UCL Press guidelines for authors

Guidelines for authors

Submission stages

There are two stages of manuscript submission. Everything must be in place for stage 1.

1. Submission for review. Your manuscript will be accompanied by all figures and tables, a completed artlist with details of all permissions and consents acquired, and a completed Editorial Information Form so your commissioning editor can work on the book’s cover and blurb while the manuscript is out for review. Please let your commissioning editor know if any content is not yet ready, and when you expect to submit it.
   
2. Submission for production. Your manuscript will include all revisions following peer review and all content. At this point we consider the manuscript to be final and will not expect substantial content changes beyond this point.

Please use the following instructions when preparing both drafts.

Manuscript elements

You should create a separate document for every major subdivision of the text:

• Prelims section – should include any of the following in this order: Dedication, Contents list, List of figures, List of tables, List of contributors, List of abbreviations, Foreword, Preface, Acknowledgements. Please see sample prelims for monographs here and edited collections here. Please follow these for style and order.
• Individual chapters
• End matter – can include Afterword, Epilogue, Appendices, Glossary, References/Bibliography

General guidelines

• The text should be Times New Roman 12-point font, double spaced, and supplied in Word.
• Ensure that all references to sections of the text itself that may be cited as ‘papers’, ‘articles’ or ‘essays’ are changed to references to ‘chapters’
• Indent each new paragraph using the tab key.
• Use only single spaces between words and single spaces after full stops
• Headings must be clearly differentiated by size to show the level of the heading or sub-heading. Please do not use heading styles in Word as this can disrupt the formatting of the manuscript in production.
• All headings in the manuscript, including part and chapter titles should use sentence case. Subtitles following a colon should also be lower case, unless a proper noun.
• If your manuscript contains unusual or non-roman characters or extensive math/linguistics symbols, please supply a PDF of the final manuscript showing how the characters need to appear.
• Please update URLs prior to submission – the accuracy of URLs is the author’s responsibility.
• Do not embed figures or tables in the file. These should be supplied separately.
• Please do not include any internal cross-references by page number. If cross-referencing is required please reference chapter number and relevant heading.
• Please do not include hyperlinks in the main text.
  
  

As UCL Press is a digital publisher, please note the following when preparing your manuscript:

• Text should follow a meaningful structure, i.e. B head should follow A head.
• Ensure every chapter is organised consistently. Chapters should not be subdivided into sections – if this is necessary ideally all chapters should follow the same structure. Please talk to your commissioning editor where this organisation may be needed.
• Avoid print-specific terms such as ibid./op. cit. Use the short form of the reference instead, e.g. Pollan, Omnivore’s Dilemma, 3 or, if using the author– date style repeat the reference in full.
• Do not use page numbers in cross references: instead refer to a section or chapter.
• Headings should be succinct. As a rule of thumb, if a heading runs over to a second line it is too long.
• Avoid large sections of unbroken text, and large and complex tables which won’t be easy to read on a smaller screen.
  
• Online sources: please do not use online sources in the main text. Use only in references (see section below). If reference to an online source is essential in the main body text, use must be minimal and full address provided, e.g. ‘This is shown in the work of the Sweet Water Foundation in south side Chicago (https://www.sweetwaterfoundation.com). Please do not embed hyperlink behind ‘see here’) links of this kind will not make sense in the print version.

Figures

• If your title includes figures, please refer to our fuller artwork guidelines.
• Photographs/halftones must have a resolution of at least 300dpi at the final printed size. Images that do not meet this are considered low-resolution and can reproduce very poorly in the printed book. Our preferred format is JPEG or TIFF.
• Line art requires a resolution of at least 600dpi (rising to 1200dpi for detailed line art).
• If you are submitting line art that has been prepared in a specialist software package such as Illustrator, please submit as vector files e.g. .eps or .ai. Please also supply in PDF format for reference.
• Vector images are editable and allow for changes such as relabelling and resizing. For graphs or charts created in Excel, Word or PowerPoint we accept .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx. file formats.
• Please submit each figure in a separate file rather than embedded in the text.
• Please provide a list of captions with your manuscript – these can be provided in the artlist. The caption should explain the figure in full and state what it is showing. It should be consistent and clear. It should not repeat the main text verbatim, and it should be written in such a way that it stands on its own. The full source information for the image, including title, year of production/publication etc should also be supplied. You should agree the wording with the original permission holder where applicable. We ask that credit information is provided in the artlist. We will then add the credit to the end of each caption.

