A PDF version is available here.
A clean manuscript is crucial for a timely and smooth production process. These guidelines are meant to minimize friction and unnecessary formatting issues.
Please follow MLA 9 style for in-text citations and Works Cited list. Detailed guidelines can be found here: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/.
Use Canadian spelling: humour, centre, labour, and so on. Further information can be found here: https://proofed.com/writing-tips/american-english-vs-canadian-english-spelling-differences/.
Images should have captions below them, beginning with “Figure X:” and formatted using “Caption” style. Images should be anchored “in line” with text.
Citations for all images should be included in an Image Notes list following the Works Cited.
Avoid “scare quotes,” and use long dashes—like this—rather than short ones.
Please include your name, corresponding email address, brief bio, and article abstract.
For more details, and before submitting your article, please refer to the Complete Style Guide.
Articles can be submitted in any current word processor format. If you plan to use an unusual word processor (e.g. Mellel), please contact the editors.
For more detailed guidelines, see sections below on In-Text Citations, References and Works Cited, Images and Image Notes.
Abstracts should contain no more than 100 words and should be included in both French and English.
Capitalize all of the major words in the title (e.g., Epistemology of the Closet).
Please include a French translation of your title.
Subtitles should be separated from the main title by a colon.
Please be aware that for a clean manuscript, it is irrelevant what your text looks like in your word processor. Almost all formatting you put in will need to be eliminated during the typesetting process, so any additional formatting you put into the text only creates additional work for the production.
Specifically, please do not format your text by applying font formatting to your body text, except for italics, superscript and bold characters. Alternatively, you can indicate italics by using enclosing *asterisks*, superscript by enclosing caret ^superscript^, and bold by using double enclosing **asterisks**.
Paragraph styles should be limited to the following:
Heading 1 for the title of the article
Heading 2 for subtitles
Heading 3 for Sub-subtitles (if absolutely necessary)
Caption for image captions
Blockquote for indented longer quotations. Please use double quotation marks in addition to the indent. Note: This is a deviation from the MLA standard. (For further information on how to apply paragraph formatting to your Word manuscript, please refer to the links at the end of this document.)
No paragraph style formatting should be applied to your body text. (Note: In MS Word for Macintosh you can quickly check for such formatting by opening the Styles Pane and checking “Show direct formatting” at the bottom of the pane).
Please avoid formatting with whitespaces. Specifically, there should be no tabs at the beginning of paragraphs. Periods, question marks, or exclamation points should never be followed by double spaces. Double or more spaces, tabs, or a combination thereof, should be removed from your text before you submit it. Similarly, there should be no double returns.
There should never be a space before the end of a paragraph or before a line break. (All these problems can be quickly checked by using “Show/Hide hidden characters” and eliminated by a quick search/replace before you submit your manuscript.) Tabs should only be used for tables and avoided in any other context.
Tables should be formatted with either tabs or your text editor’s table function. As always, please do not use spaces for formatting.
You can use either footnotes or endnotes, but please do not use both.
Follow these guidelines:
Enter notes using the automatic footnote/endnote function in your word processor.
Note numbers should begin with 1 and follow consecutively throughout.
In the text, note numbers are superscripted. Where multiple notes are attached to the same sentence, separate the notes with a comma:1, 2
Note numbers appear after punctuation, as here.1
There is no space between the text and the note number.
Each note shall end with a period.
Endnotes should be collected in a Notes section at the end of your article.
No notes should be attached to your article title.
Employ italics for: titles of books, reports, names of journals/periodicals, and emphasis.
Always use the Oxford (serial) comma. For example: red, yellow, and blue.
The first word of quotations that follow a colon should be capitalized: “Like this, for example.”
Use a comma after phrases that are introduced with an adverb. For example, “Surprisingly, they had not considered this alternative.”
Avoid use of “scare quotes.” When they are used, they are to be enclosed in double quotation marks; when scare quotes are employed within quoted material, they are to be enclosed in single quotation marks. For example, “It is not customary to use the term ‘awesome’ in such a context.”
