PoLAR Author Submission Guidelines

Political and Legal Anthropology Review features the latest scholarship on politics and law
from an anthropological perspective. Below is a basic checklist to assess if your article is a fit
for PoLAR and to determine if it is ready to send to us for consideration.
  1. The manuscript is based on original research and includes ethnographic evidence.
  2. The manuscript engages relevant literatures in anthropology, including, but not limited to, recent anthropological scholarship in your regional and thematic area of study.
  3. The manuscript advances a clear argument and is supported by evidence.
  4. The manuscript is spell-checked with complete sentences, proper punctuation and the prose is as clear and jargon-free as possible.
  5. The manuscript follows the formatting outlined in the PoLAR Style Guide (see below). This guide is based on the Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS), 16th edition (http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html) which should be reviewed for styles not mentioned in this style guide.
In order to improve your chances for a positive review please consider the following:
  1. Substantively engage work by a diverse and inclusive group of scholars across race and ethnicity, gender expression, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability, national origin, religious background, and institutional affiliation or non-affiliation. Work can be from within and outside the discipline, and in standard or non-standard academic format. We especially encourage foregrounding the work of BIPOC scholars for both theory and content. Mere citations will not suffice to fulfil this requirement; engagement with the work is necessary. Peer reviewers will be asked to evaluate manuscripts according to this criteria.
  2. Engage ethnographic literature within the region of study, and outside the region of study for a broader comparative perspective. We expect authors to do due diligence in engaging scholarship in your theoretical area as well as citing scholars who both work in and are based in the region in which the ethnographic work is conducted. Please be mindful of work that may not be published in English but in the language most prevalent in your region of study. Peer reviewer specialists in the region will be asked to evaluate your manuscript according to this criteria.
  3. Citations are effective when they are relevant to your research questions and arguments. Sometimes these will include concepts and ideas that are currently popular, highly cited, or foundational concepts in the field. Sometimes the best fit for your analysis will come from less frequently cited works. Again, please be mindful of work that may be published in the language most prevalent in your field of study. It is up to an individual author to do due diligence in this regard.
  4. Oftentimes authors feel frustrated that they are asked to increase citations and lead with their own original argument and voice. It can be difficult to balance these two seemingly contradictory demands. Remember that citations are important for establishing your position in an ongoing scholarly conversation. They also give credit to key concepts and ideas that you have used to push your own analysis further. Citations are most effective when you use them to position your research as both building on and extending (or critically engaging) established positions in the field. They are also effective when you use them to support or distinguish your own analysis. At the same time, citations should not overwhelm your own original ethnographic analysis or the clarity of your own original argument. Approach citations as a rich and mutually productive conversation (rather than a laundry list of references or a way to justify the authority of ideas through external references). This will help your original ideas stand out. And it will show how those ideas fit into the broader stakes in the field.
  5. Please avoid jargon to the best of your ability. Clarity of thinking is often best expressed in clarity of writing. If a particular term or concept is helpful in advancing your thinking then you should define it, or, when appropriate cite to it.
  6. Look at work previously published in PoLAR as a guideline for style, sufficient evidence and strong argumentation.
  7. Define key analytic concepts. It is important to be clear and consistent when introducing new terms. Terms of art and analysis are most effective when illustrated with specific kinds of evidence.
  8. Include sufficient context for readers unfamiliar with the ethnographic setting. PoLAR’s readership is wide, and ideally your work will engage readers outside your specific area of expertise. Articles are most effective when they lay the contextual groundwork for your reader to track with your analysis and understand the links among argument and evidence that you are advancing.
  9. Ethnographic context should also include information on your methods and process of field research. This will help readers and reviewers to assess your ethnography and analysis, even when unfamiliar with the particular context.
  10. As with all scholarly writing, be mindful of transitions among paragraphs, sections and key ideas. Creating clear links and building connective tissue among your ideas will increase the effectiveness of your argument dramatically.
  11. We especially welcome manuscripts from scholars not based in North America. We will do our best to work with submitting authors on refining and editing non-Native English prose, however we ask that you follow the guidelines above for spell check, punctuation and clear prose within the best of your ability.

For more detailed guidance in producing publishable manuscripts, we recommend reading Besnier, Niko and Pablo Morales. 2018. “Tell the Story: How to write for American Ethnologist.” American Ethnologist,Vol.45,No.2: 163–172.
https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/amet.12629

This is an open access article. A copy is also available on the PoLAR website
https://polarjournal.org/.

We welcome submissions of manuscripts between 4,000 and 8,000 words in length. All word counts should include notes and references. Manuscripts submitted to PoLAR must not be under consideration by another journal or have been previously published. Manuscripts must include an abstract of 300 words or fewer 5 keywords identifying the central themes of the piece. Prospective authors may submit manuscripts via https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/americananthro-polar. Note that authors who are not members of APLA will be required to pay a non-refundable $20 submission fee. PoLAR does not guarantee a decision within a particular amount of time. All formatting should follow the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition. See below for specific style formatting.