Examples

Figure 1.1 Henry Tonks and Henry Clarence Whaite, The Four Founders of University College: Lord Brougham, Jeremy Bentham, Thomas Campbell and Henry Crabb Robinson, 1922. Oil on canvas, 342.9 x 175.3 cm. © UCL Art Museum, University College London (UCL 5723).

Figure 1.2 Map of London, c.1561, showing the route from Henry Place to the Tower of London. © City of London.

Figure 1.3 The Gazimestan monument, Kosovo (photograph by Gustav Wollentz).

• Figures should be sequentially numbered by chapter and figure number (e.g. the third figure in Chapter 1 will be Figure 1.3)
• Include placement indicators for all figures in numerical order in the manuscript at the ends of paragraphs where you want them to appear, e.g. <INSERT FIGURE 1.3 HERE>
• In addition, refer to the artwork in the text, e.g. ‘This is shown in Figure 1.1’ or (see Figure 1.1).’
• Ensure a list of figures is provided for the prelims.

Tables

• Submit all tables as separate editable Word files and indicate where in the text you would like them to be placed, e.g. <INSERT TABLE 1.1 HERE>
• Ensure each table has a title and is numbered.
• Ensure you refer correctly to the table in the text, e.g. see Table 1.1
• Ensure a list of tables is provided for the prelims.

Alt text

• As part of our commitment to accessibility, authors are required to provide alternative text ‘alt text’ for images in their book (alongside captions). Alt text describes the content of an image for those who cannot see it. It is embedded in the digital versions of the book and can be accessed via assistive technology (such as screen readers).
• There is a column on the artlist for providing alt text (alongside figure captions and credit information).
• For more information, please see our alt text author guidelines. Please contact us if you require any help in writing your alt text.

General accessibility guidelines

• Keep tables as simple as possible and supply in Word format. Include a title and clearly identify heading rows. Do not submittables as image files.
• Do not use colour alone to convey meaning in charts and graphs. In figures and legends consider shapes or patterns to differentiate elements, or ensure labels (with leader lines if necessary) are given next to plot lines.
• Links in the main text should be kept to a minimum. Where used these should convey clear and accurate information about their destination with full URL. Do not include links such as ‘click here’.

Permissions

It is your responsibility (chapter author’s in the case of an edited collection) to clear copyright for all text and illustrative material that is not your own work. We require non- exclusive permission to publish the material in an Open Access book (including, without limitation, adaptations, revised and condensed versions, and excerpts), in all media, formats and languages for distribution throughout the world and for the lifetime of the work. Please ask the commissioning editor for the Permissions Request Form if you need to clear third-party material.

House style

The following guidelines list our preferred conventions for spelling, punctuation, abbreviations, numbers/dates, etc. Please follow them closely.

Punctuation

• British punctuation should always be used with British spelling. Please ensure your computer is set to British English. British style uses single inverted commas, except for quotations within quotations (which have double inverted commas).
• Punctuation should follow closing inverted commas (except for grammatically complete sentences beginning with a capital),

Spelling

• Authors should consistently adopt British spelling conventions (except in quotations from other sources, where the spelling convention of the original should be retained).
• In British style, either -ise or -ize may be used, but one form should be used throughout, (except in Education journals where -ise is the preferred form)
  Please follow Collins English Dictionary.

Hyphenation

• Use a hyphen when two words form a compound adjective: middle-class families.
• Hyphenation must be used consistently throughout your text.
• Please follow Collins English Dictionary.

Commas

• An Oxford comma (also known as a serial comma) is a comma used after the penultimate item in a list of three or more items, before ‘and’ or ‘or’. We do not use the Oxford comma – commas should be omitted before the final ‘and’ or ‘or’,
  e.g. red, white and blue. The exception is if the meaning is ambiguous without one, e.g.

