Skip Navigation

Information for Authors

Editorial Address:

  • 6A Rawlinson Road
  • Oxford
  • OX2 6UE
  • UK

Essays in Criticism is edited by Stephen Wall, Fellow of Keble College, Oxford, Christopher Ricks, Professor of the Humanities, Boston University, and Seamus Perry, Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.

Articles for publication should be sent to Stephen Wall at the editorial address given above or by email to: seamus.perry@balliol.ox.ac.uk. Microsoft Word (.doc) or RTF (.rtf) are the preferred formats for email and disk submissions (although other formats can be accepted). The review pages are edited by Christopher Ricks.

Essays in Criticism is an Oxford journal, but it has a world-wide circulation and suitable articles from abroad are welcome. Manuscripts and disks will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed enevlope and the cost of return postage in either pounds sterling or International Reply Coupons. Decisions on acceptance are made as promptly as possible, and publication is ually within a year. Please refer to Style Points (listed below) for guidance.

The Editors reserve the right to amend the phrasing and punctuation in all articles and reviews. References should be worked into the text as far as possible, and end-notes kept to a minimum. Publication of an article or review is deemed to confer on its author the right to a half-share of any permission fee arising from that article's major re-use in critical anthologies etc., and the Publisher will use his best endeavours to pass this on.

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviews are commissioned, and unsolicited reviews are unlikely to be acceptable. English review copies should be sent to our editorial address at Oxford. American review copies should be sent to:

Professor Ricks

Editorial Institute

Boston University

143 Bay State Road

Boston MA 02215

USA

STYLE POINTS FOR CONTRIBUTORS

Use - ise endings where available (realise, recognise)
Use an en rule - with space either side - for parenthetical dashes
Use single quote marks throughout; double only for 'quotes "within" quotes'

acronyms/abbreviations:
In general don't use points: BBC, RADA, RSC, UK, USA
exceptions: A.D., B.C., M.P., St., Dr., Mr., Mrs.

hyphenation:
eighteenth century verse
historically minded, sincerely held
late Victorian
no-one
postcolonial
postmodern
post-structuralist

possessives: add 's except in Classical names: Dickens's, but Ulysses', Alcibiades'

capitalisation:
Romantics
Western (cap. when a political concept; l.c. if geographical)

Quotations
Prose:
In general, only display prose quotations of over c. 40 words. The first line should only be indented if a new paragraph begins in the original; otherwise, begin full left.
Avoid using ellipses at the start of quotes (whether displayed or run on in the text): it can be assumed that a prose quote isn't taken from the very start of a work.

Poetry:
Any length of quotation can be displayed, though if a lot of short quotations are given consider whether they may be better run on in the text. In run-on quotes, indicate line divisions with a solidus / with space either side.

Reference/Notes
Use references sparingly. At first citation give full details in a note (see templates below). Give place (= town) of publication unless it is London.
Subsequent references to frequently cited works should be given in parentheses in the text. Avoid using a bare number: (p. 99) (l. 300) not (99) (300).
Reviews: no notes; all references should be within the text.

Templates
Chapters in edited books:
David Riede, 'Transgression, Authority, and the Church of Literature in Carlyle', in Jerome J. McGann (ed.), Victorian Connections (Charlottesville, Va., 1989), pp. 99-130.

Editions of works:
The George Eliot Letters, ed. Gordon S. Haight, 9 vols. (New Haven, 1954-78), ii. 126.

Journal articles (spell out journal titles in full):
Janice L. Haney, '"Shadow-Hunting": Romantic Irony, Sartor Resartus and Victorian Romanticism', Studies in Romanticism, 17 (1978), 300-30: 327.

A-Z
A.D.
age: 30 years old
analyse (not -yze)
B.C.
BBC
bishop of Ely, but Bishop Patrick
Chaucer: Canterbury Tales, VII. 99; individual tales roman: Monk's Tale
date: 22 July 2000
dénouement
duke of Northumberland
earl of Leicester
eighteenth century (not 18th)
eighteenth century verse (no hyphen)
enquiry (not in-)
focusing
historically minded, sincerely held (no hyphen)
in so far (three words)
judgement (e)
late Victorian
M.P.
no-one (hyphen)
numbers: spell out up to 100 except ages (30 years old), percentages (30 per cent), and statistical passages generally
offstage
onstage
paralyse (not -yze)
per cent: 30 per cent
play text
play-goer
possessives: add 's except in Classical '-es' names: Dickens's, Apemantus's, but Ulysses', Alcibiades'
postcolonial
postmodern, modernism, modernist
post-structural, structura

OFFPRINTS

Contributors receive a complimentary copy of the issue in which their piece appears together with free url access to their contribution. Twenty-five gratis offprints are also available on completion of an offprint order form, which can be downloaded from the link below.

Offprint order form

COPYRIGHT

It is a condition of publication in the Journal that authors grant an exclusive licence to Oxford University Press. This ensures that request from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and will also allow the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. In assigning copyright, authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication, and Oxford University Press is notified in writing and in advance.

Licence to Publish form

AUTHOR SELF-ARCHIVING/PUBLIC ACCESS POLICY

For information about this journal’s policy, please visit our Author Self-Archiving policy page.