CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

The editors of The Opera Quarterly invite the submission of original articles on all aspects of opera, including history, theory, and performance.

As of the summer of 2005 (vol. 21, nr. 3), each issue of The Opera Quarterly will be devoted to a single work or topic. The editorial board welcomes suggested topics for full issues or part issues (dossiers of smaller essays or collections of essays, translations, reviews, archival materials, etc.).

INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONTRIBUTORS

• All submissions will be reviewed by the journal’s editorial board.
• As a general guideline, articles should be 4,000-8,000 words in length.
• Article pages should be numbered consecutively beginning with the title page. Please submit a copy of your article via email to Tami Wysocki-Niimi in a commonly used word-processing program, preferably Microsoft Word. Supplemental materials may be sent to The Opera Quarterly, University of Chicago, 1050 E. 59th St., Chicago, IL 60637. Book, CD, and DVD reviews should be submitted to the Reviews Editor, Dr. Christopher Morris, Department of Music, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland, or via email.
• The title page of the manuscript should contain the author’s name and e-mail address, and a brief description of the author appropriate for the “Contributors to This Issue” page.
• Contributions should sport a standard academic apparatus (e.g., endnotes, figure captions).
• We are happy to consider publishing photographs or other art you might submit with your article, but we require proper written permission for their publication (see below). (The author is responsible for any fees incurred in the acquiring of such permissions.) If possible, illustrations should be submitted in electronic form, via email or CD (TIFF format with fonts [if applicable] embedded). For useful information on preparing your figures for publication, see http://dx.sheridan.com. Clearly label the CD with file names, software (including version), and a list of any fonts used in the figure. All electronic figures must be submitted as high-resolution, print-quality files (minimum 300 dpi). If you are sending hard copies, each illustration or photograph should have a label pasted on its back, indicating the title of the submission, the author’s name, the number of the figure, and the top of the figure. Do not make any marks on illustrations or photographs.
• Musical examples may be included in articles. Again, if possible, musical examples should be submitted electronically (by email or on CD). All examples will be professionally typeset by the publisher. Please ensure that all parts of your submitted examples are legible, and that you clearly mark or list any necessary alterations to the original notation. Include captions on a separate captions sheet.
• The Opera Quarterly's Web site can support downloadable audio files. We can accept up to 2 MB of supplementary data per example. To determine if the type(s) of file you are interested in uploading is supportable on our server, contact the production team. The copying of a copyrighted musical work or sound recording onto the Oxford University Press Web server constitutes exploitation of its reproduction right, for which authorization is required. For information on obtaining rights, visit the Harry Fox Agency Inc. Web site or contact the copyright owner of the sound recording (usually the record label) for authorization to copy sound recordings. You can also contact the Recording Industry Association of America or ASCAP for more information. For further questions and information, please contact the OUP permissions department.
• All figures and tables will be printed in black and white. Videos and color figures can be posted online as supplementary material at no cost.

Style guidelines

• For questions of formatting, spelling, and style, please consult Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition, and the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. The best guide to editorial style, including endnotes citation, is a recent issue of OQ. The Opera Quarterly follows standard American English usage for spelling and terminology. When using foreign language quotes or excerpts, please provide both the original and the English translation, where appropriate. Translations may be given in either the text or the endnotes. When use of a translation is in doubt, please contact the editors.
• In text, OQ prefers to write out accidentals (A-sharp, D-flat).
• French publications vary in the way they capitalize titles of works. Following CMS, we recommend capitalizing only the first word of a title (of a book, an article, etc.) and anything that would be capitalized in ordinary text. Example: Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges.
• Once a reference has been given in full, use the short-title version (author last name, short title, page number[s]) in subsequent endnotes containing the same reference. Use "Ibid." in two or more consecutive endnotes containing the same reference.
  • Original endnote:
    1. Daniel Albright, Untwisting the Serpent: Modernism in Music, Literature and Other Arts (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 12-23.
  • Repeat endnote:
    10. Albright, Untwisting the Serpent, 6–7, 12, 29.
  • Consecutive endnotes:
    14. Albright, Untwisting the Serpent, 6–7, 12, 29.
    15. Ibid., 29.