Place any semi-colon, colon, question mark, or exclamation mark outside of quotation marks (e.g., Chris said my idea was “fantastic”!) unless that punctuation is part of quoted material (In the e-mail, Chris said it was “a great idea!”).
Place any period or comma inside of quotation marks (exception: in case of in-text citation, the period will be located at the end of the sentence).
Square brackets shall be used to indicate authorial amendments to quoted material.
The semi-colon may be used to: join closely related or oppositional independent clauses; or, to join items in a list.
Ellipses are indicated by the ellipsis character enclosed in brackets [...] and shall be used to indicate omissions in a quotation. Please do not use three periods, or periods separated by spaces. (Note: The ellipsis character can be typed by holding down Alt and typing ; on the Macintosh, or by holding down Alt and pressing 0150 on the number pad in Windows. (You can also set autocorrect in your word processor to do the substitution).
Please use “em” dashes, or long hyphens—without spaces on either side—in your text.
Use “e.g.,” “etc.,” and “i.e.,” only in text that is in parentheses. In running text, spell these out “for example,” “et cetera,” and “that is.”
For abbreviations of locations in notes and reference lists use the two-letter postal style (i.e., use AB not Alb or Alberta).
However, in running text, spell out the full name of a country, city or state unless used as an adjective (e.g., “In the United States” but “U.K. nationalism”).
Write out in full upon first use any abbreviations or acronyms (e.g., the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN)).
Imaginations uses Canadian spellings (e.g., flavour; analyze; grey); in direct quotations do not change American, British etc. spelling to Canadian spelling.
For possessive names ending in “s” use ’s except in cases of well-known authors or figures (i.e., Weiss’s vs. Dickens’).
The language of the article should be English or French. As this is an interdisciplinary journal, please try to keep discipline-specific jargon to a minimum.
Quotations of more than three words in languages other than English or French must be cited within the body of the text in translation and, if the translation is your own or if it is relevant to the analysis, in the original language in a note. Indicate in an initial note if the translations are yours.
At first mention of a non-English or non-French source title in the text, please use the original title followed by the standard translation in parentheses, or your own translation should no English/French translation exist. All subsequent references use original title.
Write dates of birth and death as follows: 1225-1274 (write all digits of the year and separate with a hyphen).
Write inclusive dates of publication: 1973-1976 (do not truncate closing dates).
Note that the part of speech determines the different ways the century must be written:
21st century (n.); 21st-century (adj.)
17th century (n.); 17th-century (adj.)
mid-18th century (n.); mid-18th century (adj.)
Decades are not to be abbreviated. Write 1960s, not 50s, 50’s or 1950’s unless it appears as such in quoted material.
Spell out whole numbers one through ten as well as numbers located at the beginning of a sentence. For example: seven, 79, 250 million, 1.6 billion.
The first time an author is cited in running text, refer to them by first and last name.
Include page numbers for any and all quoted material, excepting web pages, video, or any other source without definite page numbers.
Decide whether you will summarize, paraphrase, or directly quote the material—each of which require citation.
As a friendly reminder, when developing your article or review, keep track of the necessary bibliographic information. Doing so helps expedite the evaluation and publication of your article.
In-Text Citation: Quotes of four lines and less (of your essay text) can be incorporated into a sentence within the main essay text. The essential information is the author’s last name and the page reference for the quoted material. The title of the referenced text is optional, but recommended. Here are some examples of MLA in-text citation:
Graff and Birkenstein declare: “since quotations do not speak for themselves, you need to build a frame around them in which you do that speaking for them” (41).
In their book They Say, I Say, Graff and Birkenstein remark that “since quotations do not speak for themselves, you need to build a frame around them in which you do that speaking for them” (41).
In They Say, I Say, a quotation sandwich is explained: “since quotations do not speak for themselves, you need to build a frame around them in which you do that speaking for them” (Graff and Birkenstein 41).
On page 41, Graff and Birkenstein say, “since quotations do not speak for themselves, you need to build a frame around them in which you do that speaking for them.”
