The following guidelines, which are intended for manuscripts prepared in Microsoft Word or other
word-processing programs, are designed to streamline the process of bringing your manuscript through
the publication process. To achieve the schedule, quality, and price that are optimal for your project,
please follow these instructions carefully. Once your manuscript has been accepted for editing, your
manuscript editor will be your main contact for the remainder of the publishing process and will provide
you with a schedule so you will know when you will need to be available for reviewing the edited manuscript,
proofreading, and indexing. It is essential that you meet all deadlines provided to you by your editor.
If you have questions about any of these instructions, do not hesitate to contact your acquisitions
editor or acquisitions assistant for help. We look forward to receiving your final manuscript.
- Your Responsibility as Volume Editor
- The Elements of a Manuscript
- Preparing the Manuscript
- Submitting the Manuscript
- Notes, Bibliographies, and Reference Lists
- Figure Submission Guidelines
- The Editorial Process
As volume editor, you are responsible for ensuring that all of the chapters to be included
in your book are prepared according to the guidelines presented here and the attached guidelines
for your contributors. We reserve the right to return materials to you if they are not prepared
correctly. You will be the intermediary between the contributors and the Press. It is your responsibility
to review (or have your contributors review) the edited manuscript, making certain that all queries have
been answered and ensuring that the text is accurate and ready for the typesetter. Only you (or your
contributors) will be reading proof; the Press does not normally hire professional proofreaders. If your
contributors will be involved in either the manuscript or proof stage, you will need to send the materials
to your individual contributors; the Press will not handle this for you. You will serve as the conduit
between your contributors and the Press; do not have the contributors send anything directly to the Press.
You will be responsible for preparing the index, unless other arrangements have been made and stated
explicitly in your contract. You are also responsible for making certain that your contributors have
obtained any necessary permissions for their use of previously published figures, quotations of copyrighted
material exceeding 300 words, or any poems or song lyrics, regardless of length. It is your responsibility
to compile a list of sources and acknowledgments for all reprinted material, making certain that any
stipulations of the grantor of permission have been followed. If you have any questions that are not
directly addressed here, consult The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition.
If you will not be available at the scheduled times to review the edited manuscript and page proofs
and either create the index or review the index we provide, please notify your manuscript editor as soon
as you receive the schedule. During editing, many departments of the Press are preparing for the publication
of your book, so if the schedule must be altered, your manuscript editor is responsible to alert these other
departments.
A manuscript consists of several elements. These are front
matter, the body of the text, documentation (notes and bibliography or
reference list), figures, figure captions, and tables. (Figure preparation is discussed
in the section Figure
Submission Guidelines.)
FRONT MATTER
Front matter includes the following, in this order:
- half title page (consisting of the main title only)
- series page or blank (we will provide)
- title page
- copyright page (we will provide)
- dedication or epigraph
- table of contents (called simply "Contents")
- foreword (written by someone other than the author of the book; if applicable)
- series foreword (if applicable)
- preface (written by the author of the book, not someone else)
- acknowledgments (if not included in the preface)
- introduction (if not the first chapter of the book)
All front matter should be numbered with lowercase roman
numerals. Page 1 should be the first page of the main text. Do not create your
own cataloging-in-publication data; the Library of Congress supplies this.
THE TEXT
Indent the first line of each paragraph, except for the
first paragraph after a heading. Make sure you indent the first line of any
paragraph after an extract, list, or other interruption if you intend for it to
be considered a new paragraph. Do not put extra space between paragraphs.
DOCUMENTATION
Please use one of the two basic systems described in the Chicago
Manual, 15th ed., chapters 16 and 17. These are the notes and bibliography
system and the author-date and reference list system.
Notes must be gathered at the end of the
file; do not place the notes at the bottom of the page—that is, use endnotes,
not footnotes. Number notes consecutively within each chapter using
superscripts for in-text references and on-line numbers (not superscripts)
preceding the notes themselves. Style them consistently according to the Chicago
Manual. Be sure the notes are in 12-point font and double spaced. Refer to the section
Notes and Bibliography System for examples.
References must be complete, accurate, and styled consistently according to the Chicago
Manual or an established journal in your field. They must be double spaced
and in a 12-point font. If you use the "author-date" citation
system, refer to the section Author-Date System
with Reference List for examples. Do not list author-date citations in notes.
TABLES
Place each chapter's tables at the end of the chapter. Double number tables using chapter and table number (table
1.1, table 1.2, and so on). Cite tables in the text using these numbers.
