Instructions for Authors

Articles must be submitted electronically as email attachments. In general, articles should be between 5,000 and 10,000 words in length, including notes.

Notation Style

The Journal follows The Chicago Manual of Style, Fifteenth Edition. For transliteration of Persian, Arabic and Turkish words authors may follow the transliteration table of the International Journal of Middle East Studies, but omit the diacritical marks. Other transliteration schemes may also be used, so long as this is done consistently. If transliterations are not strictly consistent the paper would be returned to the author. References should be in the notes only, not in a separate bibliography of list of works cited. Notes will be printed as footnotes, and should be used judiciously. Authors must strictly comply with the journal notation style. Please note, publications data include place and date only, not the name of publisher. At the first mention of a work, a full citation should be given, thereafter a short form:

Book: Edward Granville Browne, A Literary History of Persia (Cambridge, 1920) 3:181.

Chapter: A. J. Boyle, “Dynastic and Political History of the Il-Khans”, The Cambridge History of Iran (Cambridge, 1968) 5:409.

Journal Article: R. K. Ramazani, “Iran’s Foreign Policy: Both North and South”, The Middle East Journal, xlvi (1992):393.

Encyclopaedia article: K. A. Luther, “Abu Nasr Mostawfi”, Encyclopaedia Iranica 1: 353a.

Formatting and Style:

Article formatting:

  • Typeface: New Times Roman
  • Point size: 12
  • Double-spaced
  • Left aligned
  • At least one-inch margins
  • Journal title, volume and issue number, month and year centered at the top of the first page:

    Iranian Studies, volume 38, number 1, March 2005

  • Author byline left aligned and italicized
  • Article title left aligned; bold; point size 14
  • Author details are set as an un-numbered first footnote at the bottom of the opening page.
  • The first line of a new section should not be indented. All other paragraphs within a section should be indented. Use Word auto-formatting: Format/Paragraph/Indents and Spacing/Indentation/Special/First Line
  • Block quotes (quotation 40+ words) should be indented from the general text.
  • Footnotes should be set in point size 10; first line indented (use Word auto-formatting).
  • Footnote numbering in the text should be placed after the full point at the end of a sentence.

Sub-headings:

  • Sub-headings should not be numbered.
  • Level-A: Set on a line above the section; left aligned; italicized; all key words begin with a capital:

Patriarchal Logic and Modernity

The Iranian Revolution has led to important changes in political, social, economic and demographic structures.

  • Level-B: Set at the beginning of the first line of a new section; left aligned; italicized; initial capital only; full point after the heading:

The privatisation proposal. We start with the privatisation proposal, because this allows us to underline some of the basic concepts regarding the ownership, control, and modes of operation of oil industry.

  • Level-C: Set at the beginning of the first line of a new section; indented; italicized; initial capital only; full point after the heading:

Ownership of reserves and control of oil rents. Iranian oil reserves, and Middle East oil reserves in general, have two important peculiarities – first, they come in huge fields, and second the cost of production is extremely low compared to other regions.

Tables and Figures:

  • All tables and figures (plus captions) should be grouped together and saved in two files separate from the text file.
  • All tables and figures should be removed from the text document. Mark their position in the text with [f]fig 1 here[/f] or [t]tab 1 here[/t].
  • Table and Figure captions should be set in Times New Roman; point size 12; no full point at the end; centered above the table or figure:

Table 1. GDP of France, 1998–2001

  • Notes and Sources should be set below the table or figure; Times New Roman; point size 10; left aligned, full point at the end:

Notes: An asterisk indicates missing data.
Source: Department of Trade, 1999.

  • When formatting tables, use tabs to align columns in tables, not the space bar or cells. Check that spelling in the tables matches that in the text.

 

Spelling and Punctuation:

  • American spelling and punctuation
  • Double quotation marks
  • Em-dash should be used within sentences, e.g. “Periods of contentious politics in modern Iran—during the constitutional era, in the immediate post-WWII period—have been crucial in shaping collective answers to the questions”
  • En-dash should be used for page, date and other numerical ranges, e.g. 24–36.
  • Minimal use of full points for acronyms and abbreviations.
  • Minimal use of capitals except for proper nouns, e.g. President George Washington BUT the president of the United States; the West BUT western Europe

 

Numbers:

  • Dates: day-month-year without internal punctuation, e.g. 14 April 1977. Centuries should be written out: nineteenth NOT 19th. Year ranges should be contracted when the century is the same, e.g. 1997–98.
  • Numbers: In nonscientific usage numbers from one to one hundred should be spelled out. Units in larger numbers should be divided by commas, e.g. 2,230.
  • Percentages: Numerals should be used, but followed by “percent” rather than “%” in nonscientific copy.