Left History accepts article manuscript submissions at any time. If you are interested in submitting a book review or a review essay, please contact the editors at lefthist@yorku.ca.
When preparing manuscripts for submission please ensure the following:
1. Submissions should range from approximately 20 to 40 pages, double-spaced, in 12-point font. Book reviews should be approximately two to three pages, and review essays should be approximately eight to ten pages. For a list of books available to review, click here.
2. Use Chicago style footnotes for references in articles and review essays. Use your word processor to generate footnotes automatically; do not format footnotes by using special fonts, numbering, indents, or style sheets. Use in-text citation for references in book reviews (try to avoid references to other literature as much as possible).
3. Place the footnote at the end of a sentence, not in the middle. Join number ranges with an en dash (5–13), and do not use p. or pp. to signify pages. Abbreviate citations that are used more than once. Include the city of publication, the publishing company, and the year of publication.
4. When citing archival material, please adhere to the following template as closely as possible, depending on the available information: [record author/description/title], [date], [catalogue identifier(s)], [collection name], [name and location of archive] (Letter from A to B, January 1, 1945, Box 1, Folder 2: Letters, Mrs. A Collection/Fonds, Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University, Toronto, Canada). Collection and/or archive names may be abbreviated after the first use.
5. Numbers from one to twenty should be spelled out (There were sixteen people at the demonstration). Numbers above twenty should be rendered numerically (There were 65 people at the demonstration). When a combination of these numbers appears in a sentence, the numbers should be spelled out unless one of the numbers contains three or more digits (Out of 368 people at the demonstration, sixty-four were arrested and nine assaulted). Centuries should be spelled out (nineteenth century, not 19th century). Numbers larger than three digits should contain a comma (23,000, not 23 000).
6. Double-check spelling in quotations and proper names, and verify dates. We prefer Canadian spellings (organization and organize, not organisation or organise; labour, not labor; centre, not center). Proper names and titles should use the same spelling as the original (Palladium of Labor, not Palladium of Labour). Original text with spelling or grammar errors should be transcribed exactly, with [sic] employed where necessary.
7. Use italics for titles of books, journals, etc., non-English words, and author’s emphasis.
8. Use a single space after periods, colons, etc. Use em dashes with no spaces on either side to indicate a break or aside within a sentence (There were mistakes—several of them). Use en dashes to signify “to” (1993–2000, the London–Paris train). Use hyphens to join compound words or modifiers (mass-produced, dog-eat-dog). Use three period ellipses with a space on each side to indicate an omission within a quote ( … ). Lists of three or more nouns should employ the Oxford comma (workers, farmers, and labourers).
9. Use double quotation marks to signify a quotation (single quotation marks for a quote within a quote). Only keep punctuation in quotations that was in the original. Punctuation ending a quotation should be on the left side of the quotation mark (.” or ,”). Use square brackets for insertions or alterations in a quotation.
10. Block quotations should be used for quotations that run four lines or longer. The entire block quotation should be indented from the left and the right. Do not use quotation marks to signify block quotations.
11. Dates should follow a month-day-year format (August 13, 1967; March 1992; on June 1). Do not use ordinals (1st, 2nd).
12. Indent new paragraphs. Do not leave extra space between paragraphs.
13. Spell out acronyms the first time they are used. Do not use periods within acronyms (USA, not U.S.A; MA thesis, not M.A. thesis).
Peer reviewers are uniformly asked the following series of questions in preparing their reviews. To maximize the possibility that your submission will be reviewed favourably, ensure that it meets these criteria:
- Is the article an original contribution in its field?
- Is the article capable of attracting diverse and wide-ranging audiences?
- Does the article contribute to scholarship on or of the Left?
- Does the article include an up-to-date review of relevant literature, and highlight its contribution to that body of work?
- Does the article present clear and concise argument(s)?
- Does the article use appropriate theoretical and analytical tools to support its argument(s)?
- Does the article rely on appropriate sources (archival, statistical, other forms of data, etc.) to support its argument(s)?
- Does the article offer well-supported and appropriate conclusions?
- Is the article well written and organized?
