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Journal formatting requirement info?

A reader writes in:

Are you aware of any resource that has grouped journals according to their basic formatting requirements (these journals are straight Chicago; these journals are straight APA; these journals are Chicago with modifications X, Y, & Z)?  I’m just thinking that might be a massive time-saver for picking the next journal after a rejection.

This is a good question. My sense is that traditionally, most journals have permitted initial submissions to be in any professional format, only requiring authors to put their manuscripts in the journal's style upon acceptance. However, my recent experience is that an increasing number of journals seem to be requiring a very specific format (e.g. Chicago) to even consider a submission (presumably to decrease submissions?). Obviously, this can be a real inconvenience to authors, so it would be great to hear in the comments section whether there are any resources available online where this kind of information is compiled. Alternatively (or in addition), it might be good to compile in the comments section which journals require a specific style at first submission. 

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6 responses to “Journal formatting requirement info?”

  1. Daniel Weltman

    I may submit to different journals than you, Marcus, but I cannot recall any journals (even recently – and I’ve submitted a lot of stuff recently) returning anything for citation formats or anything like that. The only recent problem I’ve encountered was Res Publica, which sent back a submission for having an abstract on the title page, even though their website says you’re supposed to have an abstract on the title page; for not having the country affiliation in the author listing (it was there); and for not having an author contribution statement (for a paper with only a single author). Those were all easy fixes though.
    In general the way I deal with this is to 1) have a system where I can easily switch citation formats without too much trouble (helpful even if this is irrelevant for submissions, because for accepted articles you’ll have to change it anyways) and 2) if I ever run across this thing I make a note for myself in my own records that I keep about journals, so that I know about it for the future. But, I don’t have any formatting notes for any journals, so I’ve yet to run up against it.

    Reply
  2. MS

    Journal of Ethics desk rejects most submissions, and those sent out for review have to meet the journal’s specific layout and formatting requirements.

    Reply
  3. Guy Crain

    Daniel Weltman,
    What’s your system where you can easily switch formats?

    Reply
  4. Daniel Weltman

    @Guy Crain: https://danielvreeman.com/using-scrivener-for-writing-scientific-papers/

    Reply
  5. BJHP

    The British Journal for the History of Philosophy’s instructions require very specific formatting in order to submit a manuscript. (Perhaps they aren’t as strict about it in practice as their website suggests? I can’t say from experience. I just bit the bullet and formatted the whole thing by their standards. A lot of work!)

    Reply
  6. Guy Crain

    Thank you, Daniel!

    Reply

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