Author Guidelines

These are the guidelines and instructions for authors interested in submitting an article to Provenance: The Journal of Public Record Office Victoria. Further information about the journal and its aims and scope can be found on the About Provenance webpage. Provenance publishes both peer-reviewed scholarly articles and more informal general-interest articles.

 

1. GENERAL

1.1 Articles submitted for the refereed section of the journal need to be written in a scholarly style with a clear argument, using appropriate conventions of citation and evidence, addressing a topic of current debate. Refereed articles will be formally reviewed by anonymous referees with relevant expertise. Two referees are appointed for each article by the Editor in consultation with the Provenance Editorial Board (for further details see point 5 below).

Refereed articles should be between 3,000 and 6,000 words. References must be supplied as endnotes rather than footnotes and should be sized to comprise no more than 10% of the size of the article and be devoted to citation of sources only. Within text, references to endnotes should be marked by superscript Arabic numerals.

1.2 All other articles may be considered for inclusion in the forum section. Articles in this section generally do not require the kind of extended analysis or argumentation expected of refereed articles. Articles submitted for this section of the journal will be assessed for publication by the Provenance Editorial Board (for further details see point 6 below). Forum submissions should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words.

1.3 When submitting articles, authors must clearly state whether they intend their article to be considered for the refereed section (see point 5 below) or forum section (see point 6 below). Authors who are in doubt about this distinction are encouraged to contact the Editor prior to submitting a contribution to the journal.

1.4 Subject to agreement with the Editor, longer or shorter articles may be accepted. In addition to articles, authors need to submit an abstract of up to 500 words and a current biographical note. An abstract is a brief summary of an article which enables the reader to quickly ascertain the paper’s purpose. The biographical note should include contact details such as a current email address to enable journal readers to contact the authors.

1.5 No payment is available or will be made for articles submitted for publication in Provenance. Any costs incurred by authors in the preparation of articles for submission or re-submission for publication in Provenance are the responsibility of authors.

1.6 To be eligible for publication in Provenance, articles should be based on research of PROV records and/or the records of another archival collection. Any subject or any matter derived from or expanded upon by the use of PROV or other archival collections will be considered. Articles that explore the administrative history of the state and its government agencies and administrators are also welcome. The aim is that all articles should expand our knowledge and understanding of PROV’s archival collection, thus making the holdings more accessible, and add to our understanding of the history and cultural heritage of Victoria as seen from a variety of perspectives.

1.7 Provenance aims to publish the work of research degree students, early career academics and passionate non-academics.

1.8 The journal will not accept articles that have been previously published or are currently being considered for publication in other journals. However, once published in Provenance, authors will have the right to publish their articles elsewhere subject to acknowledgment of prior publication in Provenance.

 

2. SUBMISSION OF ARTICLES

2.1 All articles should be submitted electronically. Each article submitted must include the following components in the order shown. Ideally, each of these should be submitted as separate electronic files:

• The author’s biographical details, including a contact email address (up to 250 words)
• An abstract summarising the purpose of the article (up to 500 words)
• The article itself with all references and sources included as endnotes.

Provenance will be compiled initially using Microsoft Word. Articles can be accepted in any compatible format but by preference the article should be saved as a Word document (.doc) and should be named using the name of the submitting author as the primary means of identification.

For example, if Robert John Citizen submitted an article the file names would be:

• CitizenRJ-Biography.doc
• CitizenRJ-Abstract.doc
• CitizenRJ-Article.doc

All files should be submitted electronically, by preference as attachments to an email message addressed to provenance@prov.vic.gov.au. Please ensure that the subject line of the email header includes the words Provenance submission.

2.2 If authors wish to include still images, figures or other non-text material each element should be sent as an additional, separate file. Images and drawings should be sent separately using the following file formats:

• gif (GIF) format for line drawings or figures that contain large quantities of same­colour background;
• photographs should be in .jpg (JPEG) format.

Each element, regardless of its type, is to receive a file name in the following format:

• [surname] [initials]-Fnn.xxx

‘F’ stands for ‘figure’, nn is the numerical reference of the file in order of its appearance in the text, and xxx is the file type. For example, in R J Citizen’s paper, which contained two photographs and a table as a line drawing, file names might be:

• CitizenRJ-F01.jpg
• CitizenRJ-F02.jpg
• CitizenRJ-F03.gif

Within the text of the article the location of images should be shown by using the markers [Insert CitizenRJ-F01.jpg here], [Insert CitizenRJ-F02.jpg here] etc that reflect the sequential appearance of the images.