Indicate each table’s approximate location by placing a callout in square
brackets (e.g., "[table 4.2 near here]"), on a separate line between
paragraphs. Table captions should remain with the tables; do not create a
separate table caption list. Long tables need not be double spaced.
If you are submitting boxed text, number and cite the boxes using this same pattern.
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
- Be consistent in your treatment of any
particular design element (see below regarding subheadings).
- Always allow the word-wrap function to operate;
do not place hard returns at the end of a line of text. Use hard returns only
to end paragraphs, headings, or items in a list.
- Make sure there are no links, annotations, or
hidden text in the final version of your manuscript.
- Do not create running heads.
- All type should be in upper and lower case (with
the exception of acronyms, do not use all capital letters, even for headings).
FORMATTING
- Before typing your manuscript, turn off your
word processor's automatic formatting features. Do not use built-in paragraph styles.
- Because you are creating a manuscript for editing, it is important that the line spacing, type size, and margins are sufficient to allow the editor to do his or her work, as described in Typing the Manuscript. Do not format your manuscript pages to look like book pages. Our design department will be responsible for establishing the format of your book. Do not justify the margins; paragraphs should be flush left, ragged right. Do not attempt to design your manuscript; keep the formatting as simple as possible and avoid using multiple fonts or multiple type sizes.
TYPING THE MANUSCRIPT
Line Spacing
All elements of the
manuscript must be double spaced. This includes the text, notes, references, block quotations, figure
legends, tables, and displays (the only exception is long tables; these may be
single spaced).
Type Size
Be sure to use at least a 12-point type size.
Margins
All pages should have margins of 1.5 inches on all sides.
Punctuation
- Use only one space after periods and colons.
- Place periods and commas inside closed quotation
marks; place colons and semicolons outside.
- Disable your word processor's automatic
hyphenation feature.
Superscripts and Subscripts
- Use superscripts only for note numbers in the
text or where necessary in mathematical equations; type, for example, 42nd Street, not 42nd Street.
- Place end-of-sentence superscript numbers after
the period, with no space preceding.
Indention
- Always use a tab, not the spacebar, for
paragraph indents.
- Do not indent the first line of the paragraph
under a subheading, but all other paragraphs should have their first line
indented.
- Use the indent function, not tabs, for setting
off block quotations.
Italics
Use italics for words used as words (as in "it seemed that possible was the operative word");
foreign terms (if not included in Webster’s); first occurrences of key terms
when they are defined. Use italics only sparingly for emphasis. (Italics may be
indicated either by underlining or by simply using italics—but be consistent.)
Subheadings
Try to use no more than three levels of subheading. Type
each heading using upper- and lowercase letters. Differentiate each level of
head in the manuscript (e.g., level 1: boldface flush left; level 2: italic
flush left; level 3: roman flush left). Do not place superscript note numbers
in headings.
Quotations
Use block quotations for any quoted material exceeding 7 to 10
lines or any quotations containing multiple paragraphs. Double-space all block
quotations, leaving an extra line of space above and below the quoted matter.
Do not place quotation marks around the extract. Use three ellipsis points to
indicate deletions from within a sentence, four to indicate a deletion from the
end of a sentence (the first ellipsis point represents a period and should be
typed tight against the last word). Do not use ellipses at the beginning or end
of the quotation. Bear in mind that all quoted poetry or song lyrics require
permission, regardless of length.
PAGINATING THE MANUSCRIPT
Number the manuscript consecutively, beginning with the
first page of the text proper, using arabic numerals. Number the front matter
separately, using lowercase roman numerals. Be consistent in your placement of
page numbers throughout the manuscript.
All elements of the manuscript must be complete at the time
it is submitted to the Press; we cannot begin editing unless all elements are
present. (A guest foreword may be submitted later; consult with your
acquisitions editor to see if this will be feasible for your project.) Once your manuscript has been submitted we will consider it ready
for editing. Do not send revised materials after this time, and do not continue
revising your electronic files.
Submit your work on CD (if you prefer to submit your work
electronically, contact your acquisitions
editor for instructions). The text must be in one of the major word-processing programs for the Mac or PC,
preferably Microsoft Word. Do not submit PDFs of your text; send only
word-processing files. Label the discs with your last name, the book
title, the name of the word-processing program used (including version number),
and whether the discs were prepared on a Mac or a PC.
