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Proposals

The North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures is always looking for prospective manuscripts that fit its publication profile, which is quite broad (see About NCSRLL). However, given the limited number of books published each year, the Editorial Board requires that authors first submit a proposal describing the purpose of the manuscript (what problem it seeks to solve, how it differs from other books, why it should matter to the reader); its approach (on what criticism or critical theory it is based, if any), and its audience (general, graduate students, specialists in one or more fields). The proposal should be accompanied by 1) a Table of Contents, 2) an Introduction, 3) a sample chapter, and 4) the vita of the writer. Authors should also note whether the manuscript is completed or, if it is not finished, give its anticipated date of completion. NCSRLL cannot be responsible for any unsolicited manuscripts.

Proposals should be submitted via email to: romlpub@unc.edu.
The Publication Board meets once every 2 months to determine the projects it would like to consider.

Submissions

If the proposal is accepted, the author will be invited to submit the full manuscript. Once the completed manuscript arrives, the Board will conduct a preliminary assessment, then send the work to two scholars who are experts in the field for peer review. They are charged with commenting on the manuscript’s potential, assessing its need for a larger audience, and suggesting revisions. To facilitate this review, authors should pay special attention to the following details:

Electronic Copy: The electronic file must be in Microsoft Word-compatible format, and should be clearly labeled with the name of the author, the date, and an abbreviated version of the manuscript’s title. The file must use Word’s <<Normal Style>> feature throughout the text and avoid any fancy formatting or automatic hyphenation. Finally, authors should make sure that there is no hidden text in the electronic file.
Page Size and Numbering: Limit each page of the manuscript to about 250-300 words in 12-point font with margins of one inch all around. The pages should be consecutively numbered, with front matter in lowercase Roman numerals (i, ii, iii…) and the text in Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3…). No page should be submitted unnumbered, and no number should be used twice. NCSRLL will later remove the numbers from the pages that do not carry them (see below, “Contents”).
Type, Formatting, and Hyphenation: Use the same typeface throughout the manuscript (preferably Times New Roman), and make sure that text, notes, quotations, captions, and bibliography are double-spaced and not automatically hyphenated or justified.
Spelling: Run your word processor’s spell-checking program before sending the final manuscript, never doing a global change. Authors should also verify all quotations, make sure that notation format is consistently applied, and see that the use of proper names follows a consistent pattern and format (MLA 8th edition). Double-check the accentuation of any foreign language quote.
Consistency in Spelling: Use the English or the foreign language version of a name consistently throughout the manuscript. Do not mix both forms (for example, choose to utilize “Ferdinand” or “Fernando”). Use either the American or English spelling conventions throughout, but do not use both (for example, select either “honor” or “honour” as your preferred choice).
Paragraphs and Block Quotes: Double-space block quotes (usually more than five lines in length), with an extra line of space above and below to set them off. Authors should not use tab stops or spaces to give an indented appearance to a block quote or to the bibliography, but rather let Microsoft Word provide the indentation by setting the appropriate indentation settings or margins. A hard return should only be inserted at the end of a paragraph or a line of verse.
Footnotes: Use Microsoft Word’s insert notes feature. They should be numbered sequentially from 1 to the end using Arabic numerals placed slightly above the line without further embellishment (i.e., no parentheses, periods, brackets, or slashes). The numbers should almost always follow the sentence or passage they note. If the passage is a block quotation, the reference number should come at the end of the quotation, and not at the end of the text that introduces the quotation. NCSRLL prefers footnotes over endnotes.
Bibliography: Adhere to MLA 8th edition bibliographical format. Authors should make sure that they have included the name of the publisher in all book bibliographical citations, and that all abbreviated titles of journals have been expanded.
MLA Style: Follow MLA style (9th edition). Since NCSRLL also accepts manuscripts written in any Romance language, some variation in MLA style based on the language of the text is acceptable. Authors should use only one space after a period. Search the manuscript for “<<space, space>>” (hitting the space bar twice in the search field) to replace with one “<<space>>” as necessary. Authors should make sure that all abbreviations are expanded.

NCSRLL requires that manuscripts include all of the material that will be printed at the time of their submission. The manuscript should paginate the front matter with lower case Roman numerals and reserve Arabic numerals for the rest of the text. Every manuscript page should be numbered, although some of these numbers will later be deleted from the printed copy, since we do not show the number on an initial chapter page:

Front Matter

Series page (page number will not show in printed copy; standard front matter)
Distributor page (page number will not show in printed copy; standard front matter)
Volume page (page number will not show in printed copy)
Editorial board page (page number will not show in printed copy; standard front matter)
Title page (page number will not show in printed copy)
Library of Congress CIP data and ISBN (page number will not show in printed copy; CIP data and ISBN number later provided by us)
Promotional blurbs (page number will not show in printed copy; we will arrange for these)
Dedication (if any; page number will not show in printed copy)
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations (if any)
List of Tables (if any)

Body

Preface and/or acknowledgments
Introduction
Text of Chapters I, II, III …
Conclusion

Back Matter

Appendices (if any)
Bibliography
Index (created after the first proofs are set)
Recent titles page (standard back matter)

Authors should use the “Preface” to discuss a book’s significance, aims, scope, and structure, with acknowledgments, if any, at the end. They should use the “Introduction” to talk about the subject matter of the book. NCSRLL defines a “Foreword” to be text written by someone other than the author.

Images

Cover Images: NCSRLL usually provides a graphic designer for the creation of the cover. If an author wishes the designer to use a particular graphic or illustration for the cover, submit a digital photograph or scan using a resolution of 300 dpi. Please note that most images on the web are of lesser quality and are therefore not suitable for publication. If a detail of an image is to be used, it should be indicated.
Interior Images: All images within the text should be provided at a resolution of 300 dpi and will appear in grayscale. Authors using images throughout the text of their books should place high quality reproductions in the appropriate position in the manuscript with caption and attribution.
Image Permissions: It is the author’s responsibility to obtain proper permissions for image use or to verify that images are in the public domain.

Peer Review

Members of NCSRLL’s Publication Board identify scholars from the Editorial Board or from the profession at large to serve as peer reviewers of manuscripts. Scholars generally take 3 months to finish their reports from the time they accept the task. One of five decisions will ultimately be reached by the reviewers and subsequently suggested to the Board:

Accept
Accept with non-binding revisions
Accept with binding revisions
Invite to revise and resubmit
Reject

Members of the Publication Board assess the peer review evaluations of a manuscript and decide whether or not to accept it for publication.

Production

After a manuscript is accepted for publication, the author is asked to provide, in a timely manner, a new, revised copy that incorporates the readers’ revisions and suggestions. Authors should also include a letter describing how they have accepted and incorporated the readers’ revisions and suggestions or justify why, in exceptional cases, they may have declined to do so.

If the editor agrees that the needed changes have been made, NCSRLL sends the revised manuscript to the printer for an estimate of cost. The UNC Press then sets the price of the book and calculates the author’s subsidy, which is always equal to fifty percent of the total cost of production and distribution. Most authors are subsidized by the research councils of their universities.

NCSRLL then issues a contract and produces a first galley, which is sent to the author for proofreading. It is at this point that the author produces an index for the volume, since the first galley proof contains the final pagination of the work. The printer then produces a second galley proof, which is checked by the editor against the changes suggested to the first galley to ascertain that all of the author’s changes have been made, and the index printed. Finally, the manuscript appears as a book, and its publication is announced in the next UNC Press catalog. The timeline of the entire process varies, but generally it takes approximately one year. For further information on policies and procedures, contact us at romlpub@unc.edu.