Journal of the Western Society for French History.
The Journal of the Western Society for French History invites submissions from all scholars of France and the Francophone world.
Deadline for submission is 15 January each year. Acceptance, rejection, or revise and resubmit letters will be sent to authors in April. Manuscripts must be submitted electronically to wsfh.proceedings.editors@gmail.com. All submissions must conform to the following procedure guidelines to receive consideration for publication:
• Papers must be reformatted as a journal article in accordance with Chicago Manual of Style (16th or 17th ed.)
• The entire manuscript needs to be double-spaced (including footnotes) as a Word document (____.doc or _____.docx).
• Include panel information if applicable, including session number and e-mail contact information for the session commentator and chair.
• A SPO copyright form will be sent to authors after acceptance and prior to publication.
Peer Review: Publication in The Journal of the Western Society for French History involves a double peer review process, one report by the session commentator and a second reviewer from the author’s field of expertise. The editors make final decisions about publication.
GUIDELINES and STYLE SHEET FOR AUTHORS
The Journal of the Western Society for French History is a peer-reviewed publication of the Western Society for French History. We look for articles that make a significant contribution to the field, are properly formatted for journal publication, and incorporate revisions suggested by peer reviewers and the editors.
Papers with recommendations that require minor stylistic or content revisions are most likely to be published. Papers that require major revision before recommendation for publication may or may not receive further consideration. Papers that are not recommended by the reviewers will not be published.
DUE DATE: 15 January is the due date for all submissions each year. No second call will be issued for errant or late submissions.
SUBMISSION: Manuscripts must be submitted electronically to The Journal of the Western Society for French History co-editors Bethany Keenan, Julia Osman, and Sarah Shurts at wsfh.proceedings.editors@gmail.com.
COPYRIGHT FORMS: An author whose paper is accepted for publication must complete and sign an “Author Copyright” form. This form is available on the WSFH website at http://www.wsfh.org/Proceedings-Information.htm. The editors will fill in the last section, “Journal Representative.” After acceptance and before publication, please complete the form (via a program that writes to PDF documents, or complete the form by hand and then scan it) to the editors’ email addresses, above.
LENGTH: Ten thousand words is the maximum length for articles (including footnotes, charts, maps, graphs). The entire manuscript needs to be double-spaced (including footnotes) as a Word document.
STYLE: The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), 16th or 17th edition, is the stylebook generally employed by the editors. Manuscripts should conform to its recommendations, and the examples below, as closely as possible. Articles that do not conform to proper style will be returned to authors and will not be considered for publication until submitted as requested.
DATES: Dates should all be European (diplomatic) style, e.g. 14 July 1789; 1790s (no apostrophe); hyphenate mid-1990s. No internal punctuation is used when using just month and year (e.g. the events of August 1914 were decisive). See CMS (16th or 17th ed.)
LANGUAGE : Articles are usually published in English, unless they were presented in French at the meeting. The editors prefer authors to use English rather than French (or other foreign languages) whenever possible (e.g., Old Regime instead of ancien régime, generality instead of généralité, nobility instead of noblesse). Translate all quotations into English unless the French version is vital for clarity, accuracy, or pungency. In such cases, provide the English translation in the text from the original French in a footnote. When using a French term, please include an English translation in parentheses. When a French or foreign language title appears in your text, please make its meaning apparent or provide a translation in parentheses.
Use American, not British, spelling (honor, not honour; labor, not labour). Carefully check accent marks in titles, names, etc. Please check—and double check—the spelling of all foreign language names, words, phrases, and publication titles.
NOTES: Please use the footnoting function in MSWord, and remember to double-space notes. Follow CMS (16th or 17th ed.) as a guide for notes. Abbreviate information for second and subsequent references, usually including the last name of author, a shortened title, and page number. Do not use Latin references (e.g., op. cit., loc. cit.) with the exception of Ibid. and et al.
GRAPHICS: The The Journal of the Western Society for French History does publish graphics such as photographs, tables, and other figures. In the case of photographs, however, you must secure all permissions to publish and provide captions attributing credit to the image holder. In the case of figures that you yourself have generated, please contact the editors about the best way to prepare your graphics for publication. All photographs, figures, or other graphics should be submitted as separate files in .png or .jpg format at a resolution of 600 dpi. In a separate document, please provide captions as you want them to appear, including permissions.
Manuscripts that have not been properly formatted for review will be returned to their authors before any further consideration for publication.
Please submit manuscripts by 15 January each year. Acceptance, rejection, or revise and resubmit letters will be sent to authors in April. Electronic Submission: The Journal of the Western Society for French History co-editors Bethany Keenan, Julia Osman, and Sarah Shurts at wsfh.proceedings.editors@gmail.com.