NAMING MANUSCRIPT FILES
Submit each chapter as a separate file; the front matter
should also be a separate file. Name each file using the following guidelines:
- All file names begin with lead author’s last name followed by an underscore, a two-digit
unique identifier, and the file extension. It is crucial that there are no
blank spaces or punctuation (especially periods) other than an underscore in
the manuscript filenames.
- The front matter is assigned the unique identifier "00."
Examples:
- Smith_00.doc (front matter)
- Smith_01.doc (chapter 1)
- ...
- Smith_12.doc (references)
If you are submitting figures in electronic form, place them on a separate disc. (Please
refer to the Figure Submission Guidelines.) Remove any files from the disc that
are not relevant to your book. Do not include multiple versions of the same
material.
You must submit a printed hard copy in addition to your electronic files. The Press needs the
hard copy in order to verify that any special characters and alignments are not
lost when the files are viewed on our computers. This is especially crucial in
any manuscripts containing equations, linguistics examples, or languages using
nonroman alphabets.
Make sure the files on the discs correspond exactly to the hard copy; if there are
discrepancies between the hard copy and the discs, we will consider the
electronic version definitive.
One of two systems is commonly used for documentation. One
uses numbered notes and a bibliography (the bibliography is not necessary if
full citations are given in the notes); the other uses in-text author-date
citations and a reference list. Examples of both systems are given below. Do
not mix the systems: use one or the other. For more information, refer to the Chicago Manual, 15th edition, chapters
16 and 17, which is MIT Press’s preferred style. For all book citations,
include all of the following information: author’s name, title, city of
publication, publisher, year. For all citations of journal articles, include
author’s name, article title, journal name, volume number, issue number, year,
and page numbers. Check all citations carefully to
make sure they have been styled consistently.
NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY SYSTEM
Use your word processor’s automatic note inserting and
numbering function, set for endnotes and not footnotes. Place all notes at the
end of the file. In the published book, the notes will appear at the end of the
volume.
Use superscript note numbers in text. For example, "Rowe claims that
‘the role of the designer . . . in such a complex system is one of describing
modes of interaction and degrees of freedom within and between multiple agents.’"1
Books
Note Form
1. Robert Rowe, Machine Musicianship (Cambridge, Mass.:
MIT Press, 2001), 373.
[A citation to the same source immediately following
the main citation should use ibid.:]
2. Ibid., 375.
[Later citations to the same source should employ a
shortened form, consisting of the author’s last name and the main words of the
title:]
13. Rowe, Machine Musicianship, 124.
Bibliography Form
Rowe, Robert. Machine Musicianship. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2001.
Chapter in a Book
Note Form
1. Leo Marx, "The Railroad-in-the-Landscape: An
Iconological Reading of a Theme in
American Art," in The Railroad in
American Art: Representations of Technological Change, ed. Susan Danly and
Leo Marx (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1988), 195.
2. Ibid., 204.
13. Marx, "Railroad-in-the-Landscape," 207.
Bibliography Form
Marx, Leo. "The Railroad-in-the Landscape: An Iconological
Reading of a Theme in American
Art." In The Railroad in American Art:
Representations of Technological Change, edited by Susan Danly and Leo
Marx, 170–196. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1988.
Article in a Journal
Note Form
1. Ronald C. Nahas, "Beirut Rising," Urban Land 58, no. 10
(October 1999): 40–46.
Bibliography Form
Nahas, Ronald C. "Beirut Rising." Urban Land 58, no. 10
(October 1999): 40–46.
AUTHOR-DATE SYSTEM WITH REFRENCE LIST
If you use the author-date citation system, include the citation within the text, and make sure the source
appears in the reference list. For example:
Rowe claims that "the role of the designer . . . in
such a complex system is one of describing modes of interaction and degrees of
freedom within and between multiple agents" (Rowe 2001, 373).
or
Rowe (2001, 273) claims that "the role of the designer
. . . in such a complex system is one of describing modes of interaction and
degrees of freedom within and between multiple agents."
Examples of Reference Citations
Book
Rowe, Robert. 2001. Machine Musicianship. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Chapter in a Book
Marx, Leo. 1988. The railroad-in-the landscape: An iconological
reading of a theme in American art." In The
railroad in American art: Representations of technological change, ed.
Susan Danly and Leo Marx, 170–196. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Article in a Journal
Nahas, Ronald C. 1999. "Beirut rising." Urban Land 58 (10) (October):
40–46.
In this system, notes are used only
for further discussion that is more detailed than or tangential to that of the
text; notes are not used for merely listing author-date citations.
