Authors are expected to submit manuscripts in accordance with the house style otherwise they may be asked to resubmit the manuscript before it is sent to referees.

Headings

Use upper and lower case for title, author and subheadings. (Do not use all capitals, but initial capitals for major words.) Use bold, not italics. No full stop is necessary. Please try to keep your title concise. Use a colon rather than a dash between title and subtitle. If authors wish to acknowledge people who helped with the article, an asteric indicating an endnote should be placed after their name, rather than after the title of the article. We use this position to clarify that a particular article has been peer-reviewed for Labour History by anonymous referees.

Paragraphs

The first paragraph in each section of an article should be flush with the left margin, and subsequent paragraphs should have the first line indented. This includes new paragraphs which follow an indented quotation. Paragraphs that continue after a quotation should not be indented.

Spacing

Use double line spacing for your first submission; single for the revised version. Please leave a line of space before and after quotations, and two lines of space before a subheading or at the end of a section. Use only one space between words, even after a full stop.

The superscript endnote reference number should immediately follow either the full stop or the comma that usually follow the word or phrase requiring the endnote. Please do not leave a space between them.

Italics

Use italics to indicate the title of a journal or a book; for foreign words not in common use; and to indicate emphasis.

Quotations

Quoted matter must be identical to the original source and is not subject to the in-house style of the journal. Use [sic] to indicate unusual spellings or turns of phrase. Put any other interpolations in square brackets. If the author wishes any quoted material to be emphasised, the extract should appear in italics followed by [emphasis added].

Use ellipses ( … ) to indicate that material has been omitted from within a quote; they are not necessary at the beginning or end of a quotation. Use three consecutive full stops with a space before and after, or where possible, insert ellipses as a symbol (for example by pressing Alt 0133 or alt ctrl . in Word).

When what is being quoted is a whole sentence, then the full stop should come within the quotation marks. More usually the quotation forms only part of a sentence and is followed by an endnote reference number; in this instance, close the quote, add a full stop, then the reference number.

Indent quotations more than 30 words long. Opening and closing quotation marks are not required for indented material; quotes within an indented quotation should be in single inverted commas.

For quotes less than 30 words in length, use single inverted commas for opening and closing, and double inverted commas for quotes within quotes.

Please keep photocopies of original quotations in case the journal’s subeditors ask you to refer back to them.

Endnotes

Footnotes should be gathered at the end of the contribution as endnotes. If a reference is required for the heading of an article, please place an asteric after the author’s surname indicating an endnote.

References to endnotes in the text should be in superscript and numbered from 1. The endnote format should be: 1.[tab]

Where possible we prefer the system of consolidating notes to sources into one footnote at the end of the paragraph, with the exception of references to quotations which should be footnoted individually. Consolidation means that a typical article should have about 60 endnotes. Endnotes should be bibliographical, ie indicating sources and comments on sources. All other matters should be dealt with in the text of the article.

Examples of Citations

Book: Eric Fry (ed.), Rebels and Radicals, George Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1983, pp. 37-41.

Journal article: Miriam Dixson, ‘The “born-modern” self: revisiting The Real Matilda: an exploration of women and identity in Australia’, Australian Historical Studies, vol. 27, no. 106, April 1996, pp. 14-29.

Thesis: Vicky Rastrick, The Victorian Royal Commission on Communism, 1948-50: a study of anti-communism in Australia, MA thesis, Department of History, Australian National University, 1973.

Archival document: Check with individual Archives for their referencing policy. Otherwise use the following form: Attlee Hunt to Captain Collins, 28 June 1906, Department of External Affairs (hereafter DEA), series A2910/1, file 417/4/2, Australian Archives, ACT (hereafter AA ACT).

Chapter in a monograph: Peter Spearitt, ‘The Auburn Plute’, in Heather Radi and Peter Spearitt (eds), Jack Lang, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1977, pp. 1-21.

Second and subsequent references: If the reference is to a work cited immediately above, use ibid. Otherwise use short title rather than op. cit. and loc. cit. Capitalise ibid. if used at the beginning of an endnote, eg Ibid.

Check these items: should be a space between author’s last initial and surname; (ed.) and (eds). Don’t use 19(3) 1977; instead use vol. 19, no. 3, 1977. Use ch. 13 (not Chapter 13).

Spelling

• Labour/Labor: when referring to the movement, use the spelling ‘labour’; when referring to the Australian party, use ‘Labor’ (the official spelling)
• ize/ise: use ‘realise’; ‘organisation’, ‘mobilisation’ etc rather than the ‘ize’ and ‘ization’ forms of these and similar words

Otherwise, follow the first spelling given in the current edition of the Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary.

Abbreviations/Acronyms/Full stops

Keep in mind an international readership and always give the full form of an organisation, publication, state etc, when used the first time, followed by the abbreviation in brackets.

Other common usages

• use World War II (not Second World War or WW2)
• use per cent (not percent or %, though the latter may be used in a table)
• in general, use a full stop after an abbreviation (Vic. Tas. ed. no. vol. p. pp. but not after a contraction where the short form ends in the same letter as the word in full (Qld, eds). Exceptions to this rule include: ACT, NSW, NT, SA, PhD, BA, eg, ie, am, pm
• use a space between a shortened form and associated numbers: no. 5, chs 2, 7,  pp. 20-1
• symbols for currency and units of measurement have no full stop (17 km, 30 lb, 9s)

Numbers/Dates

• Normally, spell out numbers up to ten and use numerals thereafter eg: nine lives. This rule does not apply if the sentence begins with a number, eg Eighteen men were killed in a fall at the mine. Avoid ending a sentence with a number
• indicate time spans: 1939-45; 1788-1842; 1900-02; 1950s (not 1950’s)
• use a comma to indicate thousands, eg 1,972 (cf date 1972)
• show dates as: 22 June 1945 (not 22/6/45 or 22.6.45 or June 22, 1945)
• show hours as: 10.45am – 6.00pm

Using capitals

In general, use lower case for adjectives, and a capital for nouns, eg western New South Wales; the left wing of the Labor Party; the Left, the new Right, the old Left, etc.

Tables and Graphs

Tables and graphs are often embedded in the Word document. Because of the variation in the size of the pages of the submitted article (A4) and the journal size (160mm x 240mm), it may not be possible to place them their original positions, so please number such items and refer to the numbers in the text, rather than saying ‘in the following table’. Put the source of the table or graph beneath it. Any lengthy interpretations should be included in the text or perhaps an endnote.

Photographs and Diagrams

If you intend to include graphics in your article, please discuss this with the Labour History Editorial Assistant. All illustrations should be accompanied by a succinct caption, followed by a more discursive description if necessary though it is preferable if lengthy information is given in the text plus an endnote; the source (including name of photographer and date of photo if known ), and acknowledgment of the person/institution providing the illustration. All reproduction costs and copyright clearances are the responsibility of the author. Technicalities: Jpg files are smaller and easier to send electronically and they can later be converted to tiff which is the medium preferred for print. For photographs we need a tiff or jpg file with a resolution of 300dpi at the right size (100%).  If the photo is only small, the resolution should be 600dpi so as not to lose quality when it is enlarged.  For maps or diagrams, the resolution should be higher – 600 or ever 1200dpi.

Other

For all other matters please consult Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers, Sixth edition, revised by Snooks & Co, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd, 2002.