Information for Authors

The ISAC publications office publishes ISAC-related research, such as final reports of field projects, monographs by ISAC faculty, Festschrifts honoring ISAC faculty, ISAC Museum guides and special exhibition catalogs, and the proceedings of conferences hosted by ISAC. Only rarely can the publications office consider unsolicited manuscripts authored by non-ISAC researchers. ISAC does not publish master’s theses or doctoral dissertations.
 

• Authors should submit their initial manuscript as a single PDF to the ISAC managing editor.
• For a contributed volume (e.g., Festschrift or conference proceedings), all contributors send their manuscripts to the volume editor. The volume editor gathers the contributions and submits them to ISAC as a single PDF.
• At the time of submission, authors / volume editors may suggest potential reviewers, as well as the names of people they do not want to review the manuscript.
• After an initial review, the managing editor forwards the manuscript to the ISAC director for an initial decision (either peer review or desk rejection). If the director decides the manuscript merits possible publication by ISAC, the manuscript is forwarded to the ISAC publications committee, which sends it out for external review. 
• Once peer review is complete, the reviewer’s comments about the manuscript are evaluated by the publications committee, which recommends to the ISAC director that the manuscript be accepted (usually with revisions) or rejected. If the ISAC director accepts the manuscript, the anonymized reviewer’s report is shared with the author, who revises the manuscript for final submission in accordance with the reviewer’s suggestions.
• The author formats the final manuscript for production as described under “Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for Accepted Manuscripts” below and sends all necessary manuscript components (Word documents and image files) to the ISAC managing editor. To ensure proper formatting, authors / volume editors may use the Word “Chapter Template” and “Front Matter Template.”
• The ISAC publications office begins production as soon as its resources and workload permit. The manuscript is edited in Word, with changes tracked, and the author/contributors review and return the edited version.
• The final edited manuscript is typeset in InDesign, and a PDF proof is shared with the author/contributors for approval.
• Upon publication, authors receive (upon request) a secured PDF “offprint” that they are free to distribute. The volume is made available on the ISAC website for free download through the Publications catalog.
• Authors retain copyright of the content of any work published throughout the University of Chicago. However, the University holds the copyright to the edited and formatted (i.e., published) version.
• If you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the ISAC managing editor.
   

• Main text: Microsoft Word. To ensure that the organization of the manuscript’s content is clear (e.g., the level of each section and subsection heading), authors may use the Word “Chapter Template” and “Front Matter Template,” which have preset paragraph styles and easy-to-use instructions.
• Editorial style: Chicago Manual of Style (17th or 18th edition)
  
  Style note: Chicago style prefers the serial comma.
  Example: Hatshepsut, Thutmose, and Tutankhamun.
  Not: Hatshepsut, Thutmose and Tutankhamun.
  
  Style note: Chicago style prefers “that” as restrictive, “which” as nonrestrictive.
  Restrictive: These are the artifacts that we excavated at the site.
  Nonrestrictive: These are the artifacts, which we excavated at the site.
  Not: These are the artifacts which we excavated at the site.
   
• Fonts: Use Unicode fonts (most fonts are Unicode, but if given a choice, use Unicode).
• Figures and tables: Provide a caption for every figure and a title for every table. Figures and tables should be numbered in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Make sure every figure and table is referred to at least once in the text—for example, “Three phases of architecture were found (fig. 4).” Place figure captions and tables immediately after the paragraph in which they are first mentioned, not in the middle of the paragraph.
• References: Authors may use either of the two citation systems described by the Chicago Manual of Style—author-date or author plus short title—but the same system must be used throughout the book (see examples below).
  
  Note: Make sure all sources cited in footnotes, tables, and figures are also included in the bibliography.
   
• Include a list of any abbreviations used, either as part of the front matter or in a separate document.
• Include your work’s title, author name(s), and institutional affiliation(s) exactly as they are to appear in the final publication.
• ISAC Publications observes American (rather than British) spelling, except in quoted or cited material.
• Measurements should adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style and conform with conventions used in the appropriate field. Generally, numerals are used with units of measure, and measurements are abbreviated and set without periods. E.g., “The statue was found 5 m from the door in Area B, whose area was 13.5 ha.”
• Obtaining permissions for long text quotes is the author’s responsibility.

• The resolution of all figures must be adequate for print production; images that are too small will delay or prevent publication.
  • Line art (black and white, no gray): Submit as TIFs; resolution should be 1,200 pixels for every printed inch—thus 7,200 pixels wide for an image that is to be printed 6 inches wide.
  • Grayscale/halftone images (e.g., photographs, shaded drawings): Submit as grayscale TIFs; minimum 300 pixels for every printed inch. Photographs scanned from books should be de-screened.
  • Color images: Submit as CMYK (not RGB) TIFs; minimum 300 pixels for every printed inch. Photographs scanned from books should be de-screened.
  • Vector images created by programs such as Illustrator: Submit as EPS files with fonts embedded.
  • Slides: Scan at 2,400 pixels per inch to ensure they are of printable size.
  • Generally, the higher the resolution, the likelier the image will not pose problems.
• For large transfers, use wetransfer.com, Box, Dropbox, or a similar file-transfer service.
• Foldouts are not permitted, though very large images may be placed on two facing pages or made available as an online supplement.
• Obtaining all necessary permissions for images is the author’s responsibility; failure to do so will delay or prevent publication.

