OPUSeJ Author Guidelines
Manuscripts submitted to OPUSeJ must be original works and should not be published elsewhere or under consideration for publication, in any form.
Manuscripts should be in one format, such as a Word document or PDF (12 point font, double spaced). Manuscripts should adhere to the OPUSeJ style-guide (see below) or to any commonly used style-guide that is internally consistent and complete.
In the case of works created by more than one author, the designated lead author will be responsible for obtaining permission from the other author(s) to have it included in OPUSeJ.
The author will be asked to suggest a sponsor editor during the submission registration, to expedite the review process. The sponsor editor may be an individual or a team. Their name and email address will be required. If none is recommended, one will be assigned, but this may delay the review process. A sponsor editor or an assigned editor will be designated to chaperone the article through the review process.
If you are choosing an editor, he or she must be able to advocate for the article in a dispassionate manner. They are free to reject it, send it back immediately for revision or to send it to referees. A sponsor editor would ideally be someone from your institution or field of study who is familiar with the manuscript topic. They must not be directly involved with the research or the creation of the manuscript. They must not have any conflicting interests with the author(s) or the manuscript. They would be asked to recommend an alternate to act as assigned editor in the case that he or she was unable, for any reason, to fulfill their role. In keeping with the OPUSeJ philosophy of openness, the editor’s name would be posted with the published work, if they agreed. Their contribution would be thereby recognized.
The author will choose to have the submission reviewed in one of two ways; the blinded-review process or the open-review process. In either route, the sponsor editor or designated editor will chaperone the manuscript through the process. In the traditional blinded-review process the editor will vet the article and either send it back as rejected, send it back for immediate revision or send it to referees. Referees will view the manuscript version that is free of author identifiers and communicate their recommendations to the editor who will relay them to the author. The editor will arbitrate any disputes between both parties until a version that is agreeable to all is produced. This version will be sent to OPUSeJ with a recommendation to publish it. If OPUSeJ agrees, the author will be sent an offer to publish it and an opportunity for proof-reading and preparing the article for open publication.
In the open-review process, the editor will similarly vet the work and choose to send it back as rejected, send it back for immediate revision or post it as a discussion paper. The manuscript will appear online and indexed in the Table of Contents under the appropriate subject(s). Readers will have an opportunity to leave comments to which the author may reply. (See OPUSeJ Reader Guidelines under Forms/Guidelines). Readers will have their name, position and city posted with their comments in keeping with the OPUSeJ philosophy of openness. This site will be moderated by the author but the OPUSeJ editor will have final say in the visibility of controversial postings. After a period of time, determined by the editor, the author will be invited to prepare a version with consideration of the reader input and present it to the editor. When a version is acceptable to author and editor, the editor will send it to OPUSeJ with a recommendation to print it. As with the blind-review process, if OPUSeJ agrees, the author will be sent an offer to print it and an opportunity for proof-reading and preparing the article for open publication.
OPUSeJ style-guide
Each article submission must be accompanied by a brief abstract in English. A second abstract in another language is encouraged. A bibliography is mandatory. It must include all the sources cited in the text and no extraneous sources. Include the open access web address for each source when available.
Use conventional paragraph structure, either with one tab of indentation or no indentation but always with a space between paragraphs. Use double quotation marks to bracket short quotations or phrases. For quotations longer than four lines, indent both margins. Do not use quotation marks here. For quotations within quotations, use single quotation marks.
Headings should be used to organize the text. Headings are to be in bold type, centred and on a separate line. Numbering is omitted for single-order headings. For multilevel headings, use a numeric system for subheadings, i.e. 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3,…2.1.1, 2.1.2, etc. Do not exceed three orders of subheadings. For example:
Introduction 1
Historical aspects 1.1
Ancient history 1.1.1
Text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text
Medieval era 1.1.2
Text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text texttext text text text text.
Recent times 1.1.3
Text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text.
Geographic aspects 1.2
Germany 1.2.1
Text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text.
France 1.2.2
Text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text.
Obsevations 2
Text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text.
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Citations
The suggested citation form includes either footnotes or endnotes, but not both within the same manuscript. Mark citations in sequential numbers placed immediately after the cited work in the text. Match the corresponding number to the footnote positioned at the bottom of the respective page or to the endnote positioned after all text, including any appendix. Footnotes and endnotes are for citing references and for brief explanatory notes. Longer explanatory notes or peripheral commentary should be included in the appendix positioned after the main text.
Citation style-guide as suggested for OPUSeJ will follow. Citations will be simplified versions of the full reference found in the bibliography. Citations follow the pattern: “Who, When, What, Where”. “Who”, would be the name of the author. For sources without a published author, use the name of the newspaper, periodical, archive, etc. “When”, would be the year or date of publication. “What”, would be the name of the article, book, etc. “Where”, would be the page number(s). Avoid Op cite and Ibid. If a reference is repeated, use a minimal form of the previous reference. For example, the first reference to a given work might be:
11. Charles Darwin, 1859, On the Origin of Species, 38-9.
A subsequent reference might be:
16. Darwin, Origin, 102.
In the bibliography, the above would correspond to:
Darwin, Charles, 1859, On the Origin of Species, John Murray, London.
The example of a book was given. Other examples for footnotes and endnotes will follow. For an article in a journal:
Anton Adams and Barbara Bates, 2006, “Title of the article”, Journal of Review Annals 46:3, 12.
For a section in a multi-authored book:
Bill Little, 2001, “Section on the Particular” in General Aspects, ed. William Bigg, 259.
For a translated book:
Guiseppe Bianco, 1977, Libro, trans. Joe White, 23.
