The International Society for Orthodox Church Music

ISOCM Journal Author Guidelines

Manuscript: The manuscript should be written in a clear and concise style, using consistent language, formatting, references throughout the article.

Length: The manuscript should not exceed 40,000 characters (with spaces).

Font and spacing: The preferred font is Times (New Roman), 12pt, single line spacing.  Full stops should be followed by two character spaces, commas and semicolons by one character space.

Style: The text should avoid stylistic formatting (indentation, alignment, different fonts).  In case of using fonts other than Times (New Roman), a copy of your font should be sent to us together with your text document.  (Please understand that we will only deal with specialty fonts, such as for Byzantine Chant notation, but alternative text fonts will not be accepted for use in the Journal.)

Format: The text should be submitted in .doc, .docx or .rtf file format.  A copy of the text (can include author’s stylistic formatting) should also be submitted as a .pdf file.  We will try to accommodate special typographical needs if we feel we have time and ability, but we ask you to please try not to make a lot of extra work for the editors.  If you wish to have formatting that we feel is too complex, we will notify you and attempt to come to a satisfactory compromise.

Footnotes
References to sources and literature should be made in footnotes (not endnotes or references within text), with the bibliographical details and pages clearly indicated.  The reference should preferably be in the original language of the source (no translations / transliterations of the title of a Cyrillic source, for example).

When referring to a source for the first time, use full bibliographical details, such as:

1) Referring to a monograph: Author’s surname, first name(s). Title of the book, in italics. Publishing place: Publisher Year, Page number.

For example:
Smith, Anthony D.  Nations and Nationalism in a Global Era.  Cambridge: Polity Press 1995, 78.

2) Referring to an article in a collection (anthology, proceedings, journal, encyclopedia, newspaper): Author’s surname, first name(s), ”Title of the article”, Title of the book,  Editor’s name(s), Publishing place: Publisher Year, Page number.

For example:
Lazarov, Stefan, ”A Medieval Slavonic Theoretical Treatise on Music”, Studies in Eastern Chant, Vol. V, ed. Dimitri Conomos, Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press 1990, 160.

3) Referring to an internet site: write the www address in full and the time of reference.

For example: www.isocm.com. Accessed 27th November 2009.

When referring to the same source later, use the author’s name, year and page number (in footnote).

For example:
Smith 1995, 78.

Bibliography: At the end of the article, the author should include a separate Bibliography.  It should be in alphabetical order, following the guidelines given above (see ”Footnotes”).  In case of an article in a collection, please indicate at the end the pages on which the article appears, for example:

Lazarov, Stefan, ”A Medieval Slavonic Theoretical Treatise on Music”, Studies in Eastern Chant, Vol. V, ed. Dimitri Conomos, Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press 1990. 153-186.

It is also possible to place bibliography written in letters other than Latin (e.g., Cyrillic, Greek) in a separate section.

Personal details: The author’s name, title / university degree, affiliation, work address, home address and e-mail address should be included in the manuscript, either at the beginning or at the end.  In view of the anonymity of the reviewing process, please avoid personal indications in the article text (for example, references to your own publications in ways other than recommended in the footnote / bibliography guidelines).

Summary and keywords
The manuscript should be accompanied with an English summary of 2000-2500 characters (with spaces).
The author should also provide 3-5 keywords that characterize the article.

Illustrations
All illustrations, tables, figures must be submitted as separate files and not inserted in the text.  For the layout, the places of the illustrations should be indicated with ”[Illustration 1 here]”.

Copyright: Author is responsible for having the permission to use material taken from a copyrighted source.

Format: Illustrations should be submitted in JPEG, TIFF, or EPS format.  Tables can be submitted as separate .doc, .docx files.  Notation files created with Sibelius can be sent as .sib files, otherwise notation files should be submitted in EPS format.

Submission
The manuscript (the text file and its pdf version), its summary, and the possible illustrations should be sent by e-mail to Fr Ivan Moody (ivan.moody@uef.fi) or Maria Takala-Roszczenko (takalam@gmail.com).  A confirmative e-mail will be sent to each contributor. 

After this, the article (personal details removed) will be reviewed by the editorial board and the author will be informed about the acceptance of his/her article to the Journal.

Questions?
Please contact Maria Takala-Roszczenko, ISOCM Secretary, at: mtakala@isocm.com