Submission of manuscripts

Manuscripts to be considered for publication should be sent as an e-mail attachment to: japanforum@bajs.org.uk. Because an anonymous review system is used, the author's name should not appear after the title, and the author's identity should not be revealed in running headers or footers, in the text or in notes. If you need to refer to your own work, do so impersonally: 'Stockwin (1999: 195) argues…', rather than 'As I have argued…'. After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, you may rewrite such passages.

Manuscripts should not normally exceed 10,000 words in length, inclusive of notes and references. They should be typed in double-spacing, without justified margins, and should follow the following order: title; abstract of up to 200 words; list of up to 6 key words, suitable for indexing and abstracting services; main text; acknowledgements (if any); endnotes (if any); references; word count and date of manuscript. The desired position of tables, figures and plates should be indicated in the text, but the tables, figures and plates themselves should be submitted on separate pages at the end of the manuscript. All captions for figures and plates (including sources and acknowledgements) should be listed on a separate sheet. If plates (e.g. illustrations and photographs) cannot be submitted electronically, three copies of each one to be included in the manuscript should be sent to: The Editors, Japan Forum, BAJS Secretariat, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex CO4 3SQ, UK. Be sure to include your name and the title of your manuscript with such submissions by post.

Each submission should be accompanied by a separate file or letter containing the author's name, institutional affiliation, postal address, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail address and the manuscript title. A brief (no more than 100-word) biographical note about the author should also be provided. If you do not wish to have your e-mail address included in the biographical note that will appear at the end of your article, assuming it is accepted for publication, please so indicate.

Contributors for whom English is a second language are encouraged to have their manuscripts read by a native English speaker to avoid ambiguity of meaning. In all correspondence with Japan Forum after your manuscript has been submitted, please use the reference number provided to you by the BAJS Secretariat.

Submission of a manuscript to the journal will be taken to imply that it presents original work, not previously circulated widely electronically, published in English or under consideration for publication in English elsewhere.

Permission to quote from or reproduce copyright material must be obtained by the author, who is also responsible for paying any fees required before the article is published. Acknowledgements should be included in the manuscript, preferably in the form of an Acknowledgements section at the end of the paper. Where photographs or figures are reproduced, acknowledgement of source and copyright should be given in the caption.

After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, the author must provide clear copy of all figures and plates (not photocopies or faxes) which can be easily produced and do not have to be re-drawn.

Stylistic conventions

Spelling, quotations marks and punctuation: British or American spelling may be used as long as the usage is consistent, but British quotation marks and punctuation should be employed. There are three major ways in which the latter differ from the American: 1) single, not double, inverted commas are used for quotations; 2) a final comma or period always goes outside the quotation marks, whether it is part of the quoted matter or not; and 3) no comma is inserted before the 'and' in a series of three or more elements. Note the examples below.

American English: "…in the first, third, and fifth Yoshida cabinets." British English: '…in the first, third and fifth Yoshida cabinets'.

[Note: A quote within a quote would be placed within single inverted commas in the first example, but within double inverted commas in the second.]

Japanese terms in the text: Only romanized Japanese is used in the articles published in this journal. If it is essential to provide the kanji or kana for a relatively few Japanese words in your submission, use romaji in the body of your manuscript, followed by consecutive superscript letters, a-z; then provide the relevant kanji/kana text in corresponding notes at the end of your manuscript. If your manuscript involves extended analysis of text in the original Japanese, it is not suitable for Japan Forum.

Italicize Japanese words (and words in other foreign languages) in the body of your manuscript, unless the words 1) have entered the English language (as demonstrated by their inclusion in standard English-language dictionaries); 2) are proper nouns (e.g. place names, era/reign names, organizations, institutions, laws); 3) are widely used words within the field of Japanese studies and hence may be considered 'semi-anglicized'.

Some examples of (1): geisha, shogun, daimyo, samurai, kabuki, noh, tofu.

Some examples of (2): Sekigahara, Genroku, Heisei, Aikoku Fujinkai, Seiyukai, Keidanren, Koshoku Senkyo-ho.

Some examples of (3): anime, bakufu, bunraku, burakumin, bushi, han, hiragana, katakana, manga, nihonjinron, tanka, waka, ukiyo-e.

Provide an English translation at your first mention of an italicized Japanese word, and where possible use the English translation instead of the (romanized) Japanese word thereafter.

Macrons should not be used in fully anglicized words (e.g. shogun, daimyo), major cities (e.g. Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto) or main islands (Kyushu, Honshu, Hokkaido). In Japanese-language references, however, macrons should be restored to these and similar words. It is generally best to use macrons for extended vowel sounds in Japanized foreign words (gairaigo): e.g. patotaimu, rorasuketo, supido, supa.

Romanization should follow the modified Hepburn system as found in Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary. Use 'n' not 'm' before syllables beginning with 'b', 'm' and 'p' (shinbun, not shimbun), and an apostrophe after 'n' when it is part of the preceding syllable and the following syllable begins with 'yo', 'yu' or a vowel.

References: The Harvard reference system is employed in this journal. Although a manuscript using footnote/endnote citations of sources may be tentatively accepted, it will not be scheduled for publication by the Senior Editor until the author has re-done the references in conformity with house style.

The Harvard reference system consists of in-text citations within parentheses and an alphabetical list of references at the end of the article. The in-text citations should take the following form: (author's surname date: page or pages). For a source with two authors, both surnames should be given. When there are three or more authors, only the first surname followed by et al. should be used. A page number or numbers should be given in all cases, not just following quoted material.

The date of publication cited must be the date of the source referred to; when using a republished book or a modern version of an older edition, however, the date of the original publication may also be given. Where there are two or more works by one author in the same year, these should be distinguished by using 2000a, 2000b, etc.

The reference list should include every work cited in the text, and no other works. Please ensure that the spelling of surnames and the dates used in the text are consistent with those in the reference list.

Please note that page numbers are required for articles and chapters in books in reference lists. Do not use et al. in the reference list; spell out each further author's full name in surname, first name order after the first, alphabetical citation by lead author's surname, first name. This may result in a long series of commas, but it will help ensure that all authors cited in your article are properly credited in citation indices. For works by Japanese authors, whether in Japanese or English, place a comma between the author's surname and personal name. This is for the same reason as above, to ensure proper credit in citation indices.

Where relevant, the translator or date of first publication should be noted. Provide a translation of the title of Japanese works in parentheses after the romanized Japanese title. No place of publication is needed for works published by university presses in the West, nor is place of publication needed for works published in Japan unless published elsewhere than in Tokyo.

Some examples:

1. in-text citation: (Cox et al. 2000: 116)
   reference list: Cox, Gary W., Frances McCall Rosenbluth and Michael F. Thies (2000) 'Electoral rules, career ambitions and party structure: comparing factions in Japan's Upper and Lower House', American Journal of Political Science 44(1): 115-22.
   
   
2. in-text citation: (Inoue and Kameyama 1999: 3)
   reference list: Inoue Shun and Kameyama Yoshiaki (1999) Supotsu bunka o manabu hito no tami ni (For people who are learning about sports culture), Kyoto: Sekai Shiosha.
   
   
3. in-text citation: (Aoyama 1988: 195-6)
   reference list: Aoyama, Tomoko (1988) 'Male homosexuality as treated by Japanese women writers', in Gavan McCormack and Yoshio Sugimoto (eds) The Japanese Trajectory: Modernization and Beyond, Cambridge University Press, pp. 186-204.

Notes: These should be kept to a minimum and used only for e.g. definitions of terms, brief amplification of issues raised and archival sources that cannot be easily rendered as in-text citations. They will be reproduced as endnotes.