COPYRIGHT FOR MUSIC JOURNAL SUBMISSIONS

In line with most academic journals, Oxford journals require contributors to obtain clearance for any copyright materials reproduced in their articles. The fact that our journals appear in an online version, some with downloadable sound examples may further complicate the position. The law governing copyright, especially as it refers to non-print media, is far from clear but the following guidance is offered in good faith; of necessity, these guidelines are not comprehensive, but rather a simplification of the law governing copyright. Furthermore, these guidelines are based on English Law only. You should always seek advice when in doubt.

In essence it is necessary to ensure that clearance is gained for the following:

• reproduction and distribution in printed form of copyright textual or graphic material or music;
• reproduction in electronic form and dissemination on-line of copyright textual or graphic material or musical or dramatic works;
• reproduction in electronic form and dissemination on-line of copyright sound material (eg a sound recording); and
• reproduction in electronic form and dissemination on-line of performances of music and/or words (eg a song embodied in a sound recording).

While the owner of the rights in a sound recording may also own or control the rights (eg of the performer) in the performance recorded, it would be wise to get confirmation of this from that owner when seeking a clearance, and to make it clear that a licence of both categories of rights is being requested.

Finally you must respect the author's moral rights. This means being careful to ensure that the author and source of any material used are identified sufficiently, and that no material used is subjected to any derogatory treatment.

Is It In Copyright?

There is no restriction on the inclusion of non-copyright materials in either the printed or the electronic version of the journal, but be aware that there may be rights in performances of public domain works. Terms of copyright in literary, dramatic, artistic and musical works (whether published or not) depend both on when and where the work was first published, and on if and when the author has died and on the residence and nationality of the author. The rules are complicated, but the general rule is:

• copyright expires seventy years after the end of the calendar year in which the author died;
• if a work was unpublished (and this term has a broad meaning including public performance and broadcasting) at the date of the author's death, then the period of copyright protection will be the longer of:
  • seventy years after the end of the calendar year in which the author died; or
  • fifty years after the end of the calendar year in which the work was first published (in the case of works first published before 1 August 1989) and fifty years from 1 January 1990 (in the case of works first published after 1 August 1989).

In the case of an unpublished document you will need to seek permission from the owner of the document as well as the owner of any copyright in the document.

New editions: A new copyright may exist in a new edition of an existing work. If the new edition contains material alterations which suffice to make the totality of the new edition an original work, then the new edition will be a new copyright work. This is so whether or not the existing edition is in the public domain. Copying the existing work will require no consent if it is in the public domain, but that copying must be done from the existing work and not from the new edition. If the existing work is still protected by copyright, then permission for use must be obtained from the rights owner. If the new edition is used and the old edition is still in copyright, permission must be obtained from the owner of the rights in the new edition and, if that owner does not also own the rights in the old edition, from the person who owns the rights in the old edition. Copyright on typography and music setting (engraving) lasts for 25 years from publication.

Sound recordings: In the case of sound recordings, copyright in the recording generally lasts for fifty years from release. Release has a wide meaning and includes broadcast and public performance. That means that you do not need permission to reproduce clips from original recordings that were released over 50 years ago; reissues (for instance CD compilations of historical recordings) may however be protected by a new copyright, as will sound recordings which have been remastered or digitally enhanced. Rights of performers performing on sound recordings generally last for the same period as the copyright in the sound recording.

Multiple copyrights: As you will gather from the above, a single publication will have multiple copyrights. For a musical score, these typically include the composer, the editor or arranger (if any), and the music setting; in the case of songs and operas the lyrics or libretto will be copyright, too. The publisher will normally handle all these rights. For a recording there will be a number of separate copyrights relating to the performance but they will usually all be handled by the record company, although it may sometimes be necessary to get separate permission from performers; you should check with the record company. Where the work itself is copyright, however, you will have to obtain permission for that separately from the publisher. Material can be considered out of copyright only if all the relevant copyrights have expired.

It's In Copyright, But Do I Need Permission?

Make sure you do not apply for permission when you do not actually need it! There is one important circumstance under which permission is not required, and you should consider carefully whether it applies in your case.

Where copyright is in force, it is legal to quote brief extracts from books, articles, or musical works for purposes of review or criticism, provided that the source is acknowledged. In this context 'musical works' is believed to include both scores and recordings, and this provision is believed to extend to electronic as well as to print publication. However you must note the following:

• 'brief' is generally understood to mean no more than 5% of the work and, in any event, no more than is necessary for the criticism or review in question (note that individual items in collections, eg songs, count as works in their own right)
• you cannot include the materials just for illustration; the legality of the quotation depends on the presence of critical commentary on it or its use for critical commentary on another work. For instance it might only be legal to reproduce an extract from a recording if you were commenting on the performance or the work recorded.

