New Comparison is typeset on computer screen by the editors. It is vital that contributors submit copy adhering to these guidelines. This will minimize time and effort, and ensure that the article which goes to press is as accurate as humanly possible with limited resources.

1. General

Copy for publication must be submitted both in hard (print-out) and computer-readable forms. The text should be set out in double spacing, with broad margins. Paragraphs should be indented with a tab, but not separated by additional spacing. New sections of text requiring a break should be clearly separated, and not indented. Quotations longer than three lines of prose or two lines of verse should be separated from the main body of the text and indented on both sides. Use Endnotes, not Footnotes. Unless text is being sent by air-mail, please submit the hard copy in triplicate.

You should include with your copy a short abstract (not more than 100 words) which will appear on the BCLA website, and a brief personal note for the list of contributors.

Electronic copy should be submitted on 3.5" disks. The preferred word-processing program is Microsoft Word (any version: MS-DOS, Windows or Apple Mac). Text files produced with other word-processing programs can generally be transferred without losing formatting, but if submitting text in such form, please include also a text-only (ASCII) version. Where the word-processing program has an automatic note-generating facility, this should be used.

Titles of books or self-contained literary texts should be in italics or, failing this, underlined, as should words or phrases singled out for emphasis, single foreign words which have not been naturalized into English (e.g. elite, but élan) and foreign phrases (e.g. allegro vivace). No other forms of emphasis (capitals, bold, large print, etc.) should be used, except in quotations from other texts.

Quotations within the main body of the text should be in double inverted commas, as should words or phrases used in an unusual or improper way, upon first appearence in that acceptation. Quotations within quotations should be in single inverted commas. To avoid confusion with suspension marks in the original, elisions are marked by [...], but no elision marks are placed at beginning or end of quotations. Changes or additions within quotations to complete the sense are also marked by square brackets. Spelling should follow British conventions. Write numbers one to twenty in full, use numerals thereafter. Write "the sixteenth century" but "sixteenth-century verse" ("16th" only in notes). Write "1950s".

2. Languages and Characters

Quotations in languages other than English should only be used when the writing, rather than simply a factual statement, is at issue. NC publishes articles across a wide range of languages, and is read beyond English-speaking and Western-European countries: it should not be assumed that readers are fluent in even the more common Western languages. When quoting in another language, particular care should be taken with accents and other diacritical marks: these often do not survive transfer from one word-processing format to another, and a clearly marked hard copy is indispensable (the editors do not have the linguistic skills of the Apostles after Pentecost!). All such quotations should be followed by an English translation (in the text, indented like the quotation), whose author should be acknowledged in a note, as should those of translations cited in lieu of the original text. Quotations in languages employing non-Roman alphabets pose particular problems and should generally be avoided.

3. Notes and References

Make sparing use of notes: they should be used to give necessary bibliographical references or add necessary clarifications which would clutter the main text. They should not be used solely to display erudition, cite one's friends, or wage war on one's academic foes. The note number in the text should generally come at the end of a sentence or period (unless this appears misleading), and come immediately after the final punctuation mark. A number of references coming close together should be dealt with in a single note, where this is possible without loss of clarity.

Notes should be clear and concise, and should avoid unnecessary repetition. The author's name should immediately precede the title of cited works, to avoid misunderstanding and allow for rapid bibliographical searches. Texts frequently cited should be noted upon first appearance, and given an appropriate abbreviation. Further references should be incorporated in the main body of the article, using the abbreviation, followed by page or line references (use p./pp. and l./ll.). For works cited only a small number of times, second and subsequent references should be in note form, taking the briefest form compatible with clarity: use 'ibid.' where the second reference immediately follows the first; elsewhere use author surname only (e.g. Bloom, p. 27) where the work in question is the only one by that author cited in the article; use surname and short title (e.g. Hegel, Phenomenology, pp. 37-38) where more than one work by the same author have been cited.

Bibliographical references should be complete, and bear in mind readers' possible need to seek the works cited in library catalogues organized on a variety of principles, or through Inter-Library Loans. Page sequence numbers over 99 should be given as, for example, 1020-27, not 1020-7. Please note: New Comparison does not publish bibliographies with articles, or use the (Author, Date) in-body-of-text method of citation.

References should take the following forms:

• for single-volume books: Brian Leftow, Time and Eternity (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991), pp. 137-42 (but where the place of publication forms part of the publisher's name - e.g. Oxford University Press - it should not be repeated).
• for multi-volume works: Fulvio Testi, Lettere, ed. M. L. Doglio, 3 vols (Bari-Roma: Laterza, 1967), Vol. II, p. 37.
• for collections of essays as a whole: The Mind of Dante, ed. U. Limentani (Cambridge University Press, 1967).
• for single chapters in collections of essays: Luce Giard, "Remapping Knowledge, Reshaping Institutions", Science, Culture and Popular Belief in Renaissance Europe, ed. S. Pumfrey, P. L. Rossi and M. Slawinski (Manchester University Press, 1991), pp. 19-47 (p. 40).
• for articles in journals: Mark Balfour, "Manfred's Wounds in Purgatorio III", Italian Studies, 48 (1993), pp. 4-17 (p. 15). But where publication is in more than one part annually, and these are separately paginated, the part number should also be given, e.g.: 25:3). Where pagination is separate, but so is the numbering, do not detail which issue - e.g. "New Comparison, 15 (1993)", and not "15 (Spring 1993)".

4. Illustrations

If your text requires illustrations, please note that: (1) only line-drawings and high-contrast black & white images can be reproduced; (2) space is at a premium: restrict yourselves to what is absolutely necessary to make or support your point. Supply paper copies of the illustration with your text (e.g. photographic prints; prints from scanner), not negatives. Images should be as large as an A4 page will take without unnecessary cropping (in printing they will be reduced by 30%, and smaller dense images may well appear illegible as a result).