Block Quotation: If the quoted text takes over more than four lines in your essay, then you will need to use a block quotation. As noted above, block quotations should also be enclosed in quotation marks (a variance from MLA style).
Poetry: When quoting a passage of poetry of fewer than four lines, use a slash (/) to indicate line breaks in the verse.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements should appear immediately after the conclusion of your article, before your Works Cited list.
Cross-check your reference list with your in-text citations. Ensure that anything listed in the reference list is in fact cited in the text and that anything cited in the text is listed in the reference list.
The Works Cited list is an alphabetical catalogue of the works referenced (summarized, quoted, or paraphrased) in your paper, essay, article, or review.
The article’s in-text citations correspond to the article’s Works Cited list.
Placement of Works Cited list: Place the list at the end of the paper. The list begins on a new page, continuing the numbering of the essay. The title, Works Cited, is centered. Double-space between the title and the first entry. Begin each entry at the left margin; however, if an entry is more than one line, then use hanging indentation format (indent each subsequent line or lines 0.5 inches/1.27 cm from the left margin). Double-space the entire list, both between and within entries, but do not add additional spaces between lines. Continue the list on as many pages as necessary.
Arrangement: Arrange entries in alphabetical order.
For multiple texts by the same author, repeat the author’s name. Do not use “---” to indicate a repetition as this will create problems for the metadata.
Online References: For Imaginations (due to its multi-media format), the inclusion of links in the Works Cited list (for online references) is recommended. Use a DOI link if possible; otherwise, provide a URL with the “https://” deleted. The online reference should be the last element of the citation, followed by a period.
When in doubt, please consult https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html
For submission: Images should appear in text in their appropriate locations.
Please keep in text images at a small size i.e., 500kb each, for submission.
If your article is accepted: You will be expected to provide higher resolution electronic versions of the in text images (including video or sound) in a separate file. For accepted articles images need to be TIFF (preferred) or JPEG with at least 300dpi resolution for colour/greyscale/black and white.
Videos must be MPEG4 format and include screen shots (as per above) for use in Print and PDF versions of the article.
Audio must be MP3 format (128 KBPS or higher).
Image captions should be added to each image. The caption text should be below the image and preceded by “Figure X”, and the caption should be given the paragraph style Caption. Citation style should follow MLA format.
Please include a section entitled “Image Notes” at the end of your document (following Notes and Works Cited) with all references/sources or title information for images, audio-clips, films clips used. Image Notes and Captions should follow the same MLA format as Works Cited, as detailed above. For example, items may be listed as follows:
Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV. 1800, Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV. 1800. Museo del Prado, museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-family-of-carlos-iv/f47898fc-aa1c-48f6-a779-71759e417e74.
Be sure that all images, videos, and any other material used correspond to Canadian “fair dealing” and the University of Alberta “fair dealing” policy (see below for more copyright information).
Authors should provide alt text for each image included in the article.
Alternative text, or alt text, describes images for people with limited vision who use screen reader software to read articles aloud.
Alt text should describe the image in plain language, focusing on elements relevant to the article.
Alt text descriptions should be concise, no more than 50 words for each image.
Use of Third-Party Material: All third-party content in any submission to Imaginations must conform to the Fair Dealing exception in the Canadian Copyright or you must provide copies of your copyright permission.
Publication License Agreement: Upon acceptance of your article, after it has undergone a double-blind peer-review process, you will receive a contract to license the publication of your work under a Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution License (BY-NC-ND): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
All third-party material used in your article must be conform to the Canadian Fair exception in the Canadian Copyright Act or you must provide copies of copyright re-printing permissions—if these were not already provided as per the journal’s protocol, at the time of submission.
WHO WE ARE
Imaginations is a multilingual, open-access journal of international visual cultural studies. It is published twice yearly and is double-blind peer-reviewed. As a knowledge democracy project, Imaginations is free to submit to and free to read. Founded at the University of Alberta in 2010, the journal is funded by the federal granting agency of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
Imaginations | ISSN: 1918-8439
Editor-in-Chief: Markus Reisenleitner
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