Warring States Papers
Information for Authors

The following notes are for the guidance of prospective contributors to the journal. For more precise suggestions about organization and details, see the other material in the Style section. Before submitting a proposal or a manuscript, please read this page and then inquire via this E-mail link.

General Orientation

We Do Not Publish: Book reviews, surveys of scholarship, abstracts of dissertations, bibliographies, primary archaeological reports, memorial minutes, or histories of the field. We admit their value, but feel that other journals already provide ample space for them. We do not do "theory," and we exclude "postmodern" approaches as incompatible with fruitful historical practice (see Methodology).

Subjects. The journal is not a repository for general Sinology, or even for general Warring States Sinology. Its primary interest is the Warring States centuries and the adjacent Spring and Autumn and Chin/Han periods, including China and the chronologically parallel cultures of India and the Mediterranean. Within that zone, we are interested in the philological clarification of the text sources, and in the historical implications of the texts once they have been philologically clarified. For a brief summary of methodological guidelines as they affect the Warring States period, see the Rules page. Other things being equal, we prefer contributions which advance the construction of an overall chronology for Warring States texts, events, and social developments. The sectional divisions for each volume's Table of Contents are the following. They identify areas of constant interest to the editors (contributions concerning Indian, Greek, Latin, or other texts, as examples of the universality of philological method, are placed at the end of each section, which is otherwise order chronologically by subject):

Tone. As with our Conferences and E-mail conversations, normal expectations of civility will apply. The intended tone of the journal is informal, matter-of-fact, brief, and clear. Criticism of previous results is always in order. Imputations of motive, or other ad hominem arguments, are not accepted.

Ethics. Data or conclusions drawn from the work of others must be properly attributed. The journal will endeavor to assist authors in securing appropriate acknowledgement of articles which it publishes, and in bringing to general notice any violations of this universal scholarly expectation.

Audience. Articles on Chinese subjects are assumed to be addressed to fellow students of Chinese antiquity, but should be reasonably intelligible to colleagues in other areas of ancient history. Familiar Chinese texts need not be identified on first occurrence, and can be mentioned by their abbreviations (see our Texts list). A brief opening statement of the problem to be discussed should suffice; a full history of the problem is not needed. Chinese characters may be included in titles, but will be removed from the version of the title used as the righthand running head (Chinese characters to not italicize well). Characters in text should be added as required, but not gratuitously. To take George Kennedy's example, from his stint as book review editor at JAOS, it should not be necessary to give the characters for "Shr Ji," over and over again, in every article in every volume. Similarly, writers in the Greek Classical field do not continually identify Demosthenes or Pauly-Wissova. There should be a level of minimum presumed familiarity with the field.

Format

Language. We print only articles in English. Translations or summaries of articles originally appearing in another language are of potential interest.

Length. As a first approximation, aim at 4 pages (2000 words). We also welcome 2-page articles (600 to 1000 words). Longer articles are acceptable when justified by brilliance of conception or by the requirements of demonstration (such as an appended long translation or data set), but at 20 pages we have entered the zone where other journals may be a more appropriate venue.

Acknowledgements of grant or similar support, or of guidance received during a thesis project, may be made in an unnumbered first footnote. Dedicatory statements are inappropriate for these short articles.

Appended Discussions. Discussion by others, transcribed from conference tapes or assembled from written or E-mailed comments, may be appended to an article at the discretion of the editors. Authors will have an opportunity to intersperse their replies to those comments.

Responses. We do not engage opinions as such, and thus do not print rejoinders. We do encourage Errata which affect conclusions, whether brought to our attention by readers or authors, will be made publicly available on the cumulative Errata page at this site.

Procedures

Acceptance. The editorial board will judge a paper on the following criteria: (1) Is it clear, cogent, and collegial? (2) Does it acknowledge major previous work on the subject, and sufficiently note major conflicting opinions? (3) Does it make a significant contribution to Warring States (or comparative) philology or history? The last of the three is decisive; we are prepared to work with you on the other two.

Rejection of an article should not be interpreted as a judgement on its quality, but rather its appropriateness to the journal's mission. Compare the editorial statement for Physical Review Letters:

. . . in general the editor will accept only those papers for which there appears to be evidence that a strong majority of interested and competent readers conversant with the field of the paper would consider that the paper is free of detectable error, important, interesting, and, according to their lights, suitable for publication in Physical Review Letters. Note that rejection does not necessarily imply that the editors or their advisors have established that the paper is wrong, unimportant, or uninteresting. Instead, rejection implies that the authors have not established to the satisfaction of this jury that the paper is credible, important, and interesting according to the particular standards of Physical Review Letters.

The mission of Warring States Papers is to clarify the chronology of Warring States (or analogous) texts, to perfect the philological methods which are necessary to their study, and finally, to develop their appropriate use as historical sources.

Copyright and Permissions. Authors should secure any needed permissions for included copyright material, including illustrations, and should submit those permissions with their manuscript. Authors are liable in case of copyright infringement. The journal itself requires first serial and subsequent reprint rights, in order that the volume may be copyrighted for the protection of all contributors. Our permission form specifically cedes to authors all other rights, including publication elsewhere of revised, abridged, or extended treatments of the same subject. We ask only that any such subsequent publications contain a reference to the initial publication in Warring States Papers.

Proof will be made electronically available to authors. We will do our best to incorporate corrections made on proof and promptly returned, or sent via E-mail. We wish however to publish promptly in the common interest, and if you are delayed by circumstances, we will follow the Asian Philosophy policy, which is to correct your proof ourselves, in good faith, and go to press with the result.

Offprints are not economically feasible for short articles. We provide authors with one copy of the volume, and with reproduction masters (PDF) from which multiple copies of their own article may be made as desired.

Where to Send. Your manuscript may be faxed to 413 582-9119, mailed to

Warring States Papers
201C Goodell / 140 Hicks Way
University of Massachusetts
Amherst MA 01003-9272 USA

or sent as an E-mail attachment to the Editors, via the mail link given below.

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23 Jan 2009 / Contact The Editors / Exit to Journal Page