CITING URLs
The Chicago Manual
(15th edition, 17.4–17.15) contains guidelines for including URLs in your notes
and references. Please refer to that source for additional information.
URLs change frequently and may no longer provide access to your sources at the time your
book is published. Do not provide URLs for book or article citations unless
they provide the only means of access for the material. If a book, chapter, or
article is available in print form, provide a complete citation to the print
version of the publication only. Any URLs you provide should be checked to make
sure they are accurate and current when you submit your manuscript. When
including URLs, cut and paste them from your browser; do not attempt to retype
them. URLs should be styled as follows:
Available at http://mitpress.mit.edu
URLs should not appear in your manuscript as active
hyperlinks (that is, underlined and in color). If the URL appears on your
screen as a hyperlink, right-click on it and select Remove Hyperlink. If you
must break URLs over lines of text, break them after a slash (/); before a
tilde (~), a period, a comma, a hyphen, an underline (_), a question mark, a
number sign, or a percent sign; you can break URLs before or after an equals
sign or an ampersand. Do not add hyphens to URLs, and do not break a URL after
a hyphen that is part of a URL.
HARD COPY FIGURE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
All figures submitted as hard copy only must be camera
ready; that is, they must be first copies of professionally prepared drawings
or glossy photographic prints, not photocopies.
If actual photographs are submitted they must be sharp and clear. Pages removed from
books (tear sheets) are also acceptable as long as appropriate permissions have
been secured. Photocopies are not acceptable. Transparencies and 35mm slides may be submitted. All media should
be labeled without damaging the art (for example, a light pencil could be used
on the backs of photographs). We will do everything possible to ensure that no
damage is done to the items submitted for publication, but we cannot guarantee
that all hard copy figures will be returned in their original condition.
Wherever possible, refrain from submitting the only copy that you have as some
wear and tear is to be expected during the scanning and retouching process.
Labeling Figures
Label each figure using the
double-number method by combining the chapter and sequential figure number. For
instance, the first three figures in chapter 1 should be labeled figure 1.1,
figure 1.2, and figure 1.3. The first figure in chapter 2 will be figure 2.1.
For figures that appear in unnumbered chapters (e.g., Introduction, Preface,
etc.), use an abbreviation for the chapter name followed by the sequential
figure number (e.g., intro 1, intro 2). Be sure to number the actual artwork,
writing in pencil on the back of photographs if necessary. If you are
submitting slides, place them in a clear plastic sleeve and place the figure
label on the outside of the sleeve.
Citing Figures
Cite figures in the manuscript
using the figure labels assigned. Indicate each figure’s location in the text
by inserting a "callout" in square brackets (e.g., "[figure 2.5 here]"), on a
separate line between paragraphs. You may use boldface to help distinguish the
figure callout from standard paragraph text.
ELECTRONIC FIGURE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Provide electronic files for your figures in the programs in
which they were created. We refer to these as the figure source files.
Acceptable programs include: Photoshop, Illustrator, PowerPoint, and Excel.
Acceptable file formats include: XLS, PPT, EPS, TIF, JPG, PSD, PDF, and GIF.
Any electronic figures that contain text (e.g., charts and graphs) should be
created in Illustrator or Excel to ensure that the text is legible in print.
When adding labels to figures, use common fonts such as Times, Arial, or
Helvetica.
Guidelines for Scanning Figures
If you are scanning art, set the resolution at 300 dots per
inch (dpi) for grayscale or color. The original image area should be at least 5
inches wide. If the original is smaller than 5 inches, set the scanning
resolution higher (for example, 400 dpi for a 4-inch piece of art). Scan line
art such as charts, graphs, or pen drawings at 900 dpi grayscale to ensure that
the text is legible. Save scanned images as TIFF or JPEG files and number them
according to the figure labeling guidelines provided in this document.
Guidelines for Capturing Screen Shots
NOTE: Many commercial programs that take screen shots are available for purchase. Owing to
the myriad options that exist for obtaining screen shots on various operating
systems, we advise that you refer to your owner’s reference manual and online
help guides to assist you in the process of obtaining screen shots on your
computer. Below are the basic guidelines that we use to determine if screen shots
are acceptable for publication.
Prior to obtaining a screen shot from your computer monitor, make sure that you have the
largest possible version of the image displayed. Many websites will display a
scaled down version of an image on the main site, but if you click on the
image, a larger version will appear. For our purposes, an appropriate image for
a screen shot will measure no less than 4 inches wide. Follow your owner’s
manual or other guidelines to obtain the screen shot and use the label and citation
guidelines contained in this document to properly label and cite the figure for
use in your book.
