Submission Guidelines

Submitting your article

Please email xanthos@exeter.ac.uk, with your article and a brief biography (attached as separate Microsoft Word documents). When preparing your article, please ensure that your name or affiliation (if applicable) does not appear anywhere in the document (including in metadata), in order to maintain anonymity in the peer-review process.

Style and formatting

There are no specific requirements for the layout of Word documents submitted to Xanthos, since accepted articles will be reformatted for inclusion in the journal. We do, however, request that contributors (wherever possible) use Times or Times New Roman fonts, use line breaks (rather than paragraph spacing) between paragraphs, and indent quotations that are longer than approximately 40 words. We also require the inclusion of a bibliography at the end of the article (see below).

Xanthos uses the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) Style Guide for both main text and for referencing. Please read the online Style Guide carefully, as there are several differences between it and other commonly-used styles (such as APA and Harvard). In particular, please note the following::

      • MHRA stipulates that a space should be left between the full stop and a number in cases such as ‘p. 125’;
      • Titles of foreign-language works should be capitalised according to the conventions of the given language (see section 6.4);
      • Quotations should be enclosed in single quotation marks (section 9.3);
      • Single words or phrases in foreign languages not used in quotations should be placed in italics (section 7.2);
      • When citing specific pages from journal articles, ‘p.’ or ‘pp.’ is used, but they are not used for the overall page range of the article (section 11.2.4);
      • Initial references should use the full form of a citation; later references should use a shorter form (section 11.3);
      • Bibliographies (which should be included at the end of the contribution) should feature the first author’s surname before their first name, unlike footnote citations.

Reformatting articles that do not conform to these standards creates an enormous amount of extra work for the editors. and as such we reserve the right to reject without peer review any articles that show no attempt to follow MHRA style.

As a journal spanning multiple languages, standard practice at Xanthos is to cite foreign-language sources in the original language, and to include a translation into English in a footnote. Where possible, the translation should be taken from an existing publication; if this is not possible, or if it is necessary for you to provide your own translation, please indicate this with the phrase ‘Translation my own.’

References

The MHRA Style Guide allows for either footnote or author-date referencing: at Xanthos, we use the former. The first citation for any work should be accompanied by a full reference in a footnote, as follows:

1 Harald Bluetooth, ‘A New Framework for Viking Interconnectedness’, in Beyond Conquest? Potential New Directions for Vikings in the Second Millennium, ed. by Freya Longsword and Lars Spear-Point (Valhalla: Jomsvikings Press, 997), pp. 213-24.

Subsequent references should be made in-text, if there are no intervening references to other texts (see section 10.2), as in the following:

Bluetooth’s argument that Vikings ‘need not necessarily conquer to survive’ (p. 215) was met with a degree of scepticism.

If there are intervening references to other sources, a shortened form of the footnote should be used for later citations of the first item:

2 Bluetooth, ‘A New Framework’, p. 215.

Note that as per MHRA style (10.3), footnote numbers should be placed at the end of a sentence wherever possible, and always after punctuation (with the exception of a dash). Hence:

The Viking raid on Lindisfarne in 793 was not universally condemned, however: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for that year recalls the response of one local peasant, Eadwin Notavikingindisguise, as one of ‘genuine amazement that people thought the invaders were anything other than friendly.’3

Images and copyright

If your article contains images, please do not include these in the Word document; instead, please attach them separately and name them as you refer to them throughout the document (fig. 1, fig. 2, etc.). Lower-resolution images are acceptable at the outset, but please note that for production, we require images to be at least 300 pixels per inch when printed at B5 size (the equivalent of a single full page in the print issue). We can provide further advice if necessary.

Xanthos takes questions of copyright very seriously. The vast majority of academic references fall under the ‘fair dealing’ exception to UK copyright law, being used for purposes of criticism, comment or review; as such, appropriate use of text citations will not normally require any action to be taken. Extended citation, or the reproduction of images, may however require copyright clearance. If you suspect that permission might be required, please contact the relevant rights holders as early as possible (and certainly prior to submission) to ascertain whether permission will be required, and provide the Editors-in-Chief with any relevant contacts. Xanthos will then contact them separately to discuss the specific arrangements for licensing; this is necessary as we are required to keep a record of all ‘permission-seeking activities’.

As a small journal, we sadly do not have the budget to cover reproduction fees for images or other content. Several authorities, however, allow their content to be reproduced freely provided that you provide attribution. The following are some instances where, in the past, Xanthos has had to seek permission from rights holders:

      • Excerpts from in-copyright sheet music;
      • Full poems, for reproduction alongside a translation within an article;
      • Reproducing images from early modern printed books.

Additional notes for translations

Xanthos prides itself on publishing translations of foreign-language works, especially those never previously translated into English. Translations need not necessarily reflect the theme of any given issue, although we welcome submissions that do so. 

Translations for Xanthos (whether as part of a broader article or as the main focus for a contribution) may be up to 5,000 words in length; if the translation is the principal element of the submission, it should be accompanied by a commentary detailing the source text and its publication history, any existing translations into other languages, and your translation strategy and methodology. This commentary should be at least 800 words in length, but we welcome longer commentaries that seek to place the text in a broader context, or explore deeper details of translation methodology. We do not normally print the original text alongside the author’s translation, and as such it is essential for authors to make it clear which edition of a text they are using as a base text. 

Peer-review process

Articles submitted to Xanthos will be read by the Editors-in-Chief, who will decide whether the article is suitable for the journal, and if so, whether it is of sufficient quality to be sent out to peer review. Where possible, the Editors-in-Chief will provide informal feedback on any articles that do not reach peer review. If the paper is approved by the Editors-in-Chief, it will be sent out to peer review. Authors will be informed of decisions of the Editors-in-Chief and peer reviewer(s) in due course, and will be expected to revise their contributions (if necessary) prior to publication.

Licensing

In submitting your article to Xanthos, you grant us a license to distribute your work freely under the terms of a Creative Commons 4.0 license. More information on the license that Xanthos uses is available here.