Sample Style Guide
All formatting should follow Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS), 16th edition (http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html), which should be reviewed for
styles not mentioned in this style guide. The examples in the following are from the CMoS.

If any formatting queries arise after an article has been accepted and final rewrites are being made, prior to final submission, please contact the editors.

1. General Formatting:

  • Submit article in Word.
  • Use Times New Roman 12 pt. font for abstract, text, block quotes, endnotes, and references.
  • Use US English spelling.
  • Contractions are allowed in quotes but not in original text.
  • Use the Harvard (serial) comma.
  • Set margins to be 1.5” on all sides.
  • Double-space the entire document, including abstract, text, block quotes, endnotes, and references.
  • Add page numbers to all pages, including on the first page. Place as a footer on the bottom right.
  • Leave one space, not two, between sentences.
  • Left-align all text (abstract, text, block quotes, endnotes, and references). Do not justify text.
  • Do not indent the first sentence of paragraphs. All text should start at the left margin.
  • Insert an extra line return between paragraphs.
  • Use “we,” “us,” and “our” only to refer to coauthors of the article. Do not use in a global (“royal”) way.

2. For Initial and R&R Submissions:

  • Blind initial and R&R submissions. Do not include any identifiers, including name or university on the title page.
  • Citations to the author’s own work should also be blinded (i.e., avoid “in my XYZ article…” but use “in Smith’s XYZ article…”
  • This can be ignored after an article is accepted.

3. For Accepted Articles Only:

  • Author’s name and university name are inserted on the upper-left corner of the first page. Author’s name is in bold, university name is not bolded but is italicized; do not include department.
John Doe
University of Cambridge


4. Title of article is centered, bolded, and title case on the first page.

PoLAR Style Guidelines
             1
February 1, 2016

Title of Article: Subtitle Follows Title


5. Abstract directly follows the title on the first page:

  • Do not title the section.
  • Format with italics.
  • Do not include any citations in the abstract.
  • Foreign terms should be set in roman font to make them distinct.
  • Keep abstract to a 200 word maximum.
  • At the end of the abstract, insert keywords in lowercase, separated by commas, enclosed in square brackets, and set in roman. Do not include “Keywords:” Ex: [asylum, United Kingdom, court system]
  • Use between three and five keywords.

6. Do not begin the main body of the article with an “Introduction” A-level heading: the article begins directly after the abstract.

7. Main-level (A-level) headings should be roman, bold, left aligned, and title case.

A-Level Headings Are Formatted This Way


8. Second-level (B-level) headings should be in italics, left aligned, and title case.

  • Do not use more than two levels of headings (A and B levels).
  • Use at least two B-level headings under any A-level heading.
  • If there’s only one B-level heading under an A-level heading, make it a main-level heading.
Second-Level Headings Appear This Way
Use at Least Two Second-Level Headings under an A-Level Heading

9. Foreign words in the text, unlike in the abstract, are italicized and the English translation is in roman in parentheses at first appearance. Ex: shari’a (Islamic principles). Subsequent uses of the foreign term are not italicized (shari’a).

10. Block quotes:

  • Quotes of 40 words or more should be set as a block quote.
  • Indent all block quotes from the left and right margins.
  • Do not use opening or closing quote marks.
  • Internal quotes within the block quote use double quote marks.
  • Where quotations are being compared or otherwise used as entities in themselves, set them all as block quotations, however short.
  • Place a period at the end of the quote itself, with the citation following in parentheses without a period.

11. In-text quote with page citation: Please format with the year and page citation at the end of the sentence. Ex: As Edward Tufte points out, “A graphical element may carry data information and also perform a design function usually left to non-data-ink” (2001, 139).

12. Tables and Figures: Tables and figures should be first mentioned within the text, either in a sentence or parenthetical phrase.

  • Place “[Insert Figure X/Table X about here]” at the preferred location. Actual placement will depend on layout.
  • Tables should be created in Word.
  • Figures should be in TIF/EPS format with a resolution of at least 300 dpi for photographs and 600 dpi for line drawings.
  • Tables and figures should be submitted as individual documents.