The menu choices were fish and chips, steak and chips, or pie and mash.

The dog, Jack, and Sasha

Dashes

• Spaced en dashes – not em dashes or hyphens – should be used
• Use unspaced en dashes not hyphens for ranges of pages or dates, e.g.11–12, 22–29.

Semicolons and colons

• A semicolon should be used to separate items in a complicated list (i.e. if the items in the list have internal commas or very long descriptions), or to separate two related but grammatically independent clauses.
• Use semicolons sparingly in the main text.
• Colons should primarily be used to introduce block quotations or lists.

Quotations

• Quotations should be indicated by single quotation marks but use double quotation marks for quotations within quotations.
• Indent quotations of more than 50 words. Displayed quotations have no quotation marks. Any quotes within a displayed quote will have single quotation marks.
• Quotations should remain exactly as they are in the original.
• If a quotation is being used as part of your own sentence, please make sure it flows grammatically. If necessary, use square brackets to insert necessary words such as [and].
• Square brackets can also be used when clarification is needed in, for example, transcribed speech, e.g. ‘I thought he [the teacher] was just being kind’.
• Quotations should be in the same font as the main text. Please do not use italics.
• Three dots (i.e. an ellipsis …) with a space on either side indicate where material has been omitted from a quotation. Do not place brackets around ellipses. You don’t need to use ellipses at the beginning or end of a quote, unless it’s a displayed quote that starts midway through a sentence with a lower case letter.

Translations

• If quoting from a non-English source, the quotation should usually be in the original language. Give translation (either author’s or from a published translation) if reader is unlikely to understand original language. The translation should usually appear in the text in parentheses immediately following the quotation but can be given in a numbered note if preferred. Alternatively, the translation can be given in the text and the original quotation in a numbered note. You can indicate in the Preface your general editorial policy in regard to translations.

Capitalisation

• Keep capitalisation to a minimum and use it only for proper nouns and formal names of organisations, etc.
• In most cases, ‘CE’ (Common Era) and ‘BCE’ (Before Common Era) should be should be used in place of ‘BC’ and ‘AD’ and should be in small caps.
  All chapter titles and headings within chapters should use sentence case.

Italics and bold

• Use both minimally. Use italics rather than bold for emphasising words within the text.
• Use italics for the following: book and journal titles, newspaper titles, film titles, play titles, stage directions, foreign words/phrases (that are not in common usage), song titles etc. Poem titles (except for very long works like Paradise Lost) are roman and quotes, not italic, e.g. ‘The Road Not Taken’.
• The Bible and Qu’ran, and individual book titles from these works, are not italicised.
• Please do not use underlining in your text. If needed for emphasis, please use italics. Underlining will standardly be removed by the copy editor. If there is a specific need for underlining please outline this on delivery.

Numbers and dates

• Spell out numbers one to nine, and use numerals for 10 upwards.
• Exceptions to this rule:
  • Numbers that begin a sentence
  • A series of numbers appearing close together in a mixed sequence (under and over 10), in which case use numerals for all numbers in that section.
  • Numbers giving exact measurements or with abbreviated units of measurement, such as 7 kg, 15.8 mm.
  • In usual cases like 5.00 p.m. (but five o’clock).
  • Phrases involving hundreds, thousands, millions, etc., where round numbers are given (e.g., two hundred, fifteen thousand)
  • With ‘per cent’ (NB ‘per cent’ rather than %).
• Elide numbers to minimum digits in ranges, e.g. 233–4 (however note 115–16); dates, e.g. 1993–4. Do not elide in titles and headings , e,g,The Netherlands, 1936-1938
• Comma for four digits 1,000.
• Centuries should be written as words not numbers, e.g. eighteenth century.
• Hyphenate if used as an adjective, e.g. eighteenth-century masterpiece.
• Dates as British usage: 18 August 2015.

