Author Guidelines
GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS Submissions, in English or French, should be sent to the following address:
The Editor
Theatre Research in Canada
c/o Graduate Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies
University of Toronto
214 College Street, 3rd Floor
Toronto, ON
M5T 2Z9, Canada
FAX: 1-416-971-1378
Email: tric.rtac@utoronto.ca
Website: TRiC-RTaC
Theatre Research in Canada / Recherches théâtrales au Canada welcomes submissions drawn from a full range of critical and historical approaches applied to the study of theatre as a multidisciplinary art, in the context of the cultures of Canada and Quebec. For our Forum Section we will consider position papers, commentary on issues of significance to the journal’s mandate, information about new and old projects, and research notes. We will also consider the publication of fully annotated documentary evidence, normally appended to articles.
All submissions are refereed through a peer-review assessment process (please see the following Submissions Response Schedule). Full articles should normally be no longer than 7,000 words, typed double-spaced, following the internal editorial style found in the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing –3rd Edition (New York: Modern Language Association, 2008). Please submit articles, along with an abstract and brief biographical note, via email attachment (in Word for PC). Please employ an absolute minimum of document formatting in all electronic submissions (beyond the indentation of quotations and the use of endnotes). Endnotes are permitted (do not use footnotes), but should also be kept to a minimum. While TRiC/RtaC verifies all notes, references, and quotations, accuracy in these areas remains the responsibility of the contributor and any errors may delay publication significantly.
STYLE GUIDE FOR AUTHORS
Please review and follow this style guide carefully before submitting your article to TRiC/RtaC.
In general TRiC/RtaC follows the MLA conventions as currently outlined in MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing – 3rd Edition (New York: Modern Language Association, 2008). For spelling, we use the Oxford Canadian Dictionary (2nd ed. 2004) for consistency. A few points of note, particularly as they relate to TRi/RtaC’s House Style:
• Indicate editorial ellipses with brackets < [. . .] > to differentiate those from ellipses appearing in original texts. This is useful for us because so often play dialogue will contain ellipses.
• Use a single space between sentences.
• There should be no space between the word and M-dash
• All singular nouns, proper or common, ending in “s” (including classical names etc.) uses “ ’s ” for possessive: so “Sears’s Harlem Duet” etc.
• Insert hard spaces in ellipses [. . .] (use Ctrl+Shft+space)
• Parentheses and quotation marks or other punctuation etc [,\(\)/.] associated with italicized text are not italicized, as in “he doesn’t read Hamlet” not “he doesn’t read Hamlet” • Write out numbers lower than 100; use numerals for numbers 100+.
• Dates with “century” always written out: not 18th century but eighteenth century
• Unless in quotations: Quebec/Montreal/Quebecois, not Québec/Montréal/Québécois
• Use single quote marks for quotations within quotations, whether integrated into text or inset
• Punctuation with Parenthetical Reference: when using part of a text that has no reference: place punctuation mark prior to quotation mark. [I.e.: end of quote.”] When using part of a text that does have a reference: quotation mark, then (ref), then punctuation. [ I.e.: end of quote” (Brown 14). ] When referencing a quotation that is set off from the text: punctuation, parenthetical reference, no quotation marks. [ I.e.: end of quote. (Brown 14) ]
• Months should be written out in full, except in Works Cited entries where MLA conventions hold for abbrevs.
• Check length of quotations and set off from text if too long: approx 200 characters (including spaces) = 3+lines of text in printed font\format, so any quotation more than about 225 characters (including spaces) should be set as indent quote (even though in the Word files it will look too short, when it is printed it will look right)
• Use the “Oxford” comma (include comma before final conjunction in any list: so < red, black, and purple dresses >)
• Page spans should be abbreviated past 100 (but not 1-99). For example, 85-86 is correct but 185-186 should be 185-86.
• For consistency use “article” instead of “essay”
• The United States should appear as US, not USA.
• Smith, John and Jane Smith, eds. is correct but it should appear as Ed. not Eds. when listed in the middle of a citation, even with more than one editor. o Blow, Joe. “Holy Smoke.” Believe it or Not! Ed. John Smith and Jane Smith. New York: Routledge, 2001. Print.
• Works Cited: Make sure all citations specify the type of document with regards to print or web sources. ‘Print’ should be the last thing on the line; ‘web’ is followed by the date accessed. For web citations, ensure that N.d and/or N.p are inserted when no date or no publisher are specified.
• Please ensure that Works Cited page is the last segment in the document. It should come after Endnotes. French-language articles require greater flexibility in applying MLA conventions, though attempt is made to accommodate (for example, French punctuation rules indicate leaving a space before colons etc… so where colons occur in French citations in French-language articles, the MLA format is adjusted). This is also the case for quotation marks, semi-colons, question marks, and exclamation points.
Copyright Notice
1. The Editors will be responsible for the usual functions of copyediting on this article. The Author will be given an opportunity to review the final version of the article (prior to typesetting), but if (s)he fails to return it by the date requested, production and publication will proceed without the Author's approval.
2. The Author undertakes that permission to publish the article has not been assigned previously elsewhere.
3. The Author agrees to provide copies of letters of permission to reproduce material from other publications in this contribution where such permission is required.
4. The Author agrees to secure all permissions required for the printing of photos or illustrations.
5. The Author is entitled to two free (print) copies of the issue in which the article appears.
6. The Author agrees to refer to the Editors any subsequent requests to publish the article or substantial portion thereof in any printed or electronic publication. The Journal will normally obtain a standard fee for reprinting, the amount of this fee to be fixed from time to time; this fee will be divided equally with the Author. The Editors will accede to any requests by the Author to use part or all of the article in a work published under the Author's exclusive or joint authorship or editorship, provided that suitable acknowledgment of its first appearance is made, and in such cases no fee for reprinting shall be payable to the Journal. The purpose of this clause is to protect both the Author and Journal from unauthorized or illegitimate use of the article.
7. If requested by the Author in advance in any particular case, the fee for reprinting may be waived by the Editors.
Additional or Alternative Clauses: Subject to the above conditions, and in consideration of the Publisher undertaking to subsidize costs of the publication of the article, the Author assigns to the Journal the exclusive world rights to the article in its present, or substantially its present form (in both print and electronic publication), and the parties agree upon the foregoing terms for themselves and their respective executors, administrators, assigns or successors.