Presentation guidelines for articles and for longer review articles (notes critiques)

Please note that these guidelines are for articles submitted in English. For articles submitted in French, please refer to the advice set out here.

Articles should be around 90,000 characters

Notes critiques should be between 30,000 and 50,000 characters

Submission

The Annales only accept original and previously unpublished work, which can be submitted in French or English as well as Italian, Spanish, or German. All manuscripts are assessed by the editorial board within six months and are also sent to two external specialists for peer review. The board can decide to accept a manuscript as it is or subject to revision. They may also ask for a more substantially modified version that will pass through the evaluation process a second time, or refuse the article directly.

Manuscripts should be sent to the address annales@ehess.fr in a format such as Word or Open Office (and not as a pdf). Maps, graphs, or figures should be submitted as separate files in native, pdf, or eps format, accompanied by titles, captions, and a note of their sources. Authors are asked to specify their institutional affiliation and their nationality.

The text must be double spaced and follow the recommendations set out below and on the site http://annales.ehess.fr/index.php?210. It must not exceed 90,000 characters (including notes and spaces), and footnotes are limited to 100. Citations in foreign or ancient languages must be translated into either French or English, depending on the language of the article, with the original included in a footnote if necessary.

Please note that all articles accepted for publication will be published in both French and English. Authors will be put in contact with our translators and are encouraged to work with our editors to establish high quality academic translations.

To this end and depending on the language of submission, authors of accepted articles will also be asked to furnish the original French or English citations from works first published in either language, or to provide references to canonical translations where they exist. They commit to providing a document indicating these alternative citations and references, as well as any necessary changes to proper nouns, etc., and their preferred translations of specific concepts or terminology used.

Editorial procedure

• Authors of accepted manuscripts will receive an email from the editor with initial recommendations. To help us meet publication deadlines and to prepare the text for the editorial team, authors are asked to review their texts accordingly. Articles submitted in English will be sent out for translation at this stage.
• Authors will receive an email notifying them that editorial work has begun on their text (a process that lasts around six weeks).
• In the two weeks that follow, all authors must provide the personal details needed to draw up the author contract, an abstract (in French and in English), and the translation document described above.
• Authors will receive a file showing our proposed corrections (“fichier.corr”). Please look over this document carefully, as at this stage it is still possible to modify (within reason) the content of the article.
• Authors will receive a final version of the article (“fichier.def”) for validation and a final exchange with the editors.
• The editorial team will collectively read over the proofs of the entire issue and will contact the authors by email if they have any remaining questions.
• Within two months, the journal will be published in print and digital formats.
• Authors will receive a copy of the journal and the offprints of their article (in electronic format or as printed booklets if requested).

Please note that the English edition of the Annales appears one year after the French edition. This approach ensures quality translations, carefully reviewed by our editors and authors, without delaying the publication of the original texts. Authors who have submitted articles in English will be contacted by our Anglophone team once the French edition has been published. The French version of an article remains the definitive version, and we ask for these authors’ help in revising the English manuscript to establish the two parallel texts.

General guidelines for submissions in English (for submissions in French, please see the guidelines set out here). 

• The English edition of the Annales follows the conventions of American English. For questions of style and grammar, please refer to the Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition).
• Please check the spelling of all proper nouns carefully, including the names of authors cited, referring to an authoritative source.
• Please be aware that the conventions for transliterating languages such as Russian, Greek, Arabic, etc. often vary between French and English. The editorial staff may ask authors to review transliterations in both versions of the article, and to consult with Francophone colleagues if necessary.
• Avoid bullet points or numbered paragraphs.
• Avoid beginning a section or the conclusion with a long citation.

Body text

• Articles should be double-spaced, using a classic font (such as Times) in 11- or 12-point characters.
• Paragraphs should be between ten and thirty lines long.
• Please send us your text without formatting
  • Do not use the tab button to indent new paragraphs
  • Do not use bold, underlined, or highlighted text
  • Italics for emphasis should be used sparingly
• If using specific fonts (e.g., for non-Roman scripts) please signal them to the editorial staff, who may ask you to provide a copy.
• If reproducing text in French (or any other language) pay special attention to accents and diacritical marks. This includes the titles of works cited in the notes.
• Centuries should be spelled out and lowercased (e.g., the eighteenth century and not the 18th century). Spans of dates should be written out in full (1914-1918 not 1914-18). Please use CE and BCE rather than AD and BC.
• When referring to individuals or authors, make sure to provide the full name in the first instance. In subsequent mentions the surname will suffice.
• Wherever possible, footnotes should fall at the end of a sentence.
• Please provide a definition of words in foreign or ancient languages, including Latin or Greek.
• Indicate your name and institutional affiliation at the end of the article.