Contractions and abbreviations

• Avoid abbreviations where possible. If you need to use them, please write in full at the first appearance of the term with the abbreviation in brackets, then use the abbreviated form throughout the text. In edited collections spell out each abbreviation at first mention in the chapter.
• Abbreviations are usually expressed without full stops, e.g. GNP, USA, PhD
• If appropriate, include a List of abbreviations in the prelims, but you should still define the terms in full in the text at first use.
• British-style contractions will have no full points (e.g. Mr, St, edn), although abbreviated words (i.e. ones that do not end with their final letter) will (vol., ed.).
• Plural forms ‘vols’ and ‘eds’ do not have full points.
• Please avoid the abbreviations ‘e.g.’ and ‘i.e.’ and ‘etc.’ in the main text. Use phrases instead: ‘for example’, ‘such as’, ‘this means’, ‘and soon’
• In general, please avoid contractions (‘don’t’, ‘can’t’, ‘won’t’ etc) which are not appropriate in academic writing. However, we do allow use of contractions where a more informal, conversational tone is appropriate. If in doubt, please speak to your commissioning editor.

Parentheses (brackets)

• If a complete sentence appears in brackets, the full stop should be inside the brackets e.g. ‘James walked to work. (It was a Wednesday, so he had more time.)’.
• Do not use punctuation marks before brackets unless the brackets contain a complete sentence.

That/which

• In a non-restrictive clause, use ‘which’. In a restrictive clause either ‘which’ or ‘that’ is acceptable:
  • Her latest film, which is set in the 1960s, has been widely acclaimed. (non-restrictive; ‘which’ only)
  • They did tIn a non-restrictive clause, use ‘which’. In a restrictive clause either ‘which’ or ‘that’ is acceptable:
     
    Her latest film, which is set in the 1960s, has been widely acclaimed. (non-restrictive; ‘which’ only).
     
    They did their work with a thoroughness and dedication which/that impressed him deeply. (restrictive; either ‘which’ or ‘that’ acceptable).

Acceptable Language

• Please be sensitive to the use of terms that might cause offence or be interpreted as racist or sexist. Please also avoid gender-specific pronouns where possible. Here are some examples of how to do this:
  
  (1) Use plural rather than singular pronouns in examples, e.g. ‘when children play, they…’ rather than ‘when a child plays, he…’
  
  (2) Alternate ‘he’ and ‘she’ throughout the manuscript when using a singular pronoun in examples, such that the reader perceives no bias.
  
  (3) Use ‘they’ as a singular pronoun in examples, e.g. ‘when a child plays, they…’

Writing about race and ethnicity

Please be sensitive to the cultural diversity and historical contexts shaping discussions of race, ethnicity and nationality.

Only refer to people’s ethnicity if it is relevant to the context in which you are writing. Avoid making assumptions or categorisations based on race and ethnicity, or oversimplified representations of identity. 

If writing about individuals, please follow their preferences regarding how they wish to be described.

The best advice when writing about race and ethnicity is to be specific as possible when referencing to nations, regions, race and ethnic groups.

The points below should be followed when referring to race and ethnicity. Please talk to your commissioning editor for more guidance:

