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Submission Guidelines
Email contacts: ripperologist@casebook.org and/or contactripperologist@gmail.com
PUBLICATION DATES:
1ST NOVEMBER :
Last Submission date- 1st October
1ST MAY
Last Submission date- 1st March
We reformat and check everything you do to ensure we all look as professional as possible. Please do not take offence if we suggest any alterations or provide feedback, we want your article or column to be as professional and competent as it possibly can. Anything that goes in the magazine reflects on both the author and the magazine itself. It goes without saying that this is THE flagship publication for our subject and we want our readership to recognise you, as its contributors, as experts in their chosen field. Awkwardly worded or grammatically incorrect prose undermines this and we’re sure you have all experienced the cringe factor of reading something that really could have done with an editor. As we have a particular style/brand it will really help us if, when you submit a piece, you follow these guidelines. This will considerably reduce our workload for each edition, but if you are struggling, be it with formatting, prose or structure, don’t worry, we are always happy to assist in any way we can.
1. Submission Package – we don’t mind if you use Word, Libre Office or Google Docs, nor are we bothered about Mac v Windows, what we do ask is you don’t use any other package, particularly WordPad as this is just too basic. Libre Office and Google Docs are available free to anyone who wishes to use them.
2. American v British English – we don’t mind whether you use American or British English spelling and grammar, the choice is yours and our readership knows there will be differentiation in each article or column because we, like our readership, are from all over the world. What we do ask is that you remain consistent and don’t do both within one article.
3. Spell checking and word consistency – please do spell check your work and ensure you remain consistent in your wording:
• There is no need to double space after the end of a sentence.
• Detailing ages – it doesn’t matter if you are using a number format or a written format but please keep
this consistent throughout. For example ’26-year-old’ or ‘twenty-six-year-old’, please don’t
interchange between the two. You should also ensure that the age is hyphenated as per the example.
• Capital letters should only be used when referring to a specific person, location or item – below are a
few examples where people make mistakes:
▪ ‘coroner’ should be in lower case – ‘Wynne Baxter was the coroner’ or ‘the coroner, Wynne
Baxter’.
▪ ‘East End’ and ‘West End’ are capitalised but ‘north’, ‘south’, ‘east’ and ‘west’ are lower case unless part of a proper noun i.e. ‘North Carolina’.
▪ ‘police station’ should be in lower case unless it’s the title of a specific station – ‘the police station was to the left of the pub’ or ‘Leman Street Police Station’.
▪ ‘Detective Inspector’ should be in lower case unless it’s a title – ‘the detective inspector walked into the house’ or ‘Detective Inspector Joe Bloggs walked into the house’.
4. Date formatting – this depends on whether you are using American or British English. For the sake of consistency please use the following so we don’t have to go through each submission and check each one:
• American English – ‘January 23rd, 1888’ and ‘Friday, January 23rd, 1888’ are our preferred styles.
• British English – ‘23rd January 1888’ and ‘Friday, 23rd January 1888’ are our preferred styles.
5. Font and paragraphs – please use Times New Roman, size 12 and justify your paragraphs (block paragraphs) rather than have them on left alignment.
6. Paper size – please ensure your paper size is A4. You may assume it is A4 but Google Docs in particular often uses a slightly different template. To check you are using A4 on the various Word-style applications go to:
• Word – Layout / Size / A4
• Libre Office – Format / Page Style / Page / Format / A4
• Google Docs – File / Page Set Up / Paper Size / A4
7. Quotations – please enclose quotations with double speech marks “” and italics. Large quotations should have their own paragraph. We receive quite a lot of submissions where it’s not clear if a quote is being used or not.
8. Images – when submitting a piece please also submit any images you wish to use in the article or column at the same time. Please don’t submit them afterwards as we will have to reformat the article and potentially the whole magazine. There is no need to position them if you’re unsure of how to do this, just put
<<insert image x>> where you want them to go and ensure the image is clearly numbered. Please include the full source and, if you want to use a description for underneath the image, please detail what you wish to say.
9. Footnotes v Endnotes – we use footnotes rather than endnotes. Please use the proper version of footnotes rather than your own ad hoc version. Here’s how to add them:
• Word – References / Insert Footnote
• Libre Office – Insert / Footnote and Endnote / Footnote
• Google Docs – Insert / Footnote
10. Sources v Footnotes – Where a specific quote or evidence is given please detail your source as a footnote. For your general sources, i.e. any books, articles, websites etc. please provide a list at the end of your submission which includes the publication date and publisher if applicable.
11. Closed v open punctuation – this depends on whether you are using American or British English. Our main concern is consistency. If you use American English the correct format is ‘Dr.’ or ‘Mr.’ or ‘Mrs.’ etc. (which incidentally is ‘etc.’ for all written English). If you are using British English please remove the
‘.’ – i.e. ‘Dr’, ‘Mr’ ‘Mrs’ etc.
12. Headers and Footers – please don’t use headers, footers or page numbers as they will be redundant
once the submission is reformatted to go into the magazine.
13. Biography – please include a brief biography of yourself at the end of your article for publication. This should be one or two sentences.
