Style Guide

Introduction

These guidelines will help you to ensure that your article, feature or review is suitable for publication on Egyptological and that it will not be rejected because of unsupported file formats or because your preferred style does not fit in with those used by Egyptological.

We have kept the guidelines relatively short, partly because we can adjust many aspects of formatting automatically to match the house style. We  hope that they are straight forward, but mainly because we want to make things as easy as possible for people to contribute.  Please read the guidelines carefully so that you are familiar with the basic requirements for your piece and so that we don’t have to return it to you for correction.

We very much want to see your work so please let us know if there is anything that we can help with.

Please note:  Due to occasional changes made in response to feedback from our readers and writers please keep a note of the version of the Style Guide, either at the bottom of this page or on the Version tab.

General

Please use clear and concise language.  Jargon should be kept to a minimum.  If used, it should be suitably explained either in the text or in a glossary or appendix.

Spelling

Please use either United Kingdom English OR American English spelling when submitting pieces.  Please do not mix them.  It is recommended that you use your spellchecker to assist with eliminating spelling mistakes and typographical errors.

Headings

we can accomodate a maximum of three levels of headings in addition to the article heading.

Paragraphs

Each paragraph should be separated by a single return to add a blank line. We will add any additional space automatically.

Abbreviations

Please avoid using colloquial abbreviations wherever possible (for example, i.e., e.g., q.e.d, etc.).

Technical abbreviations must be written in full with the abbreviation shown in parentheses when first used.  For example: CT (Computerized tomography) scan.

Dates

If referring to an Egyptian dynasty, please capitalize the first letter of the number  and the word Dynasty.  For example:  The Sixth Dynasty or, if you prefer, the 22nd Dynasty.

Please use either BC/AD or BCE/CE for calendar dates and do not mix conventions within the same item.

Where radiocarbon dates are used calibrated radiocarbon dates should be capitalized and preceded by “Cal”  (for example 3000 Cal BC, Cal BCE, or Cal BP).  Uncalibrated radiocarbon dates should be written in lower case (for example 3000 bc, bce or bp).

Please include the laboratory reference for radiocarbon dates wherever possible.

Measurements

We are happy to accept articles which use either metric or Imperial, but please do not mix both in the same piece.  To convert measurements from metric to Imperial or vice versa we suggest that use an online converter.

Foreign terminology, including translations of hieroglyphs

Please italicize.  For example: The Greek term naos refers to a type of shrine. The word nfr may be translated as good or beautiful.

Hieroglyphs

A special hieroglyphic font has been developed by Kate Phizackerley for Egyptological.  Full details can be found at
/participate/write-for-us/hieroglyphs

Emphasis

Please highlight words and phrases in bold for emphasis.

Re-formatting and editing for publication

All articles will be reformatted to some degree when published.  The editors reserve the right to edit all articles for publication in terms of content or format. If the changes are substantial, we will usually ask you to approve the alternations but this cannot be guaranteed.

Mathematical Equations

Simple equations may be included inline and should be italicised (eg volume = breadth x width x height).  Any equation which is displays on more than one line should be supplied as an attached image.   The editors can help you create images.

Names of books or papers

Please italicize.  For example:  A useful guide to the geology of Egypt is Bonnie Sampsell’s A Traveller’s Guide to Egypt published by the AUC.

Quoting other authors

On Egyptological short quote of up to 40 words  should be shown in quotation marks with the name and date of the publication in parentheses following the quote.  For example: “The Badarian cemeteries provide the earliest archaeological evidence for mortuary practices involving the burial of animals in Egypt” (Flores 2003, p.6).  The reference can then be looked up in the bibliography, to which all quoted sources must be added.

Where your text refers to a source without directly quoting it the source should still reference the author as for a short quotation. For example:  In a recent study (Redford 2010, p.24) says that until the early 6th Dynasty “the terrain immediately west of the temple, and to an extent of perhaps twenty five metres, was reserved for the temple’s food preparation and storage.”

Longer quotes (over 40 words) should be indented as a block quote,  without quotation marks.  As in the previous two examples the source should be cited in parentheses at the end of the quotation, and referred to in the bibliography, for example:  When Klaus Ber discusses the difficulty of reading letters sent by an 11th Dynasty  farmer to his family he says that

A definitive translation and interpretation of these texts is needed-and is likely to remain elusive since they are written in the colloquial language of a period that provides little parallel, illustrative material, and deal with a subject whose vocabulary and usage in the Eleventh Dynasty have not yet been the object of intensive study. James’ publication is a pioneering effort, and all future work on these texts must be based on it. (Baer 20007, p. 1)

All quotes must be verbatim (word for word).  If you wish to omit words these  omissions should be indicated by an ellipsis – 3 full stops if your text editor doesn’t allow you to enter an ellipsis.  If Microsoft Word is set up in standard configuration, you insert an ellipsis using CTRL+ALT+.   You must ensure that omitting words does not change the sense of the original material, nor mis-represent it.

Should you wish to include a quote within one of your own sentences that begins with a capital letter, place it within squared parentheses.  For example:  Geraldine Pinch points out that “[B]efore such rites even began, a suitable day or hour had to be decided on and the magician had to be in a proper state of preparation.”

All quotations must be listed in full in the bibliography.

Appendices and Glossary

Up to three appendices and a single glossary can be included. However we can attach any further supporitn material and data as PDFs.

Footnotes and Endnotes

We do not support footnotes but we may, if requested, support endnotes.

Bibliography

Where used, all references to books and papers must be listed in a bibliography. References should be listed by authors’ last names in alphabetical order, followed by date of publication, title and publisher.  Full journal details must be provided when referenced.  References are required for all Magazine section articles.

Please see the following examples.

Book

Flores, D.V. 2003, Funerary Sacrifice of animals in the Egyptian Predynastic Period, BAR International Series 1153.

Friedman, R (ed) 2002, Egypt and Nubia: Gifts of the Nile, The British Museum Press

Paper in Journal

Smith, J. 2010, An analysis of Egyptian ship bisuits, Journal of Egyptian Things, Vol.5, Issue 6, July-August, pp.5-10

Willis, F. 1998, Conservation in Luxor in the 1990s, Journal of Luxor Things, Vol.2, Issue 1, January, pp.876-890

Item in Museum Collection

Catalogue number UC054. Inscribed fragment of painted limestone showing early cartouches of Aten. From Amarna. Eighteenth Dynasty. Petrie Museum of Archaeology, London.

Website

Byrnes, A., Prehistoric and Predynastic Egypt, http://www.predynastic.co.uk/, Date of Visit

Acknowledgements

You should mention any institutions or individuals that you wish to thank, particularly if you are conducting research with which you have received assistance for which you have received funding.

If you have used other people’s images with their permission these must be acknowledged.

Further help

We recommend the following books for checking on the style used in your writing:

Martin Cutts, Oxford Guide to Plain English (Third Edition), Oxford University Press 2009

Martin Manser and Stephen Curtis, The Penguin Writer’s Manual, Penguin Books 2002

You may also find the following titles useful:

William Kelleher Storey, Writing History:  A Guide for Students (Third Edition), Oxford University Press 2009

William Strujk Jr. and E.B. White, The Elements of Style (Fourth Edition), Longman Publishers 2000