Book:

Grazer, Brian, and Charles Fishman. 2015. A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Edited book:

Byrne, Muriel St. Clare, ed. 1981. The Lisle Letters. 6 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Carson, Clayborne, ed. 2014. The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Vol. 7, To Save the Soul of America, January 1961–August 1962, edited by Tenisha Armstrong. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Chapter or other part of an edited book:

Thoreau, Henry David. 2016. “Walking.” In The Making of the American Essay, edited by John D’Agata, 167–95. Minneapolis: Graywolf.

Translated book:

Lahiri, Jhumpa. 2016. In Other Words. Translated by Ann Goldstein. New York: Knopf.

Thesis or dissertation:

Rutz, Cynthia Lillian. 2013. “King Lear and Its Folktale Analogues.” PhD diss., University of Chicago.

Journal article:

Carranza, Juan Esteban, María Marta Ferreyra, and Ana Maria Gazmuri. 2026. “The Dynamic Market for Short-Cycle Higher Education Programs.” Journal of Human Capital 20: 191–222. https://doi.org/10.1086/739498.

Ejsmond, Wojciech, Ollivier Pierre Rochecouste, Taichi Kuronuma, and Piotr Witkowski. 2021. “Gebelein Archaeological Project in 2019: Northern Necropolis and the Temple Complex.” Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 30, no. 2: 13–28.

Book review:

Kakutani, Michiko. 2016. “Friendship Takes a Path That Diverges.” Review of Swing Time, by Zadie Smith. New York Times, November 7.

Interview:

Stamper, Kory. 2017. “From ‘F-Bomb’ to ‘Photobomb’: How the Dictionary Keeps Up with English.” Interview by Terry Gross. Fresh Air, NPR, April 19. Audio, 35:25. http://www.npr.org/2017/04/19/524618639/from-f-bomb-to-photobomb-how-the-dictionary-keeps-up-with-english.

News or magazine article:

Manjoo, Farhad. 2017. “Snap Makes a Bet on the Cultural Supremacy of the Camera.” New York Times, March 8. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/technology/snap-makes-a-bet-on-the-cultural-supremacy-of-the-camera.html.

Mead, Rebecca. 2017. “The Prophet of Dystopia.” New Yorker, April 17.

Pegoraro, Rob. 2007. “Apple’s iPhone Is Sleek, Smart and Simple.” Washington Post, July 5. LexisNexis Academic.

E-book:

Austen, Jane. 2007. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Penguin Classics. Kindle.

Melville, Herman. 1851. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York: Harper. http://mel.hofstra.edu/moby-dick-the-whale-proofs.html.

Website content:

Bouman, Katie. 2016. “How to Take a Picture of a Black Hole.” Filmed November 2016 at TEDxBeaconStreet, Brookline, MA. Video, 12:51. https://www.ted.com/talks/katie_bouman_what_does_a_black_hole_look_like.

Google. 2017. “Privacy Policy.” Privacy & Terms. Last modified April 17. https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

Yale University. n.d. “About Yale: Yale Facts.” Accessed May 1, 2017. https://www.yale.edu/about-yale/yale-facts.

Social media content:

Chicago Manual of Style. 2015. “Is the world ready for singular they? We thought so back in 1993.” Facebook, April 17. https://www.facebook.com/ChicagoManual/posts/10152906193679151.

Souza, Pete (@petesouza). 2016. “President Obama bids farewell to President Xi of China at the conclusion of the Nuclear Security Summit.” Instagram photo, April 1. https://www.instagram.com/p/BDrmfXTtNCt/.

Author-Date Examples

Author-date (one author):

Byrne 1981. 

Author-date (two authors with page number):

Grazer and Fishman 2015, 26.

Author-date (three authors with page range):

Carranza, Ferreyra, and Gazmuri 2026, 191–93.

Author-date (four or more authors with cited footnote):

Ejsmond et al. 2021, 17n1.

Author-date (with cited figure, plate, or table):

Frankfort 1970, 154–55, fig. 52. 

Jones 2020, pl. 3. 

Johnson 2022, 72, table 1.

Author plus Short Title Examples

Grazer and Fishman, A Curious Mind, 27–28.

Thoreau, “Walking,” 168.

Heidorn, Dorginarti, pl. 68. 

La Porta and Vacca, Armenian Futūḥ Narrative, 47 map 4.