Guidelines for Authors

Para una guía de citaciones en español, haga clic aquí.

Pour règles de présentation en français, cliquez ici.

Contributions to Anabaptist Witness journal (print and online, including online exclusives) are initially submitted to the lead editor of a forthcoming issue in response to a call for submissions. After an initial assessment by the lead editor, which may involve editorial requests to contributors, the contributions likely to be publishable are then sent to reviewers who are experts in the subject matter. Reviewers do not learn the identity of contributors, and contributors do not learn the identity of their reviewers. The reviewers send their evaluations of the contributions to the lead editor, who makes a final decision about issue content. Often this decision involves further editorial requests to contributors.

Blog posts undergo an independent editorial process, involving the web editor and the editor. See: Blog guidelines.

Anabaptist Witness follows the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed. You can access this resource at www.chicagomanualofstyle.org. Free trials are available. Biblical languages and abbreviations should follow the SBL Handbook of Style, which can be accessed at www.sbl-site.org/publications/publishingwithsbl.aspx.

English-language submissions should follow standard US spelling (e.g., color, focused, theater, to practice, realize, colonization, analyze, encyclopedia, traveling, to fulfill, judgment, learned, etc.). When in doubt about these or any other spelling issues, please consult Webster’s Third International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition, or www.merriam-webster.com. Please provide translations of foreign-language quotations and terms. Quotations should preserve the spelling of the source material.

Submissions in languages other than English should follow spelling and formatting conventions of the author’s country of origin.

Biblical languages should be transliterated according to the regulations set forth in the SBL Handbook of Style (www.sbl-site.org/publications/publishingwithsbl.aspx).

In addition to these technical guidelines, authors should further keep in mind that the editorial staff of Anabaptist Witness encourages the examination of normative theological claims in light of the lives of the persons or communities making them. Although we do not accept that such claims are reducible to the context of their production, we affirm that the latter is important to consider when assessing the viability of the former.

Anabaptist Witness uses gender-inclusive language to refer to human beings. References to “man” and “mankind” as generic descriptions of humanity will be changed to “human” and “humankind.” Gender-inclusive language for God is also encouraged, as is use of the full range of the Bible’s imagery for naming and describing God.

Our typesetter will need an unformatted manuscript, so please remove all headers, footers, and page numbers. Tabs should only be used to format poetry, chiasms, numbered lists, and similar. Use the formatting palette in Word to set the first line indentation value at 0.5 inches (do not use tabs or character spaces to indent the first lines of paragraphs).

Fonts: Please use Times or Times New Roman fonts, 12 points in the body and 10 points in footnotes.

Spacing: Body text should be double spaced, and footnotes single spaced. Do not leave extra space between paragraphs unless a space should appear in the text. Do not double space after periods.

Footnotes: Please do not include a bibliography or list of works cited. A full citation should be provided in a footnote the first time a work is cited. Following citations of that work should be shortened. E.g.,:

First citation: Alain Epp Weaver, Mapping Exile and Return: Palestinian Dispossession and a Political Theology for a Shared Future (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014), 11–16.

Following citations: Weaver, Mapping Exile and Return, 105–113.

When citing the same work in consecutive footnotes, please use “ibid.” “Ibid.” is an abbreviation of “ibidem,” which means “in the same place.” For example:

1. Weaver, Mapping Exile and Return, 105–113.
2. Ibid., 107.
3. Ibid.
4. See ibid., 49, n. 7, for further information.

Do not use “idem.” or “ff.”

Only use abbreviated author names when the author does so.

Do not include the words “Press,” “Books,” “Publishing Company,” or similar when citing the name of the publisher, except when the publisher is a university press. So Fortress Press should be shortened to Fortress (as above), while Oxford University Press should be left as is.

Please see The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed. for a full guide to citations. A guide to some common forms of citations is included at the end of this document (appendix A). More examples can be seen at http://chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html.

Other formatting and grammatical issues:

1. Please use italics when indicating emphasis or using a foreign term. Do not use bold print or all caps. All caps should only be used when necessary (NAFTA, YHWH, etc.).
2. Use “that” in restrictive clauses and “which” in nonrestrictive clauses. Examples:
   1. Restritive clause: “A doctrine of God that fails to account for God’s triunity.” (“Fails to account for God’s triunity” is a clause that restricts the meaning of “a doctrine of God” in this sentence.)
   2. Nonrestrictive clause: “His doctrine of God, which fails to account for God’s triunity, has had an unfortunate impact on Mennonite mission activity.” (You could take out the clause “which fails to account for God’s triunity” without fundamentally altering the meaning of the sentence.)
3. Use the serial or Oxford comma before a conjunction that joins the final two items in a series (e.g., “cats, dogs, and fish”; “broccoli, tofu, and macaroni and cheese”).
4. Use en-dashes between series of numbers, such as page numbers (105–113), verses (Ps. 104:1–4), and dates (1984–1987). Note that the en-dash is slightly longer than a hyphen.
5. Use em-dashes when setting off phrases within the text. Note that the em-dash is slightly longer than the en-dash.
6. Please create ellipses using three periods, with one space before and after each period ( . . . ). Do not use the ellipsis character or three unspaced periods.
7. Abbreviate inclusive number ranges as outlined in The Chicago Manual of Style and the SBL Handbook of Style. E.g.,
   10–11, 35–38, 98–99, 1000–1004
   100–102, 200–252, 1002–8
   101–2, 204–11, 309–56, 1002–16
   294–307, 1003–1135
8. Spell out whole numbers between one and one hundred, round numbers, and numbers at the beginning of a sentence. There are two exceptions to this rule:
   1. Percentages should be written as “50 percent.”
   2. Chapter numbers should be written as “chapter 6.”
9. Quotation marks:
   1. Always use double quotation marks (“) except for internal quotations, in which case use single quotation marks (‘). E.g., “She said, ‘the Spirit is present in this place.’”
   2. As in the previous example, periods and commas come before final quotation marks. Unless they are part of the quoted material, colons, semi-colons, question marks, and exclamation points come after final quotation marks.
10. Scripture:
    1. When providing scriptural citations, please cite book, chapter, and verse. Spell out “First” and “Second” when these occur at the beginning of a sentence (“Second Timothy 3:16 is an example of this understanding of Jewish sacred texts.”)
    2. Spell out the name of the book when citing the whole book (“The Gospel of Matthew portrays Jesus as a Mosaic figure.”)
    3. Use en-dashes between verses and between whole chapters: Matt 5–7; Mark 3:1–6).
    4. Use em-dashes between chapter + verse citations: Genesis 1:1—2:25).
11. Graphics:
    1. If you use tables, please include them in the submitted manuscript.
    2. Images, illustrations, and charts should be submitted as separate files. Acceptable extensions are .jpeg/.jpg, .pdf, .eps, and .tif.
       1. Please submit true Grayscale copies of your images for print. Resolution of these images should be between 300 and 600 dots per inch (dpi).
       2. Please also submit color copies of your images for our website. Discuss the dimensions of your images with the lead editor prior to submission.

Below are examples of some common citation forms. For electronic citations and other examples see http://chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html.

Single author or editor

First citation: Alain Epp Weaver, Mapping Exile and Return: Palestinian Dispossession and a Political Theology for a Shared Future (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014).

Following citations: Epp Weaver, Mapping Exile and Return.

First citation: Karl Rahner, ed., Encyclopedia of Theology: The Concise Sacramentum Mundi (New York: Seabury, 1975).

Following citations: Rahner, ed., Encyclopedia of Theology.

Two authors or editors

First citation: Rachel J. Lapp and Anita K. Stalter, More than Petticoats: Remarkable Indiana Women (Guilford, CT, and Helena, MT: Twodot, 2007.)

Following citations: Lapp and Stalter, More than Petticoats.

First citation: Gerald W. Schlabach and Margaret Pfeil, eds., Sharing Peace: Mennonites and Catholics in Conversation (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2013).

Following citation: Schlabach and Pfeil, eds., Sharing Peace.

Three or more authors or editors

First citation: Harvie M. Conn et al. The Urban Face of Mission: Ministering the Gospel in a Diverse and Changing World, eds. Manuel Ortiz and Susan S. Baker (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R, 2002).

Following citations: Conn et al., Urban Face of Mission.

First citation: Neil Brenner et al., eds., Cities for People, Not for Profit: Critical Urban Theory and the Right to the City (London and New York: Routledge, 2012).

Following citations: Brenner et al., eds., Cities for People.

Book with translator

First citation: Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, trans. Richard Nice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984).

Following citations: Bourdieu, Distinction.

Chapter or titled part of a book

First citation: Pierre Bourdieu, “The Economy of Practices,” Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, trans. Richard Nice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984), 97–256.

Following citations: Bourdieu, “Economy of Practices,” 97–256.

Essay in a muliauthored work

First citation: Alan Kreider, “The Significance of the Mennonite-Catholic Dialogue: A Mennonite Perspective,” in Sharing Peace: Mennonites and Catholics in Conversation, eds. Gerald W. Schlabach and Margaret Pfeil (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2013), 20–31.

Following citations: Kreider, “Mennonite-Catholic Dialogue,” 20–31.

Article in a periodical