Submission guidelines for The Confessional Presbyterian journal
Please use the contact form to make a query or to obtain an email to send a submission to the editors.
To be considered for submission, authors must hold to the Reformed Faith. Material submitted should be new and unpublished and uncirculated on the Internet (exceptions may be made for substantially updated articles). It should adhere to the author’s church’s confessional standards (Westminster Standards, Three Forms of Unity, etc.) and any material or incidental exception to those standards expressed in the article need to be clearly noted as such.
The submitter agrees to grant the journal exclusive use of the material until the subsequent issue comes out and the journal retains ownership of the material as it is published in the journal format with any contributed editing, editorial additions, etc. Authors should retain final versions pre-layout for their own future use. The journal also reserves the right to reissue any material accepted and published, in a digital format if a digital version is issued in the future and/or in print-on-demand reprints when the original print run has been exhausted. Submitter also grants permission for material to appear in the ATLA database of religious journals. The author by submitting material grants permission for editing to Confessional Presbyterian style and format preferences. All material is subject to internal review by the editors before acceptance and all articles and some department material depending upon content, are subject to peer review before final acceptance for publication.
File Format. Please submit files in Microsoft Word document format, or save in RTF format if you do not have MS Word.
Bibliograpy. Please provided a full bibliography in alphabetical order by author, following Chicago Manual of Style. Do not insert line breaks or format the paragraph to indent as that is done in layout and simply adds work to remove the line breaks.
Formatting: Please use the following paragraph style names or at least something consistent covering these categories. Headings: SubHead-1, SubHead-2, SubHead-3. If possible do not go beyond three subheads in division of the material. First paragraph under a subheading: Body Text No Indent. Regular paragraphs: Body Text. Block Quotations: Quotation. Please also make use of similar character styles appropriately named for text within paragraphs set in Italics, Bold, use of Greek, use of Hebrew, underline, etc.
Length. Articles. Special consideration may be given to shorter or longer Articles, but as a rule, Articles should be in the range of 8,000 to 15,000 words. Reviews and Responses. This department is for submission of Reviews of any media material of significant interest to Presbyterians. These should be critical (i.e. analytical) and not simply plugs for the material in question. Ordinarily Reviews should be in the 2000 to 6000 word range, and on average should be about 3,000 words in length. Responses to reviews, or Replies to Responses, should ordinarily not be longer than 3000 words. A bibliography of works cited other than those under review should be provided, using alphabetical order and following Chicago Manual of Style.
In Translatiōne. Email us if you are interested in submitting translation work. Considering the work required we are not looking for translation work outside the 1,000 to 8,000 word range. Longer submissions may be run serially across more than one issue. Some commentary of sufficient length to explain the significance of the piece translated is desirable. We are looking for significant work translated into English that would be of interest to Presbyterians.
Form, Tone, and Format Considerations. Material should be written at a scholastic level. Focus should be on evidence, reasons and arguments rather than linguistic devices such as sarcasm, irony or ridicule. Responses to Reviews, and Replies to Responses, should be kept on the same scholastic level, even though disagreements may be strongly expressed.
General Style. Generally, The Confessional Presbyterian requires following the Chicago Manual of Style.
Footnote style: The journal uses a mixture of footnotes and parenthetical references. The first citation of a work should be a footnote, and each subsequent reference should be parenthetical, using the author’s name if only one work is cited, or an abbreviated title, if more than one work by the same author is used in the article. Use CMS style for books, and journals.
Book Examples.
1. Gerald R. McDermott, Jonathan Edwards Confronts the Gods (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 1.
As the author says regarding Jonathan Edwards (McDermott, p. 2n1), ….
If more than one work by the same author is cited:
- Gerald R. McDermott,Jonathan Edwards Confronts the Gods(New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 1.
As McDermott says regarding Jonathan Edwards (Jonathan Edwards Confronts the Gods, p. 2), ….
An excessively long title may be appropriately truncated, and if there may be a lack of clarity, “Hereafter [shortened title]” may be placed at the end of the first footnote.
1John H. Gerstner, Heaven & Hell: Jonathan Edwards on the After-life (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980), p. 1. Hereafter Gerstner, Heaven & Hell.
As the author says (Gerstner, Heaven & Hell, p. 2), ….
Article Example
Herman Bavinck, “Common Grace,” trans. Raymond C. Van Leeuwen, Calvin Theological Journal 24/1 (1989): 51.
Long notes of commentary or additional material should be placed in Endnotes (Appendices are acceptable upon approval), lettered A, B, C etc. Excessive Endnote and Appended material is not desirable. It is not desirable to have more than 100 actual footnotes (not counting parenthetical references as described above) for an article in the 8,000 to 15,000 word range.
Subheadings. Judicious use of subheadings is desirable, but do not use more than three levels.
Dashes. If using a long dash for punctuation please use the Em dash:
The author has made no effort at all—unless you count…
For ellipses use the following rules:
Mid sentence ellipsed text: The author has made no effort … you (spaces surrounding the ellipse).
End of sentence ellipsed text: The author has made no effort…. (no space before, one space after the period).
If any final punctuation is included use the following form:
The author has made no effort;… (one space after the ellipse).
Don’ts. Do not use tabs to indent paragraphs. Do not use two spaces after any punctuation, including after the period.
Again, Please provide a full bibliography in alphabetical order by author following Chicago Manual of Style.