Citations

• All quotations in the body of the article must be translated into the language of the main text (French or English). Once an article is accepted, authors will be asked to provide original versions or canonical translations of quotations in a separate document (see general guidelines above).
• Any quotation at the beginning of an article will be set as an epigraph in roman type. Please avoid opening articles with long quotations.
• A paragraph immediately below a title or subhead cannot open with a block quotation. This can be resolved by adding an introductory sentence.
• In general, all quotations should either be presented by an introductory sentence or integrated into the author’s argument.
• Articles submitted in English should avoid guillemets (« ») in favor of double quotation marks (“ ”), reserving single quotation marks (‘ ’) for quotations within quotations.
• For articles submitted in English, commas and periods always fall inside quotation marks. Colons and semi-colons fall outside quotation marks, as do numbers indicating a footnote.
• Please provide quotations as they appear in the original, including irregular spelling or grammar and potential errors. Any systematic regularization of manuscript or older sources should be indicated in a note.
• All quotations should be accompanied by a precise reference, including the page number on which the text cited appears.
• If a quotation includes italics for emphasis, please indicate whether or not they are in the original source.
• Interventions within quotations should be placed in square brackets ([ ]). There is no need to place square brackets around ellipses (…) indicating missing text.

Maps, tables, and figures

• Please send maps, tables, and figures in separate files, clearly indicating their position in the main body of the text.
• All maps, tables, and figures should be accompanied by a caption providing their source(s) and/or any explanation necessary. Each one should also have a clear, brief title.
• Check all calculations carefully, especially in numerical tables.
• For maps, please provide two versions, one with geographical entities/place names in French, the other in English.
• Provide high-definition digital image files (minimum 300 dpi).
• Check that the details accompanying the images are correct.
• It is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission to reproduce any images that fall under copyright or other restrictions and to furnish copies of these permissions to the journal. Contact the editorial staff for advice if in any doubt.

Titles and headings

• In addition to the main article title, Annales articles may use up to two levels of subheads. List the subheads used throughout the article on the first page, clearly indicating whether they are level 1 or level 2.
• While we encourage the use of level 1 subheads, level 2 subheads should be used sparingly and only when necessary.
• Whenever possible, titles and subheads should fit on one line (in 14-point font). They should never exceed two lines.
• Please regularize the construction of titles and subheads as much as possible.
• A level 1 subhead cannot be followed directly by a level 2 subhead. At least a paragraph of text should separate the two.
• A title or subhead should not be followed directly by a long citation or epigraph.
• If possible, avoid titles and subheads that end with a question mark.
• The introduction and the conclusion do not require subheads.
• Titles must not contain footnotes and should only include quotation marks if absolutely necessary.
• Do not use a period at the end of a title.

