WMQ Guidelines for Submitting Manuscripts

Please submit manuscripts electronically as e-mail attachments in Word, WordPerfect, or Rich Text Format to Office Manager Kelly Crawford (kscraw@wm.edu). Submitting electronically indicates that the author gives us permission to send the essay electronically to referees. (Referees have strict instructions not to circulate, quote from, or cite a submitted manuscript.) If necessary, authors may instead submit paper copies in quadruplicate. Be sure to double space throughout, including endnotes, extracts (quoted material of one hundred words or more), tabular matter, photocopies of illustrations, and bibliography. Margins should be one inch on all sides. Consecutively paginate the entire text. We cannot return these paper copies unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

We will not consider any manuscript currently being reviewed for another journal.

In the cover letter, which should be addressed to the Editor, authors must include a three-hundred-word abstract that outlines the substance and significance of the work, identify anyone who has critiqued the manuscript, and list contact information (e-mail address, mailing address, phone number). Also list the author’s name (as it would appear in print), title, department, and institutional affiliation, along with acknowledgments (if any).

Manuscripts should not exceed ten thousand words, excluding notes, tables, and figures. We also publish shorter Sources and Interpretations (formerly Notes and Documents) pieces of approximately six thousand words that are tightly focused on a topic, problem, or text.

  • Include the title at the top of the first page of the manuscript. Avoid authorial identification throughout the manuscript as well as any identification stored in the document properties.
  • Embed footnotes in the document (meaning that the call-out number in the running text links with the footnote text). Do not use parenthetical citations.
  • Distinguish prose extracts of one hundred words or more and poetry from the running text by indentation.
  • Supply each table in a separate file. Number tables consecutively, indicating their position in the manuscript.
  • Submit all illustrations you wish to use as separate JPEG or TIFF files. In the manuscript, indicate the placement of each illustration. Submit captions for each illustration in a discrete document.
  • Include a double-spaced bibliography in a separate file