Guidelines for Creating Art
- Aim for legibility and simplicity; do not submit 3-dimensional renderings of charts.
- Figures should not exceed 5 inches (30 picas) in width and 7 inches (42 picas) in height.
- Do not use line weights lighter than 0.25 pts; lighter (hairline) rules will not reproduce properly.
- Do not use color unless the figures are to be printed in color.
- Supply drafted files in the format of the program that they were created in.
- Use as few shades of gray as possible to
distinguish between regions of a figure to ensure that they reproduce
correctly. For instance, do not place a region shaded 20% gray next to a region
shaded 25% gray as the distinction between these two regions will be too small.
Instead, use a 20% gray region next to a 40% gray region so that they can be
properly distinguished in print.
Converting Color to Black and White
Figures that will appear within the text of a book should be
created in black and white (grayscale) unless otherwise indicated in your
contract. If you are unable to convert your images to black and white, we will
do that for you as part of our file preparation process. But it is important to
remember that any textual references to the colors that appear in a figure will
be rendered moot when the file is converted to black and white.
Naming Figure Files
Name each figure file using the double-number method by
combining the chapter and sequential figure number. For instance, the first
three figures in chapter 1 should be named figure_01_01, figure_01_02, and
figure_01_03. (Do not include any spaces in your file name.) The first figure
in chapter 2 will be figure_02_01. For figures that appear in unnumbered
chapters (e.g., Introduction, Preface, etc.), use an abbreviation for the
chapter name followed by the sequential figure number (e.g., intro_01, intro_02).
Make sure to include the file extension when naming the figures (.tif, .eps,
etc.).
Citing Figures
Cite figures in the manuscript using the figure labels
assigned. Indicate each figure’s location in the text by inserting a "callout"
in square brackets (e.g., "[figure 2.5 here]"), on a separate line between
paragraphs. You may use boldface to help distinguish the figure callout from
standard paragraph text.
Note: Electronic figures should not be copied
(embedded) into the manuscript Word file. Only the figure callout should appear
within the manuscript file.
FIGURE CAPTIONS
Separate captions from their figures and place each chapter's captions at the end of the chapter, following any tables.
SUBMITTING FIGURE FILES
Include a hard copy printout (laser or inkjet) of each
figure. Make sure it matches the digital file. If you are submitting your
figures on disc, all of the figures should be placed on a single disc (separate
from the manuscript files) and sent along with all of the other materials
required for submission.
When your manuscript has been turned over to the editorial
department, it is assigned to a manuscript editor. This is the person to whom
you should address all questions pertaining to the content of the manuscript. All
questions regarding your contract, permissions, publication date, or marketing
should be addressed to your acquisitions editor. Direct any questions regarding
jacket copy or endorsements to the promotions department. Contact information
is available on our Web site at http://mitpress.mit.edu/mitpress/staff/.
Unless your manuscript is unsuitable for on-screen editing (e.g., if it contains
specialized fonts or is in a program we cannot read), we will edit your
manuscript electronically and send you a "protected" Word file for your review.
REVIEWING THE EDITING
Your manuscript editor will return the edited manuscript to
you as a protected Word file, along with a style sheet and guidelines for
reviewing the editing and responding to queries. We strongly encourage our
authors and contributors to make changes only at this stage; once the text is
typeset, we must limit corrections to typos and other egregious errors. Refer
to the schedule provided by your manuscript editor for the deadline for
returning the manuscript to the Press. The bound book date for your book is
dependent on this and all other deadlines being met.
PROOFREADING
Our publication schedule allows approximately three weeks
for proofreading. Your manuscript editor will provide you with instructions;
the date by which the proofs must be returned will be in the schedule provided
at the beginning of the process. Proofreading is your responsibility. The best
results are usually achieved by professional proofreaders, and the Press
recommends that you hire one. The Press does not employ proofreaders.
INDEXING
Unless other arrangements have been made, you will be responsible
for preparing an index for your book. Indexing instructions are available on
our Web site at
http://mitpress.mit.edu/authors/guidelines/index.
The index manuscript is due about 10 days after you return the page proofs to
the Press—the due date is specified in the schedule provided by your manuscript
editor. The index manuscript must follow all other guidelines given above for
manuscript preparation, including double-spacing and a 12-point type size.
If the Press hires a freelance indexer to create your index, you will be
permitted to correct any typographical errors or delete any unnecessary entries;
you will not be able to make or request any other changes.