Footnotes

• Notes are limited to a maximum of 100 unless agreed in advance with the editorial staff. They should appear as footnotes at the bottom of each page.
• The main function of the notes is to provide bibliographical references. Explanatory text and additional information should be kept to a minimum and integrated into the body of the article wherever possible.
• All references should be integrated into the notes. The layout of the journal does not allow for a bibliography at the end of an article.
• Avoid cf. (confer) in favor of “see,” unless the sense “by way of comparison” is really intended. It is rarely necessary to use “see” alone at the beginning of a note.
• Use a semicolon (;) to separate two or more references given in the same note.
• Both the first and last names of authors, editors, translators, etc., should be given. Avoid spelling the last name entirely in capitals.
• There is no need to specify when a book is part of a collection or a series.
• References to journal articles and chapters in edited volumes should always include the full range of page numbers as well as the page cited.
• When referring to notes, give the page on which the note appears, followed by the number of the note: Ruth MacKay, The Baker Who Pretended to be the King of Portugal (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), 247, n. 48.
• If the work cited has more than three authors or editors, give the name of the first author followed by “et al.” in roman type (rather than et alii): Eloísa Ramírez Vaquero et al., eds., El primer cartulario de los reyes de Navarra. El valor de lo escrito. Le premier cartulaire des rois de Navarre. La valeur de l’écrit (Pamplona: Gobierno de Navarra, 2013).
• Quotations in footnotes:
  • When a note includes a quotation, the source normally follows the final punctuation of the quotation.
  • Quotations in foreign or ancient languages should generally be confined to the notes rather than the main text, where a translation should be used. They are given in roman type and placed within quotation marks. If they contain material that is not included in the body text, they should be accompanied by a translation.
  • Citations in Greek characters should be in roman type without quotation marks.
• Titles of works in French, Latin, and other European languages should be capitalized sentence style (as a general rule, capitalize the first word and proper nouns but please check the original). The punctuation of the original title should be respected (French, for instance, will often use a period rather than a colon between a main title and a subtitle).
• When citing a translated text, use the abbreviation “trans.” and provide the translator’s full name. If the original date of publication is significant, it can be placed in square brackets after the title: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker [1782], trans. Peter France (London: Penguin, 1979).
• Places of publication should be given in their English rather than French forms: London not Londres, Leiden not Leyde, etc.
• If a reference is repeated throughout the article, in certain cases it can be replaced by an acronym after the first mention: Archivio di Stato di Venezia (hereafter “ASVe”); Journal of the Royal United Services Institute (hereafter “JRUSI”); Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France (hereafter “RHGF”). Note that the acronym should be in roman or italic depending on what it represents: the name of a journal is italicized, the name of an archive, even in a foreign language, is not.
• For all other questions concerning the formatting of footnotes, refer to chapter 14 of the Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition).

Sample Citations

Please note that these model citations are for articles submitted in English. Guidelines for articles submitted in French can be found here. Anglophone authors should also consult chapter 14 of the Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition).

Single-author books

• Denys Lombard, Le carrefour javanais. Essai d’histoire globale (Paris: Éditions de l’EHESS, 1990).

Article in a journal

• Fernand Braudel, “Histoire et sciences sociales. La longue durée,” Annales ESC 13, no. 4 (1958): 725-53, here pp. 730-32.
• John F. Doebley et al., “The Origin of Cornbelt Maize,” Economic Botany 42 (1988): 120-31.
• Michel Callon, “Éléments pour une sociologie de la traduction. La domestication des coquilles Saint-Jacques et des marins-pêcheurs dans la baie de Saint-Brieuc,” in “La sociologie des sciences et des techniques,” special issue, L’année sociologique, 3rd ser., 36 (1986): 169-208.

Journal special issue

• Vincent Dubois et al., eds. “Jeux bureaucratiques en régime communiste,” special issue, Sociétés contemporaines 57, no. 1 (2005).
• Hannah-Louise Clark, “Administering Vaccination in Interwar Algeria: Medical Auxiliaries, Smallpox, and the Colonial State in the Communes Mixtes,” in “Between France and Algeria: The Social History of Algerians in the Twentieth Century,” ed. Muriel Cohen and Annick Lacroix, special issue, French Politics, Culture and Society 34, no. 2 (2016): 32-56.

Chapter in an edited volume

• Élisabeth Claverie, “La naissance d’une forme politique : l’affaire du chevalier de la Barre,” in Critique et affaires de blasphème à l’époque des Lumières, ed. Philippe Roussin (Paris: Honoré Champion, 1998), 150-97.
• Amy G. Remensnyder, “The Boundaries of Christendom and Islam: Iberia and the Latin Levant,” in The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity, ed. John Arnold (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 93-113, here p. 99.

Archival collections and manuscripts

In general, the reference should be arranged in the following order (depending on the type of document, not all elements may be necessary):

Location, name of repository, shelf mark/reference number, document title or description, date, folio/page number (please note that this is a departure from the form recommended in the Chicago Manual of Style).

• London, The National Archives (hereafter “TNA”), T1/297, “The Report of the Commissioners and Trustees for Improving Fisheries and Manufactures in Scotland,” January 20, 1738, fols. 51-52r.

If the name of the repository contains the city in which it is located (or the country in the case of national libraries), it is not necessary to repeat this information.

Conference papers

For unpublished lectures or papers, information should be given in the following form:

Speaker’s Name, “Paper Title” (paper given at the conference “Conference Title,” location, date).