Email contacts: ripperologist@casebook.org and/or contactripperologist@gmail.com
PUBLICATION DATES:
1ST NOVEMBER :
Last Submission date- 1st October
1ST MAY
Last Submission date- 1st March
We reformat and check everything you do to ensure we all look as professional as possible. Please do not take offence if we suggest any alterations or provide feedback, we want your article or column to be as professional and competent as it possibly can. Anything that goes in the magazine reflects on both the author and the magazine itself. It goes without saying that this is THE flagship publication for our subject and we want our readership to recognise you, as its contributors, as experts in their chosen field. Awkwardly worded or grammatically incorrect prose undermines this and we’re sure you have all experienced the cringe factor of reading something that really could have done with an editor. As we have a particular style/brand it will really help us if, when you submit a piece, you follow these guidelines. This will considerably reduce our workload for each edition, but if you are struggling, be it with formatting, prose or structure, don’t worry, we are always happy to assist in any way we can.
1. Submission Package – we don’t mind if you use Word, Libre Office or Google Docs, nor are we bothered about Mac v Windows, what we do ask is you don’t use any other package, particularly WordPad as this is just too basic. Libre Office and Google Docs are available free to anyone who wishes to use them.
2. American v British English – we don’t mind whether you use American or British English spelling and grammar, the choice is yours and our readership knows there will be differentiation in each article or column because we, like our readership, are from all over the world. What we do ask is that you remain consistent and don’t do both within one article.
3. Spell checking and word consistency – please do spell check your work and ensure you remain consistent in your wording:
• There is no need to double space after the end of a sentence.
• Detailing ages – it doesn’t matter if you are using a number format or a written format but please keep
this consistent throughout. For example ’26-year-old’ or ‘twenty-six-year-old’, please don’t
interchange between the two. You should also ensure that the age is hyphenated as per the example.
• Capital letters should only be used when referring to a specific person, location or item – below are a
few examples where people make mistakes:
▪ ‘coroner’ should be in lower case – ‘Wynne Baxter was the coroner’ or ‘the coroner, Wynne
Baxter’.
▪ ‘East End’ and ‘West End’ are capitalised but ‘north’, ‘south’, ‘east’ and ‘west’ are lower case unless part of a proper noun i.e. ‘North Carolina’.
▪ ‘police station’ should be in lower case unless it’s the title of a specific station – ‘the police station was to the left of the pub’ or ‘Leman Street Police Station’.
▪ ‘Detective Inspector’ should be in lower case unless it’s a title – ‘the detective inspector walked into the house’ or ‘Detective Inspector Joe Bloggs walked into the house’.
4. Date formatting – this depends on whether you are using American or British English. For the sake of consistency please use the following so we don’t have to go through each submission and check each one:
• American English – ‘January 23rd, 1888’ and ‘Friday, January 23rd, 1888’ are our preferred styles.
• British English – ‘23rd January 1888’ and ‘Friday, 23rd January 1888’ are our preferred styles.
5. Font and paragraphs – please use Times New Roman, size 12 and justify your paragraphs (block paragraphs) rather than have them on left alignment.
6. Paper size – please ensure your paper size is A4. You may assume it is A4 but Google Docs in particular often uses a slightly different template. To check you are using A4 on the various Word-style applications go to:
• Word – Layout / Size / A4
• Libre Office – Format / Page Style / Page / Format / A4
• Google Docs – File / Page Set Up / Paper Size / A4
7. Quotations – please enclose quotations with double speech marks “” and italics. Large quotations should have their own paragraph. We receive quite a lot of submissions where it’s not clear if a quote is being used or not.
8. Images – when submitting a piece please also submit any images you wish to use in the article or column at the same time. Please don’t submit them afterwards as we will have to reformat the article and potentially the whole magazine. There is no need to position them if you’re unsure of how to do this, just put
<<insert image x>> where you want them to go and ensure the image is clearly numbered. Please include the full source and, if you want to use a description for underneath the image, please detail what you wish to say.
9. Footnotes v Endnotes – we use footnotes rather than endnotes. Please use the proper version of footnotes rather than your own ad hoc version. Here’s how to add them:
• Word – References / Insert Footnote
• Libre Office – Insert / Footnote and Endnote / Footnote
• Google Docs – Insert / Footnote
10. Sources v Footnotes – Where a specific quote or evidence is given please detail your source as a footnote. For your general sources, i.e. any books, articles, websites etc. please provide a list at the end of your submission which includes the publication date and publisher if applicable.
11. Closed v open punctuation – this depends on whether you are using American or British English. Our main concern is consistency. If you use American English the correct format is ‘Dr.’ or ‘Mr.’ or ‘Mrs.’ etc. (which incidentally is ‘etc.’ for all written English). If you are using British English please remove the
‘.’ – i.e. ‘Dr’, ‘Mr’ ‘Mrs’ etc.
12. Headers and Footers – please don’t use headers, footers or page numbers as they will be redundant
once the submission is reformatted to go into the magazine.
13. Biography – please include a brief biography of yourself at the end of your article for publication. This should be one or two sentences.