Submissions

Author Guidelines

In general, Verba Vitae employs The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), 17th Edition, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2017 as the house style. Note especially the following directives.

 

Please prepare all manuscript files with the article components in the following order:

EITHER for Articles or Editorials:

• Title of Article: Sub-title of Article.
• Article author name [without any degrees/titles here].

OR for Book Reviews:
The first item provided should be the bibliographic entry for the book with these items in the following order and using this punctuation/capitalization:

• Book author first name middle initial last name [as provided on book], Title of the Book: Sub-title of the Book (City, State Abbreviation: Publisher Name, most recent year of publication), total # of pages in book + any front matter pages in Roman numerals. Price.
• “Reviewed by” and reviewer’s/author’s name [without any degrees/titles here].

THEN, for both:

• Text body paragraphs of the article/editorial/review
• Sub-titles or section titles interspersed between body paragraphs as appropriate/needed, whether specific words/phrases or section numbers in either Arabic or Roman numerals.
• At end of article/editorial/review, brief author biography in 1-3 sentences, beginning with author’s/reviewer’s name [include here any degrees/titles, perhaps prominent publications and/or other credentials].
• The sub-title Notes and then the endnotes with their corresponding superscripted numbers in text.

 

Title

Verba Vitae prefers succinct titles. Avoid the use of double titles containing a colon.

1. Supplemental information about the intent of the article will catch the reader’s eye if it is incorporated into the first paragraph. 
2. Avoid using an asterisk in the title. Any necessary bibliographic notice or credit should be included as an initial unnumbered endnote.

Text

Avoid the suggestion of oral presentation. For example, avoid the use of first person and the use of contractions.

Capitalization.

• Do not use capitalization for the sake of emphasis.
• Use capitals in reference the Bible and books of the Bible. For example, Scripture, Gospel according to St. Mark (however, use lower case, gospel, in reference to the message of Christ.
• Use capitals in reference to institutional bodies, such as Institute of Lutheran Theology and Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

Italics.

• The textual citation of published works should be in italics: e.g., The Book of Concord. However, citation of confessional symbols should appear in Roman type: e.g., the Small Catechism.
• Single words and short phrases in languages other than English will be italicized. Do not set them off in quotation marks.
• Books of the Bible should be capitalized but NOT italicized.

Quotations.

• Less than five typewritten lines may be set off in quotation marks; more than five lines should appear as a block quotation, indented, and without quotation marks.
• Use quotation marks to identify titles of essays cited in the text; use italics for titles of books and other complete publications not otherwise noted.

Scholarly abbreviations.

• While the use of scholarly abbreviations is acceptable in parentheses and end notes, they should not be used in the text. For example, in place of “i.e.,” use “that is”; in place of “e.g.,” use “for example”; in place of “etc.,” use “and so forth.”

Diacritics.

• In spelling German ä, ö, and ü diacritics should be used, not ae, oe, ue.
• Diacritics should always be employed where appropriate, particularly in the citation of languages other than English.
• Care should be taken in the citation of Greek and Hebrew. Authors should use the Greek and Hebrew fonts available from the Society of Biblical Literature.

Spelling.

• Use “-ize” endings when given as an alternative to “–ise.”
• Use American form, not British; for example, savior, not saviour.

Dates and Numbers.

• 1990s; not 1990’s.
• Sixteenth century; not 16th century (at the beginning of a sentence).
• July 1994; not July, 1994.
• Sixty–seven; not 67; but use numerals for numbers over one hundred.

Acronyms.

• Avoid the use of acronyms. Cite the referent fully in the first usage. After that you may use the acronym.

Endnotes

In the text, references to the endnote numbers should appear in superscript.

The first citation of a work in the endnotes should include the complete bibliographical data—Author, Title, volume (City of Publication: Publisher, date of publication), page numbers.

For example:

• Luthers Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe, 57 vols. Eds.J.F.K. Knaake et al. (Weimar: Böhlau, 1883ff.) 2:45.6-10. (Hereafter cited as WA.)
• Luther's Works, American Edition, 55 vols. Eds. Pelikan and Lehmann (St Louis and Philadelphia: Concordia and fortress, 1955ff.) 2:45. (Hereafter cited as LW.)
• Corpus Reformatorum, 28 vols. Eds. C.G. Bretschneider et al. (Brunsvigae and Halis Saxorum: C.A. Schwetschke et Filium, 1834-60) 3:75-76. (Hereafter cited as CR.)

Submissions

Manuscripts should be submitted directly through the online submission procedure.

All manuscripts for publication are reviewed by two scholarly peers in the area of the subject matter.

Books for Review

Submit books for review to the Book Review Editor:

• Rev. Douglas Morton, M.Div.
• dmorton@ilt.edu

 

Additional Helpful File Preparations

• All submissions should include an abstract and any references or notes as part of the actual file text.
• The manuscript should be prepared textually and bibliographically according to published author guidelines.
• The manuscript must be considered fully completed by the author/editor upon submission for production.
• The spelling of any/all proper names or special terms should be checked for consistency and standardization.
• All/any endnotes should be checked for numerical consistency with all superscripted numbers in the text.
• All text (including titles, sub-titles, endnotes) should be set in 12 pt Times New Roman font.
• All text should be single spaced and contain no additional spacing either before or after any paragraph.
• Do not include any page formatting. All text should be set to left justified only, regardless of usage for title, sub-title or body text. Lengthy indented quotations of more than 4 lines may/should be identified and broken into a separate paragraph of text.
• Italics are not typically used on superscripted endnote numbers when with foreign words, titles, emphasis.
• Do not use a tab to indent new paragraphs at all.
• Do not use any column or page breaks at all.
• Do not include any empty or additional paragraph breaks or space (hard returns) between paragraphs of text. (In other words, do not place any extra spaces between paragraphs). Remove any/all extra/additional spaces and paragraph breaks from the entire manuscript file.
• Remove any/all other tabs (unless used for special formatting of a chart or list necessary with article [please identify accordingly and also provide a reference to original manuscript for production layout comparison]).
• Do not use any stylistic formatting for font or paragraph appearance style and/or size (other than any foreign language font faces as needed). All formatting production will conform to the publication’s editorial style. Please communicate any questions or specific needs/requirements for the article at the time of submission.
• Nota bene: All endnotes should also be copied and pasted into the file itself at the end of the article, after the author biography. Please leave all endnotes remaining in the automated notes program as well.

Questions?

Please contact: Martin A. Christiansen / mchristiansen23@ilt.edu