• Capitalise nationalities and names of ethnic groups – for example, ‘South Asian’,  ‘Irish Traveller’, ‘Chinese’. Do not use the term ‘Caucasian’ to mean ‘White’.
• Use of ‘Indigenous’: specify the nation, people or group, if known. If not known, ‘Indigenous Peoples’ is the preferred overarching term, although please always check appropriateness of this term for the given context and country. Use the term ‘Indigenous Peoples’ or ‘Aboriginal Peoples’ when referring to a specific group (e.g., the Indigenous Peoples of Canada), but use lowercase for ‘people’ when describing persons who are Indigenous or Aboriginal (e.g., ‘the authors were all Indigenous people but belonged to different nations’).
• Use ‘people of mixed heritage’ or ‘people of mixed background’ rather than ‘mixed race people’.
• Do not hyphenate compound adjectives or nouns related to ethnicity (e.g. use ‘Black British’ rather than ‘Black-British’).
• Please do not use broad terms like ‘Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic’ or ‘BAME’; we ask that terminology accurately reflects the specific ethnic groups discussed. Avoid collective reference to minority ethnic groups as ‘non-White’ unless it was a formal category in a database or research document. Instead, indicate the specific groups.
• Do not use racial or ethnic terms as nouns. Use adjectives instead: ‘people from Asian backgrounds’ for example.
• Racial groups are usually capitalised as proper nouns (e.g. ‘Black’ instead of ‘black’). We suggest using capitalisation for both ‘Black’ and ‘White’. However, we recognise that individual authors may wish to adopt different approaches (including Black/white and black/white), and we ask that a consistent approach is adopted throughout authored and edited volumes. Where there is variation in approach between contributions that must be retained in edited volumes, please include notes to ensure these choices are clear to the reader.
• Avoid using ‘minority’ as a standalone term when discussing ethnicity or race. Use the term ‘minority ethnic group’ rather than ‘ethnic minority group’ when discussing communities that are marginalised based on ethnicity.
• Regions of the world: where possible list specific countries to which you are referring rather than grouping regions under umbrella terms such as ‘developed countries’ and ‘developing countries’. ‘First World’, ‘Second World’, ‘Third World’ should not be used unless being referred to in their historical context.

Reference styles: general

• You may use any recognised bibliography or citation style as long as this is used consistently. Please indicate which style you have followed when you submit your manuscript. Edited collections should also have consistency in reference style between chapters; the volume editor should check this before submission.
• The main styles used in UCL Press titles are either an author–date style (with parenthetical in-text citations) or notes and bibliography using numbered endnotes and superscript cues to these in the main text. Humanities disciplines have typically favoured notes and bibliography, while the author–date system is widely used in the social sciences.
• A bibliography contains all titles cited in the notes and possibly some other sources, a select bibliography contains some but not all works cited, and possibly some other sources. A reference section should accompany an author–date system. A further reading list does not include works cited.
• A reference list contains all the works cited in the text. Always ensure that in- text citations and entries in the references section are consistent, and that any references not cited are deleted.
• Works in the references and bibliography should be listed alphabetically
• Use chapter endnotes rather than footnotes. Endnotes should start with fresh numbering in each chapter.
• For edited collections supply end-of-chapter bibliographies/references rather than a complete end-of-book list. This is so that each chapter can be read independently from the rest.
• Do not use ibid., id., op. cit., or other such terms. Instead use the short form of the reference or, if using the author–date style repeat the reference in full
• Do not use a long dash to replace a repeated author name in a bibliography/ reference list.
• Use title case for main titles of books and names of journals in a reference list/bibliography but use sentence case for book subtitles, journal articles and elsewhere.
  
  

Online sources in references

• Online references should be to specific articles or pages on a website, not just to a top-level domain.
• Always include the http:// or https:// prefix.
• For articles consulted online, include a URL or the name of the database. Many journal articles list a DOI (Digital Object Identifier). A DOI forms a permanent URL that begins https://doi.org/.and should always be used in preferance to a URL where available.
• Where using URLs please always include the date you accessed this online, as the material may be updated or changed subsequently. An accessed on date is not necessary if using a DOI, as this is a permanent and unchanging identifier.

Law books

• We follow the Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) for referencing in Law books, available at: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/publications/oscola

The production process

The purpose of these instructions is to clarify your responsibilities as author and outline how you can expect to be involved at the various stages. Please read and follow them carefully as their aim is to make the publication process go as smoothly as possible.

Copy-editing

We understand your submission to be the complete and final manuscript (post peer review). After assessing the manuscript in-house, it will be sent to a professional copy- editor who will edit for grammar, punctuation, spelling and house style. The copy-editor will not change the content or carry out any fact-checking.

If you have any particular concerns about elements of the manuscript (e.g. symbols, diacritics, poetry), please provide a note at the time of submission. The copy-editor will work in Microsoft Word track changes so changes are visible. We will send you the copy-edited manuscript/queries for review. At this time, you will be asked to respond to any queries and confirm your approval of the copy-editor’s edits. This is your last opportunity to finalise the text (e.g. fill in cross-refs, missing bibliographic information) before we proceed to typesetting. If your book comprises contributed chapters, it will be the general editor’s responsibility to distribute copy-editing queries among the contributors and collate responses to agreed deadlines.