Note the use of square brackets and bold formatting to assist the identification of the markers. These markers should appear on their own line.

Directly beneath the marker, a caption must appear for each image explaining the image or its purpose in the article, the collection from which it was sourced, and any other acknowledgements.

Please do not embed image files within Word documents. Image files must be submitted separately as GIF or JPEG files only.

 

3. STYLE AND LAYOUT

The Macquarie Dictionary should be used for spelling and the Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers, 6th edition, published by John Wiley & Sons should be used in determining textual style matters.

Some particular matters of style to be noted are:

• Please use endnotes for all bibliographical information – the documentary-note system outlined in the Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers, 6th edition, should be followed when preparing references;
• Citation of public records from the PROV collection should be consistent with guidelines detailed in How to Cite Public Records which can be accessed online via the PROV website;
• Citation of material sourced from other institutions must be cited in accordance with the requirements of those institutions;
• Titles of articles should be concise and subtitles are encouraged – the Editor reserves the right to alter titles in consultation with authors;
• The documents submitted should not include headers or footers, and authors’ names should not appear except when being used in references or in the author’s biographical file;
• Title font should be 16 point Arial, left aligned;
• Text font should be 11 point Arial, left aligned, double-spaced. Paragraphs should be separated with a single line space, although no spacing should separate a heading from the sentence that follows;
• Main headings and sub-headings should be 12 point Arial bold and bold italic respectively;
• Short quotations within text should be indicated by use of single quotation marks. Use ‘ (the apostrophe on most keyboards) rather than ` to open and close quotations, and use double quote marks only for quotes within quotes;
• Substantial quotations should be set separately, with right and left indentation of 1 cm and be single-spaced;
• Always preserve spelling, punctuation and grammar of original information being quoted and use as appropriate in square brackets [sic] to indicate that you are citing the original;
• Abbreviations and acronyms should be expanded on first use to introduce readers to the word regardless of how familiar you consider it to be.
   

4. PRODUCTION CYCLE

Provenance is published once annually. The following time frames are indicative of its annual production cycle:

• late April – articles submitted by authors for consideration by the Editorial Board
• by late June – articles refereed and comments returned to authors
• by late July – revised articles resubmitted by authors
• August – copyediting of final articles
• September – online layout
• October – proofreading and PDF proofs created
• November – online publication

 

5. REFEREED ARTICLES – PEER REVIEW SECTION

In order to protect and preserve the privacy of authors and referees of articles submitted for peer review, and to ensure that acceptance or rejection of articles for publication is based purely on merit, there will be no direct communication between authors and referees, and no information identifying authors to referees, and vice versa, will be exchanged. Communications are to the Editor who in turn will communicate with authors and referees.

The Editor will appoint two referees for each article that will be considered for publication in Provenance. Articles will be returned to authors with a copy of both referee reports, which will include one of the following recommendations:

• Accept
• Accept with minor editing
• Accept with revision
• Revise and resubmit
• Reject

The Editor may reject articles for a number of reasons including:

• The article does not fit the scope of Provenance
• The article does not explore, enhance or illuminate the subject significantly
• The author is unwilling to revise an article on the advice of referees
• The Editorial Board considers there may be legal risks including the possibility of defamation or plagiarism. 
   

6. FORUM ARTICLES – EDITORIAL BOARD REVIEW SECTION

The Editor in consultation with the Editorial Board will review all submissions for the Forum section of the journal. Recommendations for publishing (accept, accept with minor editing, revise and resubmit, reject) and reasons for rejecting articles will be the same as for the peer review process.

 

7. COPYRIGHT

The authors who contribute to Provenance must undertake to clear any copyright for material and images in their articles before their articles are published. It is the responsibility of the author to supply copies of images or other material that will be published in the article.

Copyright in each article remains with the author of the relevant article. Authors have the right to publish their articles elsewhere subject to acknowledgment of prior publication in Provenance.

Users of the Provenance website may have rights to reproduce material from this site under provisions of the Commonwealth of Australia’s Copyright Act 1968. In addition to any such rights, unless there is a statement to the contrary, the author of each article has given permission for physical or electronic copies of the text and graphics in that article to be made for classroom or research use, provided:

• Copies are distributed at or below cost;
• The author and Provenance are attributed on each copy;
• Notice of relevant copyright ownership is attached to each copy; and
• The Editor, Provenance, is notified of the use within one calendar month of use.