Author and Editorial Guidelines

The manuscript of any article submitted to Loyola Papers should conform to the instructions given here. Any manuscript that deviates significantly from the instructions may be returned to the author for revision before it is considered for publication.

All submitted manuscripts must include:

An abstract of 150–200 words, summarizing the article’s central argument, methodology, and principal conclusions;
Five (5) keywords that identify the main themes, theological loci, or disciplinary focus of the article;
A brief biographical note (maximum 200 words) indicating the author’s institutional affiliation, academic position, highest degree, research interests, and selected relevant publications, if applicable.

The abstract, keywords, and biographical note should be submitted in a separate document to ensure the integrity of the double-blind peer review process.

In matters not covered by the specific instructions given below, follow the prescriptions of Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 9th edition. American spelling is used. When a word has two or more spellings, the first spelling in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary is the one to be used. Spelling of biblical names should conform to that used by the NRSV unless they are italicized as part of a linguistic argument.

The manuscript of an article for consideration should be submitted as a Word file to the Editor of Loyola Papers at publications@lst.edu. The author must state that the article is not being concurrently submitted elsewhere and has not been published elsewhere.

Authors are asked to make the following provisions:

Any text in non-Roman alphabets (e.g., Hebrew, Greek) should use Unicode or BibleWorks fonts.
If the article is to include any photos, images, or maps, they should be submitted in a separate image file in a high-resolution format and not embedded in the Word file.

Basic Format

The maximum acceptable length of the manuscript of an article, inclusive of footnotes, is 10,000 words. The minimum acceptable length is ca. 4,500 words. Footnotes should not typically exceed one-third of the total word count. A manuscript should be formatted with 1” side margins and 1” top and bottom margins, with no right justification. Pages should be numbered. Footnotes, not endnotes, should be used.

There is to be no heading at the beginning of the article. Within the text, however, headings marking sections and subsections are helpful and desirable. For the style used in headings, see recent issues of the journal.

Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek should be written either in the original scripts or transliterated into Roman script. The Semitic languages should be written with no vowel points except where the vocalization is crucial to the discussion. Transliteration of ancient languages should follow the guidelines in The SBL Handbook of Style: For Ancient Near Eastern, Biblical, and Early Christian Studies (ed. Patrick J. Alexander et al.; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1999).

Gender-inclusive language for humanity and deity is to be observed. Exclusively masculine pronouns referring to God should be avoided as much as possible. The word “God” should not be abbreviated. The tetragrammaton should be rendered as “YHWH”; “the LORD” should not be used to render the tetragrammaton except in instances of direct quotation from a translation that uses it.

Quotations

A quotation of eight or more typed lines should usually be typed as a set-off (indented) paragraph without opening and closing quotation marks. Quotation at such length should be resorted to sparingly. Any quotation may be adjusted editorially.

In direct quotations, the spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and abbreviations of the original must be reproduced exactly, even if they differ from the style of this journal. Direct quotation of material departing significantly from the style of this journal should be avoided; however, an accurate paraphrase should be used instead. An error in a text quoted directly may be indicated by [sic], at the quoting author’s discretion.

Reference to Works

At the first reference to a work, complete bibliographical information should be given, with such abbreviations as pp. and cols. omitted (unless they are needed for clarity).

The elements to be included in a complete reference to a book are, in the following order, the author or editor’s full name, the book’s title and subtitle (both italicized, with a colon following a title before a subtitle; if there are two subtitles, a period follows the first subtitle), the translator (if there is reason to mention the translator), the number of volumes having the same title, the series and subseries (separated from each other by a comma), the book’s number in the series or subseries, the number of the edition (if it is not the first), the city of publication (American spelling; multiple cities are separated by slashes), publisher, and year of publication, the number of the volume (followed by a colon), and the page(s). Not all of these elements will occur in a given case.

The elements to be included in a complete reference to an article in a periodical are the author’s full name, the article’s title and subtitle (in quotation marks, with a colon following a title before a subtitle; if there are two subtitles, a period follows the first subtitle), the name of the periodical, the number of the volume (or of the issue, if there is no volume number), the year in parentheses, and the inclusive pagination of the article, followed by “here” or “esp.” and the specific page(s) being cited. (If the issues of the journal being cited are separately paginated, the number of the issue may be added to that of the volume after a slash.)

In a complete reference to an article in a volume of articles by different authors, indication of the author, title, and subtitle of the individual article as in b is followed by “in,” the title of the volume, and the remaining elements of reference to a book as in a, with the full name of the editor of the volume added in the position preceding the title of the series. Inclusive pagination should be given for these articles also, following the form given in b.

An author’s given name is preferable to its initial. If the author’s middle name or initial is given in the book or article itself, it must be given in the reference (e.g., Patrick W. Skehan and Raymond E. Brown, not simply Patrick [or P.] Skehan and Raymond [or R.] Brown.

In names of publishing houses, words like “Press,” “Verlag,” and “Editions” are omitted, except when they are modified by an adjective or a true possessive (e.g., Liturgical Press, Neukirchener Verlag), when they are part of the name of a university’s or institute’s press, or when their omission might result in ambiguity. In the case of a reprinted volume, the original publisher and date are preferred, but reference to the reprint may be added after them (e.g., …1926; reprint, New York: Greenwood, 1968). Indication of an original in another language, normally unnecessary, may be added after the publisher and date of the translation (e.g., …1958; German original, Freiburg: Herder, 1956).