Artwork

Line artwork may be redrawn to improve quality and consistency of style, but no changes to the composition or content of the art will be made unless we have received specific redrawing instructions from you. Artwork will be placed in the proofs as near to the cue in the manuscript as possible and may also be resized to an appropriate size based on the content of the art and placement on the page. If you have any specific sizing/placement instructions, please note these on the art-list spreadsheet.

Typesetting and page proofs

Your manuscript will be sent to a typesetter who will produce PDF pages of your book. The pages will be designed and laid out as your printed book will appear. Your typeset page proofs will be sent to you in PDF format for review once typesetting is completed.

You should do a word-for-word check of the proofs. Please note that the text is in a relatively fixed state at this point, and we can only allow for corrections to genuine typographical or factual errors. More substantial alterations, such as adding or removing text, cannot be considered because they can cause page reflow. This can hinder the work on the index and lead to delays and extra costs.

Please get in touch if you have any queries about the level of corrections that are permissible. The proofs will simultaneously be sent to a professional proofreader, who will collate your corrections onto a master set. Once all the corrections have been incorporated by the typesetter, they will produce another round of proofs, which will be checked in-house. After taking in any final corrections, the typesetter will prepare the final print and digital files.

Indexing

It is our understanding that you will be compiling the index for your book. Depending on the workflow being followed you may be indexing the book from the word files during the copy editing stages, or from first or second page proofs. Please see separate indexing guidelines for more information on indexing.

A note on edited volumes

As stated, it is the general editor’s responsibility to distribute copy-editing queries to contributors and collate responses. At proof stage, it will be the general editor’s responsibility to distribute chapters among the contributors. To promote consistency throughout the book, we ask the general editor to take overall responsibility on queries relating to style, punctuation, etc. It will also be the responsibility of the general editor to collate the chapters and corrections from each contributor, check the corrections for consistency, and return to the production contact as one set of corrected proofs.

Cover

Alongside the process of preparing the text, a designer will be working on the cover. You will see a visual of the front cover before it is finalised. A full cover proof (with back cover copy inserted) will be sent for your review and approval ahead of publication.

Sales and marketing

Our marketing team will be in touch closer to the publication date of your book. Their first contact is usually when you handover your manuscript to production in final form, when they will ask you to fill in an Author Marketing Form. This asks you for information that will feed into the promotion of your book.

As standard, every book we publish features on our website and will be made available across a number of different partner platforms. All books will be included in the seasonal new publication catalogue that we mail to key accounts and distributors. Advance Information sheets listing the key selling points of your book will be distributed via our sales force to key retail outlets and libraries. Our social media campaigns are largely content-led – we will use our own channels and work in collaboration with your own personal social presence where possible. In addition, using information from your Author Marketing Form, we will ensure that review copies are sent to targeted outlets. We will explore all the potential marketing opportunities to ensure the successful promotion of your book. You can see more about our Sales and Marketing channels here.

UCL Press book contacts

Head of Publishing
Lara Speicher
l.speicher@ucl.ac.uk

Commissioning Editors
Pat Gordon-Smith
p.gordon-smith@ucl.ac.uk

Chris Penfold
c.penfold@ucl.ac.uk

Assistant Commissioning Editor
Elliot Beck
elliot.beck@ucl.ac.uk

Textbook Programme Manager
Dhara Snowden
dhara.snowden@ucl.ac.uk

Production Manager
Jaimee Biggins
j.biggins@ucl.ac.uk

Production Editor
Angela Thompson
angela.thompson@ucl.ac.uk

Marketing Manager
Alison Fox
alison.fox@ucl.ac.uk

Sales and Marketing Coordinator
Margie Coughlin
m.coughlin@ucl.ac.uk

Administrative Assistant
Laurie Sakura McNamee
laurie.sakura.mcnamee@ucl.ac.uk

General Enquiries
uclpresspublishing@ucl.ac.uk