Guidelines for the composition of contributions to APEx project publications
(version 1.3 - 14 February 2014)
1. Introduction
This document is intended as a set of guidelines on how to formally compose your contribution to APEx project publications (both internal and external such as articles, reports and deliverables etc). It includes information on how to use project-specific terminologies, how to submit images and illustrations etc and how to correctly formulate footnotes and citations.
Part of the information provided in this document regarding footnotes and citation rules is drawn from the Irish Historical Studies’ "Rules For Contributors", the most relevant examples being used in these guidelines. Should you require further guidance for specific instances (eg how to quote from manuscript sources, how to use Latinisms etc), please refer to these Rules.
All texts should be written in British English and should you have any doubts or questions concerning spelling or rules, please see also the English Style Guide - a handbook for authors and translators in the European Commission for further assistance.
Please note that the authors of these guidelines reserve the right to amend or modify them as required; the most up-to-date version will soon be available for reference purposes on the APEx project website.
2. General
1. Contributions
- Should be composed in British English
- Should be submitted as digital files in a common text format (.doc, .odt, .txt, .rdf)
- Should not contain any disabling
- Should not exceed 6,000 words
- Should be accompanied by a biographical note of 80-120 words about the author and an abstract of max 200 words
- Will be published by the APEx project with the Creative Commons license CC-BY-SA 4.0
2. Paragraphs and highlighting
- Indicate paragraphs with a blank line
- Highlight text by surrounding the words eg
- #bold text#
- §italic text§
3. Images, illustrations, tables, graphics etc
- Should be provided as JPG, PNG or GIF with 96 dpi for online publication and 300 dpi for printed publication
- Should be incorporated into the text and delivered separately as an additional file
- Should have an accompanying caption giving a brief description of the item together with a reference number (if applicable) and copyright attribution. The author must confirm copyright permission for the used images. If the author does not have copyright permission or the image is not public domain, the author is responsible for securing copyright permission to use the image and reference the creator
Submitted articles are considered to be the definitive version and authors should ensure that their articles are complete, grammatically correct and without spelling or typographical errors. Please spellcheck and proofread your paper before submission. The editorial office reserves the right to change font, punctuation and make amendments as required.
3. Text composition
1. Body text
- Accentuations of specific source terms or technical terminologies to be made using double quotation marks
- Use square brackets within round brackets: ([…])
- Use common abbreviations (ie, eg, etc) without punctuation/full stops
- Numbers 0 to 20 should be rendered in full eg zero, one, twenty etc
- Numbers after 999 should be separated by commas eg 1,250, 12,500, 125,000 etc
- Dates should be rendered as “5 November 1955”, “26 October 1985”, “21 October 2015” etc (not “the 5th”, “the 26th” etc)
- 24-hour clock should be used
- Blanks between slashes are unnecessary eg render as APEnet/APEx etc
- Provide the full name and acronym when mentioning titles/projects etc for the first time eg Archives Portal Europe network of excellence (APEx)
- Do not use an acronym unless a term is used at least three times in the paper
2. Quotation
- Source quotations to be rendered in double quotation marks
- Source quotations exceeding three lines to be paragraphed and indented
- Omissions within a quote to be indicated by square brackets and three dots […]
3. APEx project terminologies
Extend APEx/APEnet at the beginning of documents and shorten them thereafter
- The Archives Portal Europe → the portal
- Archives Portal Europe network (APEnet) project → APEnet
- Archives Portal Europe network of excellence (APEx project → APEx
- Country Manager → CM
- Work Package Leader → WPL
- Work Package → WP
- EAD/EAC/EAG/METS in capitals
4. Other recurring terms
- Email (as opposed to e-mail)
- Website (as opposed to web-site, web site)
- Standalone (as opposed to stand-alone)
- Data as a singular verb (as opposed to plural)
- WP7 (ie no spaces)
- Web 2.0
5. Footnotes
- Footnotes should be rendered in superscript in the text itself with the corresponding footnote text appearing at the bottom of the page.
- Footnotes should as a rule be confined to sources of information and quoted matter. They should not be used for matter that could be assimilated into the text (this does not of course apply to notes used in the annotation of documents).
- Each citation of sources should be punctuated as though it were a sentence; it should not be broken by a full stop. Capitals should be used sparingly.
- Where it is convenient (within reason) to group references together in a single footnote, care should be taken to ensure that the sequence is easily identifiable.
- For use of abbreviated references, please see the Rules For Contributors, §18. All quotations should be referenced separately.
4. Citation of sources
Irrespective of the medium (online/printed etc), articles should be cited in double quotation marks.
For example:
- David Hayton, “Anglo-Irish attitudes: changing perceptions of national identity among the Protestant ascendancy in Ireland, c.1690–1750” in Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture, xvii (1987), pp 145–157.
Whereas books/publications should be cited in italics.
For example:
- Donal O’Sullivan, Carolan: the life, times and music of an Irish harper (2 vols, London, 1958), ii, pp 86–88.
1. First references
The following particulars of a book or pamphlet should be given in the first footnote where it is cited:
- The author’s forename spelled in full and surname
- The full title, including subtitle, of the book (in italics) or pamphlet (in double quotation marks)
- The place (followed by a comma) and date of publication in round brackets
- The page number(s) preceded by ’p’ or ‘pp’
2. Citation of online sources
As internet sources can be modified without notice, citation of such sources should include – besides details of the document itself – both a website address and the date on which it was consulted.
For example:
- “A map of Idough” (www.brennansonline.com) (viewed 13 September 2002).
Where appropriate, additional details should be given.
For example:
- Ulster Historical Foundation, “Distribution of surnames in Ireland in 1890” (www.uhf.org.uk) (viewed 2 January 2003).
- Register, Commonwealth War Graves Commission (www.yard.ccta.gov.uk/cwgc/register.nsf) (viewed 5 July 1999).
Books and articles downloaded from the web should be fully referenced.
For example:
- Jacob Riis, How the other half lives (New York, 1890), available at New York City Museum, Five Points History Project, (http://R2qsa.gov/fivept/fphome.htm) (viewed 9 June 2001).
Material on CD-ROM should include:
- The name of the author/compiler
- The title of the work
- The identification CD-ROM
- The place of publication
- The publisher's name
- The date of publication in round brackets
For example:
- Roy Rosenzweig, Steve Brier and Josh Brown, Who built America? (CD-ROM, New York: Voyager, 1993).
Citation from newspapers should give full day/month/year date, but page numbers need not be given.
For example:
- The Irish Times, 6 October 1968.
- The Freeman’s Journal, 2–4 November 1773.
You can download a PDF version of this Guidelines document over here.