13. Notes (and Endnotes section):

  • Insert “Notes” heading in bold and centered at the end of the text.
  • Use endnotes, not footnotes.
  • Insert endnotes using the Insert function.
  • Acknowledgements (if used) and all endnotes appear under the Notes section.
  • Insert acknowledgments first, without an endnote number or symbol.
  • Any acknowledgement is immediately followed by the endnotes.
  • Using the Insert endnote function will place the endnotes at the end of the article. However, they should appear in the Notes section.
  • After the article is written and ready for submission, the endnotes can be moved to the correct location. To move the endnotes from the end of the article, insert a section break at the end of the document and change the endnote setting to “end of section” instead of “end of document.”
  • To insert the section break: Use Insert>Break>Section Break (Next Page).
  • Insert the Section Break after the main text of the document, not at the end of the endnotes.
  • To set “end of section”:
    • WinWord 2002 and later versions: Insert>Reference>Footnote. Select the radio button for “Endnotes”; a dropdown list box will appear with two choices: “End of document” and “End of section.” Select “End of section.” If needed, change the setting to restart at each section, instead of continuous numbering.
    • MacWord and WinWord up to Word 2000: Insert>Footnote, click the radio button for Endnotes, click on Options, change the setting from “End of document” to “End of section,” click OK to exit Options, click Close to save the setting change but not insert another note. If you accidentally click OK and insert another note, Control-Z (Mac: Command-Z) will Undo the note insertion but not the setting change.
  • For online instructions, see http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/FootnoteFAQContent.htm#TextAfterNotes

14. Citations

  • Place in alpha order, not year order. Multiple cites are separated by a semicolon, not a comma. Do not insert a comma between the last name and year. Ex: (Armstrong and Malacinski 1989; Beigl 1989; Pickett and White 1985).
  • In citations and references with more than one author, spell out “and”; do not use an ampersand.
  • Citations with page numbers are formatted with a space between the comma and page number. Ex. (Smith 1963, 6).
  • Page ranges in citations (and references) are separated by an en-dash, not a hyphen. To find the en-dash, go to the Insert menu, select Symbol and then Advanced Symbol from the pull-down menu; choose “en-dash” from the list, hit Close.
  • Elide page numbers. Ex: (Smith 1963, 417–18). For numbers less than one hundred, use all numbers. Ex: (Smith 1963, 72–73) or (Smith 1963, 97–117).

15. References:

  • Insert section titled References Cited (title case, bolded, and centered). This section immediately follows the “Notes” section.
  • Note order of names (of publications by multiple authors), year placement capitalization, format of title, and indent of second and following lines.
  • Single Author (shown with book example):
    • Pollan, Michael. 2006. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin.
  • Up to Three Authors (shown with partial book example):
    • Heatherton, Joyce, James Fitzgilroy, and Jackson Hsu. 2008. Meteors and Mudslides: A Trip through
  • Four or More Authors: Include all the authors in the reference list entry; word order and punctuation are the same as for two or three authors. In the text, however, cite only the last name of the first-listed author, followed by et al. (Barnes et al. 2008, 118–19). Et al. is not italicized.
  • Editor (shown with book example):
    • Greenberg, Joel, ed. 2008. Of Prairie, Woods, and Water: Two Centuries of Chicago Nature Writing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Author plus editor or translator:
    • García Márquez, Gabriel. 1988. Love in the Time of Cholera. Translated by Edith Grossman. London: Cape.
  • Book, reprint: Note use of parentheses or square brackets in reference and in citation formatting.
    • Darwin, Charles. (1859) 1964. On the Origin of Species. Facsimile of the first edition, with an introduction by Ernest Mayr. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
    • Citation is: (Darwin [1859] 1964)
  • Chapter in book (must include a page range):
    • Gould, Glenn. 1984. “Streisand as Schwarzkopf.” In The Glenn Gould Reader, edited by Tim Page, 308–11. New York: Vintage.
  • Journal. Note use of quote marks around title, use of italics for journal name; format of volume, issue, and page range.
    • Blair, Walter. 1977. “Americanized Comic Braggarts.” Critical Inquiry 4 (2): 331–49.
  • Journal with issue number only (no volume number), use “no.”:
    • Meyerovitch, Eva. 1959. “The Gnostic Manuscripts of Upper Egypt.” Diogenes, no. 25, 84–117.
  • Journal with doi:
    • Inclán, María de la Luz. 2008. “From the ¡Ya Basta! to the Caracoles: Zapatista Mobilization under Transitional Conditions.” American Journal of Sociology 113 (5): 1316–50. doi:10.1086/525508.
  • Journal with URL:

Do not insert access dates in references with electronic sources unless no date of publication or revision can be determined from the source. For such undated sources—or for any source that seems likely to change without notice—authors are encouraged, as an additional safeguard, to archive dated copies, either as hard copy or in electronic form.

