Article Submissions
PNQ is a scholarly journal of Northwest history—the region comprising Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and western Montana. Any topic pertaining to the history of some portion of this region or of the American West is appropriate, but the editor looks especially for something new in the way of scholarship or some new analysis of an old topic. Essays that are strictly anthropological, economic, architectural, or otherwise specialized will not be considered, nor will pieces that focus on current events, but interdisciplinary treatments are welcome, and comparative studies particularly so. There is no minimum or maximum page length for submissions; 25-30 double-spaced pages of text are usual. Documentation must be prepared as endnotes rather than footnotes or bibliography, and it too must be double-spaced. Authors should submit photocopies of possible illustrative materials along with the manuscript; depending upon the subject matter and available space in the issue, up to ten or a dozen photographs, maps, documents, or other visual records of historical relevance may be used, and all materials lent will be returned.
P.O. Box 353587, Seattle, WA 98195-3587
or email pnq@uw.edu.
Every manuscript submitted to PNQ gets an initial reading from the faculty editor, a professor of history at the University of Washington. He then sends it out anonymously to two expert readers for evaluation. The refereeing process can be long; the expert readers take on this unpaid work on their own time, and they usually need a month, or even two, to read, consider, and write their commentaries. When the referees’ reports are in, the managing editor makes his decision to reject the manuscript outright or to guide the author in revising the essay. When the author submits his revised manuscript, it goes back to one or both of the referees for review, and if the evaluations are positive, the managing editor accepts the essay. Scheduling usually occurs within six months; during the course of production, authors will be expected to review copy editing and correct galley proofs. In lieu of pay, they receive copies of the issue in which their work appears.
Prepublication Guidelines
Final revised manuscript should incorporate all emendations and be double-spaced. Documentation must be prepared as endnotes rather than footnotes or bibliography, and it too must be double-spaced. Please supply an electronic file of your manuscript, either as an e-mail attachment or on disk, in addition to the hard copy and be sure to indicate which software you used. Please call or e-mail if these instructions are not clear.
House style for PNQ is based on the Chicago Manual of Style and the American Heritage Dictionary for matters of capitalization, punctuation, etc. House style ensures that all copy takes a consistent form from issue to issue. Please expect your manuscript to be carefully and thoroughly copyedited, both for substance and for style. We work with authors to make sure that every article published in PNQ is written in clear and accurate prose suitable for a varied reading audience.
Endnotes should be nonnarrative and as concise as possible. Trim them to the citations that are necessary to support the text; do not give two or three sources when one would suffice. Each quotation should have a note. Consult a recent back issue of PNQ for form. Remember: the point of the notes is to get interested readers to the material you quoted or used directly rather than to all that you consulted.
All citations, quotations, proper names, figures, and statements of fact should be rechecked for accuracy against the original prior to the beginning of the copyediting process. Do not quote from a secondary source if the original is available.
A contributor’s note of about 50 words should accompany the revised manuscript. This should include mention of your present position, principal interests or research projects, and recent publications.
Authors should submit illustrations along with their work. Photographs and maps are appropriate. Also consider line work such as correspondence; newspapers (mastheads, headlines, cartoons, etc.); magazines (covers or artwork); and campaign leaflets, handbills, and other ephemera, including logos, letterhead, printed slogans, etc., if applicable. Photographs cannot usually be reprinted from a book or newspaper; the quality is too poor. Materials will be returned to the author after publication. Authors are responsible for obtaining permissions and generally for paying use fees.