Submissions

Author Guidelines

SELIM Journal publishes articles, notes and book reviews that contribute to the advancement of Medieval English Studies and Comparative Medieval Studies. Before submitting a manuscript, please make sure that your text observes the following guidelines. Submissions which do not comply with these formal requirements may be returned for resubmission before being sent out to referees.

Originals submitted for publication will be subject to peer reviewing and must not be under review in other journals or means of publication. SELIM assumes that all authors have the intellectual copyright to their originals, and that other authors quoted as "personal communication" consent to being cited.

1. Submission process and assessment criteria

Send your work on a machine-readable file via the SELIM Journal platform. The manuscript must be fully anonymised before submission, ready for double blind peer-review. Remove any personal information from file properties. Upload a separate title page with your name, affiliation, ORCID®, email and postal address under the category “Other” during your online submission. The author/s will be asked to respond to the reviewers' suggestions and make any required changes before acceptance. Once accepted, the authors will receive the copyedited proofs for a final check. 

Contributions will be assessed according to the following criteria: 1.1) relevance of the research to the SELIM areas of interest and 1.2) contribution to the field; 2) selection of appropriate methods and/or theoretical frameworks; 3) critical engagement with previous studies and the textual material under discussion; 4) rigorous analysis of the data and/or evidence provided and 5) linguistic clarity and precision.

2. Length and structure

For articles: 6,000-8,000 words (including abstract, keywords, footnotes and references).
For notes: 2,000-3,000 words.

Articles must represent original contributions and need to have the following sections (even if the exact phrasing may be subject to variation): 1) an introduction contextualising the present investigation and formulating its research questions/hypotheses; 2) a literature review of the existing scholarship on the subject; 3) the body of the article in which the research questions/hypotheses are addressed; 4) some concluding remarks, highlighting the relevance of the investigation and its contribution to the advancement of knowledge. 

3. Abstract

Originals should include a 150-200 word abstract in English. The abstract should clearly state the purpose of the paper, methodology, results and conclusions. It must be written in an 11-point Times New Roman font, 1.5 spacing and indented (0.5 cm). 

4. Keywords

A list of 5-6 keywords, separated with semicolons, must be placed after the abstract. 

5. Formatting and style

All submissions should follow the guidelines of The Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition).

5.1 General format

The text should be written in a 12-point Times New Roman font, 1.5 spacing, for the main text and in an 11-point Times New Roman font for any footnotes, indented quotations, the abstract and keywords. The first line of each paragraph must be indented 0.5 cm, with the exception of the first line in the first paragraph of each section.

If the authors provide a list of examples including sentences, these should be numbered consecutively (i.e. (1), (2), etc.), indented (0.5 cm) and written in an 11-point font.

5.2 Author-date references

Sample reference entries are as follows: 

Burnley, David. 1992. “Lexis and Semantics.” In The Cambridge History of the English language. Volume 2: 1066–1476, edited by Norman Blake, 409–499. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Oakden, James P. 1930. Alliterative Poetry in Middle English. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Rothwell, William. 1991. “The Missing Link in English Etymology: Anglo-French.” Medium Aevum 60 (2): 173–196.

Text citations are in parentheses (e.g. Oakden 1930). To cite a passage, the page number or range must be separated from the year by a comma. This punctuation mark is also used between nonconsecutive page references:
(Rothwell 1991, 175-176)
(Rothwell 1991, 178, 182) 

Models and further examples of author-date references can be found in The Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition). Note that SELIM Journal does not use citations in numbered notes.   

5.3 Words and phrases not in Present-Day English

Italics must be used for isolated words and phrases from other languages or from different periods of English. A translation should follow the original in quotation marks. Quotations in Old/Middle English or other languages are treated in the same way as Present-Day English quotes. 

5.4 Figures, tables and graphic content

Figures, tables, graphs, pictures and illustrations of any kind must be titled and numbered and referred to by their numbers in the body of the text. Their maximum size is 10.00 cms (width) x 16.00 cms (height). Multi-page tables/figures (i.e. longer than one page) must be placed in an Appendix. The journal is printed in black and white, but the electronic journal admits colour.

6. Plagiarism

SELIM Journal uses plagiarism-detection software (Turnitin®). Citations must be identified by double quotation marks or indentation (if they are longer passages) and the full reference must be given in the "References" section. The source of any pictures or illustrations must also be indicated. Copyright permissions are the sole responsibility of the author(s).

Disclaimer: SELIM Journal suggests that all the principles stated above should be carefully followed by contributors. The editors reserve the right to emend and alter when deemed necessary, prior consultation with the author(s).