  • Foreign titles:
  • The English translation follows the original language title and is enclosed in brackets, without italics or quotation marks.
  • Capitalize the first word of a title or subtitle and any word that would be capitalized in the original language title.
  • For publication information, use commonly used English names for foreign cities: Ex. Munich (not München).
  • Capitalize the English translation sentence-style.
    • Ex: Pirumova, Nataliia Mikhailovna. 1977. Zemskoe liberal’noe dvizhenie: Sotsial’nye korni i evoliutsiia do nachala XX veka [The zemstvo liberal movement: Its social roots and evolution to the beginning of the twentieth century]. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo “Nauka.”
  • Double check the spelling of names and publication year: Ex: “Smith” in the citation but “Smithe” in the reference. Also make sure that the publication year matches. Ex: Smith 1999 in citation but Smith 1998 in the reference.
  • Double check that all citations are included in the references and all references are used as citations.
  • Unpublished interviews and personal communications: Do not include in the reference list. In a parenthetical citation, the terms personal communication (or pers. comm.), unpublished data, and the like may be used after the name(s) of the person(s) concerned, following a comma. Ex: (Julie Cantor, pers. comm.)
  • If an original source is unavailable, and “quoted in” must be resorted to, mention the original author and date in the text, and cite the secondary source in the reference list entry. The text citation would include the words “quoted in.” Ex. In Louis Zukofsky’s “Sincerity and Objectification,” from the February 1931 issue of Poetry magazine (quoted in Costello 1981) . . .Reference would be: Costello, Bonnie. 1981. Marianne Moore: Imaginary Possessions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

16. Italics:

  • Do not italicize commonly used Latin words and abbreviations: Ex: (ad hoc, et al.)
  • Do not use italics with i.e. (“that is”) or e.g. (“for example”).
  • Insert a comma after the second period. (Ex: i.e.,) Confine usage to parentheses or notes.

17. Numbers:

  • Spell out one through one hundred, as well as certain round multiples of those numbers.
  • Use digits for numbers 101 and above (250-page book).
  • Use number with percent and spell out percent (50 percent). Do not repeat the word percent with a range: With 90–95 percent of the work complete…
  • Use numbers with ordinals (103rd place); format the letters that follow the ordinal without superscript.
  • Plural numbers do not use apostrophes:
    • Jazz forms that were developed in the 1920s became popular in the 1930s.
    • Among the scores were two 240s and three 238s.
  • Whole numbers using hundred, thousand, hundred thousand, million, and billion are usually spelled out.
    • A millennium is a period of one thousand years.
    • The population of our city is more than two hundred thousand.
    • Some forty-seven thousand persons attended the fair.
    • The city had grown from three million in 1960 to fourteen million in 1990.
  • Spell out simple fractions:
    • She has read three-fourths of the book.
  • Where many numbers occur within a paragraph or a series of paragraphs, maintain consistency in the immediate context. If using numerals for one of the numbers in a given category, use them for all in that category. In the same sentence or paragraph, however, items in one category may be given as numerals and items in another spelled out
    • A mixture of buildings—one of 103 stories, five of more than 50, and a dozen of only 3 or 4—has been suggested for the area.
  • To express fractional quantities in the millions or more, use a mixture of numerals and spelled-out numbers. In the second example, the number fourteen is expressed as a numeral for the sake of consistency.
    • By the end of the fourteenth century, the population of Britain had probably reached 2.3 million.
    •  According to some scientists, the universe is between 13.5 and 14 billion years old.

18. Spelling and Punctuation:
adverbial phrases (use of ly) (no hyphen): largely irrelevant policy
age terms: three-year-old child, but three years old

African American (no hyphen)
Anglo-American (with hyphen)
black (not capitalized)
century, spell out number: twenty-first century
compass points: northeast, southwest, east-northeast
decision maker, decision-making body
e-mail (with hyphen)
foreign terms: a priori agreement (italicized)
fractions, compound: a half hour, a half-hour session
fractions, simple: one-half
health care (two words)
nongovernment organization (NGO): spell out at its first occurrence
online (no hyphen)
on-site (with hyphen)
policymaker, policymaking
toward (not towards)
United States (noun) and US (adjective; no periods)
website (one word)
Web page (two words) white
(not capitalized)

Prefixes:
Co: coauthor and coworker but co-op and co-opt
Macro: use without hyphen; macroeconomics
Mid: midcentury but mid-1990s and mid-twentieth century
Non: nonevent, nonnegotiable
Post: postdoctoral, posttraumatic but post-Vietnam
Pre: premodern, prewar but pre-Columbian
Re: reunify but note difference between recover and re-cover; recreation and re-creation
Socio: use without hyphen; socioeconomic
Un: unfunded but un-English

Copyright & Licensing
Please refer to the AAA's author rights and sharing guidelines for information on copyright and licensing for your article, including Open Access.

Wiley’s Author Name Change Policy
In cases where authors wish to change their name following publication, Wiley will update and republish the paper and redeliver the updated metadata to indexing services. Our editorial and production teams will use discretion in recognizing that name changes may be of a sensitive and private nature for various reasons including (but not limited to) alignment with gender identity, or as a result of marriage, divorce, or religious conversion. Accordingly, to protect the author’s privacy, we will not publish a correction notice to the paper, and we will not notify co-authors of the change. Authors should contact the journal’s Editorial Office with their name change request.