Correspondences is an international, peer-reviewed online journal for the academic study of esotericism. Please follow these guidelines when first submitting articles for consideration, as well as when preparing the final version of your article following acceptance for publication. Please note that Correspondences does NOT accept multiple submissions, out of respect for the valuable time put in by our internal and external peer-reviewers. Correspondences expects mutual respect and integrity from its editors, authors, and readers. Please read our Code of Conduct for more information.
Questions? Please contact us at submissions@correspondencesjournal.com
Submission Requirements
All articles must contain an abstract of about 200 words and 2-6 keywords.
Language
Articles and reviews should be submitted in English. Geographical variations in language usage, such as British English or American English, are acceptable, but spelling variations should be consistent throughout the text. If quotations in other languages are used please provide an English translation in a footnote.
Length
Articles should be between 5000 and 10000 words in length (This does not include footnotes and bibliography, but the final count including footnotes should not exceed 13,000 words). Book reviews should not normally exceed a length of 1500 words.
Unicode and Non-Roman Fonts
If your manuscript contains non-Roman scripts, please also submit a pdf of the article in which all characters are displayed correctly.
File Format
We prefer files in Microsoft Word document format. We also accept Open Office document format, but if you do send it in Open Office, please also provide a PDF.
Article Stylesheet
Submitted manuscripts must follow the Chicago Manual of Style (16thedition) “Notes and Bibliography” style, with the exception of the items clarified below. If you are not familiar with Chicago style, see this quick guide, though it is likely you will need to consult the full manual on some issues. Articles submitted without apparent regard for the style policies of Correspondences will not be considered for publication.
Exceptions and Clarifications
Citation:
All references must be in footnotes and numbered consecutively throughout the manuscript. As of volume 7 (2019), Correspondences will follow an abbreviated form of Chicago citation style—first time references will not need to be cited in full in footnotes, but full citations should be listed in a comprehensive bibliography as outlined in the Chicago manual.
Examples:
Regular Chicago footnote citation:
Clark Kent, The Hazards of Knowing Everything: Superhero Epistemology and the Bomb (Metropolis: Daily Planet Press, 2014), 77.
Abbreviated citation used by Correspondences:
Kent, Superhero Epistemology, 77.
Note: Authors can abbreviate titles of cited works as they see fit, but the abbreviations must be consistent throughout the document. In general, it is best to follow the Chicago guidelines for abbreviating sources after the first citation.
- Authors may cite parenthetically in cases in which a primary source is frequently referred to. Example: “I could see it coming, but I couldn’t stop the ignition. It nearly destroyed me” (16).
- The use of “ibid” is permitted, though not required, in cases of repeated citations.
- Please provide a full bibliography consistent with Chicago style.
Local variants
- Correspondences receives submissions from a diverse range of geographical locations and cultural backgrounds and thus has decided to allow for author freedom in maintaining local traditions of style in areas such as punctuation usage (e.g. “history,” vs. “history”,), spelling (e.g. colour/color), dates (e.g. 27 October 1984 vs. October 27, 1984), possession (Lois’ vs. Lois’s), word choice (e.g. with regard to vs. with regards to. However, all such usage must be consistent throughout each article.
Quotations
- Terms or quotations should always be enclosed by double quotation marks, except when a quotation is found within another quotation. Example: “Clark claimed his perception made him ‘some sort of god or something’ but I knew different.”
- The initial letter in a quotation may be changed to an upper- or lower-case letter as needed to insure the grammatical consistency of the new sentence. This is at author discretion, with consistency throughout essential.
Punctuation
- All punctuation and spelling within quotations should remain faithful to the source quoted, regardless of overall usage within the article.
- Avoid use of bracketed ellipses unless necessary, as per Chicago 13.56.
Number Sequencing
- Number sequencing should follow the Chicago Manual’s system (see CMS 9.60). For example, 360–361 should be written as 360–61. Dates are never abbreviated.
- Please use en-dashes (rather than hyphens) to separate numbers and dates.
Titles/Headings
- Capitalisation of foreign language titles can remain consistent with the original language, at the discretion of the author. For English titles, please follow the Chicago Manual’s rules for “Headline-Style Capitalization” (8.157).
Book Reviews
The optimal manuscript length is 1000-1500 words, but we will consider longer and shorter manuscripts when appropriate. They must contain a critical discussion of the publication(s) under review, rather than merely summarizing the contents. Reviews of considerably greater length (such as reviews of several clearly related titles) may be submitted as a review article, and may or may not contain footnotes and a bibliography.
Style:
Book reviews follow the same style guidelines as articles (see above). Exception: References to pages within the book reviewed are placed in brackets in the text itself.
Bibliographic information:
The manuscript should begin with bibliographic and list price information on the book being reviewed. Arrange the information in the following order:
Author Name. Book Title: Subtitle of the Book. Place: Publisher, YEAR. pp roman + pp. ISBN: NUMBER. Price.
Example:
Dylan M. Burns. Apocalypse of the Alien God: Platonism and the Exile of Sethian Gnosticism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. xvii+ 321. ISBN: 978-0812245790. $69.95 / £45.50.
Review Process
Correspondences uses a double-blind peer-review system. Once submitted, we will do every effort to have your submission evaluated in a timely manner.
Ensuring a Blind Peer- Review
To insure the integrity of the blind peer-review process, we need to make every effort to preserve the anonymity of authors and reviewers. Therefore, when preparing your manuscript for submission please take the following steps:
– Remove your name entirely from the text. If you cite your own publications be sure to substitute the word ‘author’ for your own personal details and for the actual title of the work cited.
– With Microsoft Office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties for the file, by clicking on the following:
- For Windows: File – Save As – Tools
- For Mac: File – Properties – Summary
– Insert a blank page in the beginning of your document with your full name and e-mail address. This page will only be used by the editors, and will not be sent to the reviewers.
Potential Conflict of Interest
Correspondences requires all authors to disclose to the editors any potential conflicts of interest that may affect the objectivity of their research, at the time of first submission of articles or reviews. Examples may include, but are not limited to, funding received from an individual or group related to the subject of the research in question or personal affiliation with aforementioned individual or group. Publication may still be possible following this disclosure, but in this case authors will be required to acknowledge potential conflicts of interest in text or footnotes.
In accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ , authors hold the copyright of their work.