Guidelines for Submissions to Perspectives on History

Submission of Articles

Articles or article proposals should be submitted to the editor of Perspectives on History.

All submissions accepted for publication (with a few exceptions, such as reprints of articles) will become the property of the American Historical Association and will be subject to the copyright policies of the AHA (which include the AHA's right to publish the article in print as well any other medium).

All articles being considered for publication (whether submitted directly by authors or commissioned by editorial staff) are read by the in-house editorial board, which, in light of its overall responsibility for Perspectives on History , may make suggestions for revision. The final decision on publication is always made by the Perspectives on History editorial board, which often has to balance several factors in deciding when (and if) an article will be published.

All submissions must have complete contact information for the author(s). This should include mailing addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses.

Preparation of Articles

Articles should normally be about 1,500 words in length (about six double-spaced pages). We prefer a journalistic style forPerspectives on History articles. Articles should, therefore, have no more than 5 endnotes. Citations should, wherever possible and appropriate, provide name of publisher, as well as the date and place of publication (see Appendix 1 for examples).

Articles (as well as letters to the editor) should be submitted online at http://www.historians.org/perspectives/upload/. If submitting online is not possible, a double-spaced hard copy may be sent by ordinary mail to:

Editor, Perspectives on History
AHA
400 A Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003.

Everything—text, quotations, and endnotes—should be double spaced.

Spellings—especially of proper names used in the article—and all factual information (dates, place names, statistical data, and so on) provided should be checked before submission.

Most articles inPerspectives on History have subheadings to improve the readability and flow of text; it is preferable for authors to suggest their own subheadings.

A brief (25–30 words) autobiographical description should be appended at the end of the article, indicating the author's institutional affiliation (if any), recent major publications, interests, and so on.

Copyediting for House Style

When copyediting articles,Perspectives on History editors use the 15th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, the 10th edition of Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, and the 2nd edition of The Random House Dictionary. In general, the editors attempt to make an author's prose as effective as possible, both in the author's interest and that of Perspectives on History. The editors seek to remove redundancies and errors—if any—in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.Perspectives on History supports the use of gender-neutral language in its articles, except when a change in pronoun would lead to a historical inaccuracy.

To ensure that no factual errors are inadvertently introduced into the text in the copyediting process, the copyedited version of articles accepted for publication may be sent to authors for final approval (when major revisions are suggested). Since Perspectives on History runs on a tight schedule, the editors typically ask authors to respond within 4 to 5 days.

Perspectives on History editors are happy to work with authors and encourage authors to call with any questions they may have. They can reach the editorial staff at (202) 544-2422: Pillarisetti Sudhir, editor (ext. 121); and David Darlington, assistant editor (ext. 120). E-mail: Pillarisetti Sudhir; David Darlington

Illustrations

We encourage authors to submit pictures or graphics that can be used as illustrations with their articles. It would be helpful if authors can secure permissions for reproduction of such pictures; but Perspectives on History staff can also help to obtain the necessary permissions.

Citation Style

Some samples are provided here of the most common type of references.

1. Michael Kammen, The Past Before Us (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1980), 210–41. (In cases where specific pages are being referred to, the abbreviation p. or pp. may be omitted.)

2. David M. Esposito, "Teaching American History in Indonesia," Perspectives 36:4 (April 1998), 13–17. (Use Arabic numerals for the volume number even if the journal uses Roman numbers.)

3. Diane Ravitch, "Put Teachers to the Test," The Washington Post, February 25, 1998, A 17.

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