Fandom and Neomedia Studies

Style Guide

Posted by in Publishing and Research

All submissions, both for the FANS Conference and all FANS publications, must conform to the following style guide.  Please make all submissions in either .doc or .docx format.

  1. Use Chicago, APA, or MLA style throughout with the following modifications.
  2. Use footnotes OR endnotes OR parenthetical citations but do not mix them in the same submission.  Regardless of style, all notes for a given sentence should be combined into one extended citation and placed at the actual end of the sentence.
  3. Include a full bibliography or works cited section at the end of the paper/article even if you have foot/end notes.  This section should be formatted with hanging indentation.  For reviews, full citation should precede the main body. Please consult our Popular Culture Resources for examples done in Chicago style. If citing an online source, the URL must be included. If a source has a DOI or similar marker, include it.
  4. All final submissions for The Phoenix Papers must be in English, though abstracts may be bilingual. Either American or English spellings (tire/tyre, color/colour) are acceptable but be consistent.  If using one style but quoting a source in another style, make the quotation conform to your overall style.
  5. References to figures, tables, charts, etc., should be in-text parenthetical citations. All figures, tables, charts, etc., should be placed at the end of the main text and before the references/bibliography section.
  6. Use the following date formats except when directly quoting a source: 1 January 2010, the 1970s, the ‘70s, twenty-first century (noun), twenty-first-century (adjective).
  7. Numbers:
    1. Write out cardinal numbers from one to nine.  Use Arabic numerals for larger numbers and all numbers with decimal parts or negatives.
    2. Write out all numbers, other than dates, if used to begin a sentence.
    3. Write out fractions that have both single-digit numerators and denominators (one-third, four-fifths; but 12/17).
    4. Use exact figures for irrational numbers (√2, π, φ).
    5. Percentages may be written either as 39% or as 39 percent provided the author is consistent.
    6. Ordinal numbers  must be written out if less than 100th (first, fifth, thirty-ninth; but 101st, 102d).  Do not use superscripts for ordinals.
    7. Exponents must be superscript format (a²).
    8. References to military units should be done in traditional format (82d Airborne).
    9. Measurements should use Arabic numerals and standard abbreviations for units (82 mm, 400 ft², 47 sec).
    10. In references, unless using a traditional system of notation as with manuscripts or classical works, use Arabic numerals throughout.
  8. Lengthy quotes of forty words or more and longer equations should be indented as block quotes.  Block quotes must be indented an extra one-half inch from each side margin and single-spaced.
  9. If Italics or other special fonts are used in a quotation, indicate if original or added for emphasis.
  10. Use Times New Roman font, size 12, for all main body text.  For the main body and bibliography, lines should be double-spaced, zero lead and follow.  Footnotes and endnotes should be TNR font, size 10, single-spaced.
  11. Do not use section breaks.  Indicate changes to new sections with headings or textual markers.
  12. When a noun, spell out a person’s, nation’s, or group’s name on first use (President Dwight David Eisenhower, United States, European Union).  When an adjective, an abbreviation may be used (US policy, EU Social Fund).  Well-known organizations or groups must be written in full on first instance but may be abbreviated thereafter (International Monetary Fund (IMF)).  If an article uses a large number of such abbreviations, an optional listing is recommended.  Do not use periods within acronyms or initialisms.
  13. Italicize the titles of longer works (books, operas, epic poetry), journals, newspapers, websites, maritime/space vessels, feature length films, and entire television series.  Shorter work titles (articles, individual blog posts, songs, poems, individual television show episodes) must be in quotation marks.  If a work’s title and a character within the work can be confused, be sure to italicize/quote the title but not the character’s name.
  14. Unless making a direct quotation, do not use contractions.
  15. If a foreign word has been fully adopted into English, do not italicize it (taco, manga).
  16. If a list contains only two items, do not use a comma before the final conjunction.  If a list contains three or more items, use a comma before the final conjunction per Oxford rules.
  17. When referencing your own work, published or otherwise, please refer to yourself and your work in the third person.  In general, avoid uses of the first and second person outside of direct quotations.  Exceptions can be made for participant-observer research.
  18. To facilitate the review process, do not put your name or identifying information anywhere on the actual submission.  Put your name, institutional affiliation if any, and full contact information on a separate cover page and nowhere else.
  19. Include a CV as a separate file with all submissions.
  20. Reviews should be no more than 3,000 words long.  Full articles should be no more than 12,000 words long, exclusive of bibliography and notes. Documentaries are limited to 15 minutes.  Please contact our editors if you need to go over these limits.  There is no minimum size requirement.
  21. If in doubt, ask.

 

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