General

The Journal of Scotch-Irish Studies is a resource for the publication of scholarly work on topics associated with the Scotch-Irish people, and the Editors seek scholarly material on a variety of matters of Scotch-Irish interest. Please contact the Editors at the Center for Scotch-Irish Studies, Post Office Box 71, Glenolden, PA 19036-0071 or at cntrsis@aol.com before submitting a manuscript or abstract.

Topics of Interest

The Journal seeks fresh material of archival quality on all aspects of Scotch-Irish history, culture, and influence. The Journal of Scotch-Irish Studies is devoted to the encouragement of scholarly studies on the Scotch-Irish people: their history, language, music, material culture, and political and legal philosophy, and their contributions in general to the United States of America. Work on interactive transatlantic influences between Ulster and the USA is also of interest.

The Journal sees Scotch-Irish Studies as a multi-disciplinary area of scholarship, and invites inter-disciplinary papers that transcend academic boundaries. However, it is recognized that much of the material published will be of a traditional historical nature.

Frequency of Publication

We intend to publish an issue of the Journal at least once each year. Papers are subject to peer review, and must conform to standards for academic publication.

Standards and Requirements

Papers submitted should reflect original work based on primary source material or independently generated data. We also welcome papers that survey information from previously published sources to create a new synthesis or insight and provide an original viewpoint.

Ideally, there will be a brief introduction to the topic under discussion, an acknowledgement of relevant literature, a statement of the hypothesis (if relevant), and a presentation of results in the context of the referenced literature. The author should describe any weaknesses in the study and the possible implications in interpreting the conclusions and/or results. It is important that the paper include (if appropriate) suggestions for possible directions of future research on the topic. The exposition must be clear and straightforward.

As a goal, papers should be no more than 5000 words in length. Longer papers may be published if they are of sufficient importance and if the quality would suffer if the text were abridged.

Photographs and Illustrations

Photographs and illustrations will be produced in black and white unless there is a compelling need for color. All artwork should be submitted as high-resolution digital files, saved in eps or tif formats. Please include a hard copy of all images identified with name of file and any caption needed.

Footnotes and Notes

These may be used to make comments that, while interesting and relevant asides, would disrupt the flow if they were contained in the main body of text. References within a footnote will be contained in the general list of references. Superscript numbers at the appropriate point in the text will indicate the presence of footnotes or notes. These will be continuous throughout the paper.

References

The references are to texts, studies, and sources that the author is citing to support his or her thesis. The Journal of Scotch-Irish Studies uses the reference format found in United States social science journals.

In the text, the reference is indicated, in parentheses, by the name of the author and, if appropriate, the page or page numbers. Should there be two or more references by the same author, the date of publication is also needed for identification. For example: (Beard); (Fisher, p663); (Gregg 1972); (Gregg 1974); (Ellis 1992, pp278-297); (Ellis 1994, p3).

Full details of the referenced texts are listed at the end of the paper. The references are arranged in alphabetical order of authors' family names (or of the first author if there are multiple authors for a specific text). The format is: cite the author's or editor's name, followed by the title of the book in italics, the city or country of publication, publisher, and year of publication. If the reference is to a paper or article, the author's name and the title (in plain text within quotation marks) precede the book or journal information. Some examples:

Beard, Charles A., ed, The Journals of William Maclay: United States Senator from Pennsylvania, 1789-1791, New York, NY, Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1965.

Montgomery, Michael, "The Anglicization of Scots in Eighteenth Century Ulster" in G. Ross Roy et al., eds, The Language and Literature of Early Scotland, Studies in Scottish Literature XXVI, Columbia, SC, University of South Carolina, pp50-64, 1992.

Note: The abbreviations ed, eds, p, and pp, for editor, editors, page, and pages, are used without periods, and there is no space between p, pp, and the page number.

Bibliographies, Recommended Further Reading, etc.

Only sources cited in the text should appear in the list of references. Other background material that the author may have consulted, but has not specifically cited, or that he/she believes is relevant to the subject matter of the paper, may be included under the heading of Select Bibliography, or Recommended Further Reading, etc.

Literary Style

The Journal of Scotch-Irish Studies is published in the USA. The language is American English. This implies American spelling and syntax (i.e. a preference for simple declarative sentences, use of the active voice if possible, and avoidance of convoluted sentence construction). The author should review the text to ensure that there is no potential for misinterpretation. The intent is to instruct and to record, not to provide an easy read. The author may assume that the reader of a scholarly journal will have a reasonably high level of education and intelligence. A Journal paper would not, in most cases, be suitable for publication in a newspaper or a magazine.

Editorial Process

Authors submit manuscripts with the understanding that such texts will be subject to peer review, and that the Editors will make any necessary changes. The Editors will work closely with the authors, who will approve the final version.

Computer Software

All abstracts and texts should be submitted on disk or by file attachments to e-mail. Authors should input data using Microsoft Word or Word Perfect. Other applications are not acceptable unless approved by editors before submission. Authors should set their word processing software to English (US) when preparing their text for submission to the Journal.

Terminology

The American term, Scotch-Irish, shall be used when referring to people of Ulster descent in the United States. In some contexts, the term Ulster-American may be an acceptable synonym.

The term Scots-Irish is not a synonym for Scotch-Irish and will not be accepted in our publications. Recently, in some circles, the habit has developed of using this term promiscuously to refer both to Northern Ireland residents and to people of Ulster heritage living in the United States. This is not acceptable.

The terms Ulster people, Ulstermen, and Ulsterwomen may be used to refer to Ulster residents of any prior ethnic origin. The term Ulster-Scot may be used to refer to Ulster folk who specifically identify with a Scottish tradition in Ulster, whether this comes from traceable family links to Scotland or from acculturation. People living in Ulster are not Scotch-Irish since they are not American.

Symposia

The requirements for acceptance of papers for presentation at symposia organized by the Center for Scotch-Irish Studies are similar to those for the Journal. However, it is recognized that not all symposia presentations are intended for publication in a peer review journal and that slightly more relaxed standards may be appropriate.

The Center for Scotch-Irish Studies plans to make the proceedings of symposia it organizes available to attendees and to other interested parties. These will be in the form of loosely bound letter size copies of texts (8.5in. x 11in.) of presentations provided by the authors. Texts made available to the symposium organizers will be assumed camera-ready. It is the author's responsibility to check spelling and grammar before delivery of the text to the organizers. The Center will not carry out the meticulous proofing, general editing, and detailed editing that are performed for Journal publication.