For an article in a periodical without a named author:
Newspaper or Review, YYYY,MM,DD, “Title of item”, 1.
Online source:
Cy Burr, 2010, “Name of the article”, page number if available.
For other sources use “Who, When, What, Where”, as a guide.
The bibliography is to be arranged alphabetically by author surname and includes more information than provided in the footnote and endnote citations. Include the web address of available open-access sources. Only the first author should have his or her name inverted. Examples for the bibliography will follow. For a book:
Smith, A., B. Jones and C. Brown, 1999, The Name of the Book, Publisher, City.
For an article in a journal:
Adams, Anton and Barbara Bates, 2006, “Title of the article”, Journal of Review 46:3, 11-22.
For a section in a multi-authored book:
Little, Bill, 2001, “Section on the Particular”, in General Aspects, ed. William Bigg, Publisher, City, 209-312.
For a translated book:
Bianco, Guiseppe, 1977, Libro, trans. Joe White, Publisher, City.
For an article in a periodical without a named author:
Newspaper or Review, YYYY,MM,DD, “Title of item”, City,1-2.
Online source:
Burr, Cy, 2010, “Name of the article”, Website, page range or designation number if appropriate, http://www.etc/etc/etc (accessed YYYY,MMM).
Note that specific page numbers are given to correspond to specific citations in footnotes and endnotes but in the bibliography, page ranges are given for articles and sections of multi-authored sources. Page numbers are not otherwise used for books in the bibliography. Original sources are preferred. Include web addresses to any available online open-access versions.
Images
It is the sole responsibility of the author to obtain any necessary copyright permission documents for images accompanying a manuscript. You must provide copies of these permissions before your work can be published. All images, be they photographs, drawings, tables, grafts, etc., are to be labeled sequentially as Figure 1, Figure 2, etc. Images are to be referenced in the text at the appropriate position as follows (see Figure 1). It is preferred that the image is positioned in the text, at an appropriate juncture. Alternatively, all images could be grouped together, and positioned after the text, references and bibliography. For a larger image (that takes all or most of the page width), centre it on the page with the caption below it. For a smaller image (less than half a page width), position it at the left margin with the caption to the right. Leave one space above the image and one space below the caption. Start the caption with; Figure #. Include any permission source. Examples of image format will follow. For a wide image (see Figure 1):
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Figure 1. Description of what is seen in the image along with how it illustrates information in the text. If it is a copyright image, include the artist, title, dimensions, year, media, and location. (Photo credit)
For small images (see figure 2):
Figure 2. Description of what is seen in the image along with how it illustrates information in the text. If it is a copyright image include the artist, title, dimensions, year, media and location. (Photo credit)
Creative work (i.e. video, audio, paintings, photographs, poetry, short fiction or other types of work suitable to the online format of the journal) should be submitted in an electronic format. In the event that your submission is too large of a file to send via email, consider posting it to an open access site and providing a link. Alternatively, load it onto a CD or DVD, label it with the date of the submission and the title of the submission. Mail to:
OPUSeJ
P.O. Box 21045
Wonderland RPO
London, ON, Canada
N6K 0C7
Creative work must be accompanied by a statement indicating that the creator(s) of the piece have given consent to have it included in OPUSeJ. Creative pieces should be accompanied by a brief (2-3 line) biography of the author/artist.
Other suggestions
Writing should be clear and concise. Terminology should follow proper nomenclature; jargon and colloquialisms are to be avoided. An example of this is the term “gross”. Its use as nomenclature for macroscopic, as in “gloves used for gross dissection”, would be appropriate. Its use as colloquial for unpleasant, as in “used gloves for dissection are so gross”, or as jargon for a quantity, as in “a gross of gloves used for dissections”, would not be appropriate.
Be careful with synonyms, such as there and their. Spell-checking programs will incorrectly allow one to “cross a river on the fairy” when the “ferry” should be used.
Before submitting a manuscript, carefully and repeatedly review your work. Have someone with limited knowledge in your subject matter read the manuscript. An intelligent non-expert should be able to read the manuscript and explain it to the author with a minimum of clarification by the author.
Structure the manuscript in sections labelled with headings. Follow the conventional format appropriate to the discipline or approach relevant to the manuscript. In general, this should include an introduction which starts with general aspects that are well established and narrows to specific aspects that are to be investigated. This establishes the position of the work within the field of study and introduces the hypothesis, observation or core argument. This is the focus of the research and should be clearly stated. The method or approach used in this investigation is outlined. Findings are revealed. A discussion ensues, which considers the validity of the method used and the significance of the findings and their implications The conclusion states whether or not the objectives were met, whether the hypothesis was supported or refuted and it gives direction for further research.
Once the author is satisfied with the manuscript, he or she will prepare a version with author identifiers removed. They will complete the OPUSeJ Author Form. The author will write an email requesting that OPUSeJ consider their submission for peer-review and send it to editor@opusej.org along with the manuscript as one attachment and the completed OPUSeJ Author Form as a second attachment. The OPUSeJ Author Form will include the sponsor editor with their email address, and will indicate whether the author chooses the blinded-review process or the open-review process. The author should advise the sponsor editor to expect an email from OPUSeJ regarding this submission. OPUSeJ will send a confirmation of receipt along with a reference number which is to be quoted in all communications regarding this submission. A request for the payment of a nominal submission fee will also be included (which is currently not being charged).
OPUSeJ adheres to the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence. Unless otherwise indicated, all works found in OPUSeJ may be shared for non-commercial use, provided that the work is properly attributed to the author(s) and OPUSeJ, and that any derivative works may likewise be shared only under the same or similar license to this one. To read the licence, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/.
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