These provisions do not however apply to illustrations or figures in books, since each illustration or figure is treated as a separate copyright item. You will need to obtain permission to reproduce them from the publishers, or where they are credited to third parties from those third parties.

I Need Permission, So What Do I Do?

In most cases the best place to start applying for permission is with the music publisher. Publishers of most music published in the UK can be found by searching on the web site of the Music Publishers Association http://www.mpaonline.org.uk.

You need to write to the copyright holder or owner of the rights in the performance, explaining what you want to reproduce and the nature of the publication; you may have to pay a fee. In the case of textual and graphic material there will normally be little problem; publishers and libraries are used to handling such enquiries.

You may wish to include or adapt the following when writing: "The Opera Quarterly, which is published by Oxford University Press, is a scholarly journal with a limited print run. It is also published in an electronic (web-based) version, accessible only to authorized users. I am therefore seeking clearance for both the printed and the electronic versions of the journal for the life of the work. As a scholarly publication, the journal does not offer any remuneration to authors and I would therefore ask you to consider reducing or waiving any fees in respect of this permission."

Sound recordings: The situation is more complicated in the case of sound recordings, largely because record companies are not yet used to handling such requests. As you will only be reproducing a short extract from a recording, an enlightened company will see this not as undercutting sales but as offering free publicity. For this reason it may be advisable, when writing to large companies, to address your letter to the marketing rather than the rights division.

You may wish to include or adapt the following when writing: "The Opera Quarterly, which is published by Oxford University Press, is a scholarly journal with a limited print run. It is also published in an electronic (web-based) version, accessible only to authorized users. The electronic version includes a facility for sound examples, and I am writing to request permission to include and use an extract from one of your recordings as a sound example in the way just described, for the life of the work. Full details of the recording will be given. As a scholarly publication, the journal does not offer any remuneration to authors and I would therefore ask you to consider reducing or waiving any fees in respect of this permission."

A problem you may run into is being offered permission for the electronic version on the basis of a fixed-term or renewable license only, which we would unfortunately be unable to accept. In this case, contact the editorial office.

You may have difficulty in determining exactly who holds the rights for older recordings. The National Sound Archive (a division of the British Library) has information on this and will be glad to advise. The National Sound Archive may also be able to supply CD copies of recorded extracts for journal submissions, with the copying charges paid by the Archive from an educational trust fund (but please note that responsibility for copyright and other rights clearance remains with the contributor).

Mechanical rights and performance rights:
1) In the UK: MCPS/PRS Alliance. The MCPS (mechanical rights for sound recordings, UK) and PRS (performing rights, UK) have formed an alliance which means that it is possible to apply to both of them for permission in tandem. This is good news and should make research and clearance more straightforward: http://www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk.

2) In the US: Mechanical rights: The Harry Fox Agency in New York is roughly equivalent to MCPS for the US: http://www.harryfox.com.

Musical extracts from films: Unlike the reproduction of film stills (where film companies sometimes have little interest in granting permission for academic publications), film companies are very keen to license permissions for the use of musical extracts, and will usually charge. Academic publications might be an exception, and we can expect them to be a little more flexible for a journal article, but it means it is very important to emphasize academic journal publication whenever submitting a permission request to a film company.

Music in facsimile:
Permission for music in facsimile works in much the same way as any other illustrative material, so permission should usually be sought for use of the photograph, even if the original object (such as a book) is out of copyright. Usually the best place to start is with the publisher, or in the case of an out of copyright book, the library or collection where the book is held. Where the music itself is still in copyright, then of course the rights have to be cleared as well.

Queries:
If you have queries about clearing permissions for your article, please contact the editorial office.

Oxford Journals can offer information and documentation to assist authors in securing print and online permissions: please see the Guidelines for Authors section. A standard permissions request form can be provided by the editors. Information on permissions contacts for a number of main galleries and museums can also be provided. Should you require copies of this, then please contact the editorial office of the journal or the Oxford Journals Rights department.

LICENSE

It is a condition of publication that authors grant an exclusive license to publish to Oxford University Press; requests for permission to reprint material found in the journal should also come to Oxford University Press. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and will also allow the article to be disseminated as widely as possible. 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 as the publisher.