• Bonnie Campbell, “Le chiffre comme outil politique” (paper given at the conference “La mesure du développement,” Paris, UNESCO, 2012).

If an informally published online version of the paper exists, include the URL (without the hyperlink) and page number if necessary:

• Bonnie Campbell, “Le chiffre comme outil politique” (paper given at the conference “La mesure du développement,” Paris, UNESCO, 2012), http://www.ieim.uqam.ca/IMG/pdf/B_Campbell_Le_chiffre_comme_outil_politique_0102_2012.pdf, p. 2.

Formally published conference proceedings should be treated like chapters in an edited volume:

• Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, “Villes et campagnes en France au XIII^e siècle,” in Congreso de historia rural. Siglos 15 al 19 (Madrid, Segovie, Tolède, 13-16 novembre 1981) (Madrid: Casa de Velázquez/Universidad Complutense, 1984), 15-34.

Book reviews

• Louis Marin, review of La communication prophétique. Le Dieu caché et sa révélation, by Raphaël Draï (Paris: Fayard, 1990), Annales HSS 47, no. 1 (1992): 115-17.

New editions and reprints

If a previous edition of a work exists, especially if it is much older, give the original date before the publication details of the edition consulted:

• José Martins Pereira De Alencastre, Anais da província de Goiás (1863; Goiânia: Editôra da UFG, 1979), 56.

Numbered or revised editions are indicated following the title:

• Michael T. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record: England 1066-1307, 3rd ed. (Wiley-Blackwell: Chichester, 2013), 11.

Subsequent references to a work already cited

Subsequent references to sources already given in full should be shortened wherever possible (delete the subtitle or use a shortened form that identifies the work and makes sense, do not over-shorten). Take care when applying this rule to texts in foreign and ancient languages.

Author’s surname, Shortened Title, page number (if necessary).

• Crowston, Credit, Fashion, Sex, 317.
• Fabiani, “Pour en finir avec la réalité unilinéaire.”

If the same source is referred to in consecutive notes, the abbreviation ibid. may be used. It should be avoided where it may cause confusion (for instance, if the preceding note contains more than one citation). It should not be used for archival or ancient sources. Unless the reference is to the same page, the page number should be noted.

• Ibid. or Ibid., 4.

Idem. or id. should be avoided. If a note contains references to multiple works by the same author, the surname should be repeated:

• Pierre Bourdieu, “La fabrique de l’habitus économique,” Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 150 (2003): 79-90; Bourdieu, Algérie 60. Structures économiques et structures temporelles (Paris: Éd. de Minuit, 1977), 12.
• Andrew Abbott, “Écologies liées : à propos du système des professions,” in Les professions et leurs sociologies. Modèles théoriques, catégorisations, évolutions, ed. Pierre-Michelle Menger (Paris: Éd. de la MSH, 2003), 29-50; Abbott, “Linked Ecologies: States and Universities as Environments for Professions,” Sociological Theory 23, no. 3 (2005): 245-74.

Multi-volume works

• Dominique Pestre, ed., Histoire des sciences et des savoirs, 3 vols. (Paris: Éd. du Seuil, 2015).

Chapter in a multi-volume work:

• Maurice Agulhon, “La société paysanne et la vie à la campagne,” in Histoire de la France rurale, ed. Georges Duby and Armand Wallon, vol. 3, Apogée et crise de la civilisation paysanne, 1789-1914 (Paris: Éd. du Seuil, 1976), 307-86, here p. 307.

Chapter in an already cited multi-volume work:

• Christophe Bonneuil and Dominique Pestre, “Le siècle des technosciences (depuis 1914),” in Pestre, Histoire des sciences et des savoirs, 3:9-24.

Online materials

References to online materials should take the following form:

Author’s Full Name, “Article Title,” Website/Blog/Online Journal Name, date of publication, DOI/URL.

Please delete any hypertext and if possible use a DOI reference rather than a URL. There is no need to specify the date on which the website was consulted.

• Jean-Édouard Colliard, “Problème de croissance ou problème de lama ? Sur quelques théories bizarres de la croissance de très long terme,” Mafeco, 2007, http://lemercier.ouvaton.org/docannexe.php?id=184.

Articles published in more formal online journals should be treated like journal articles, with the addition of a DOI or URL:

• Pilar Calveiro, “Politique et/ou violence. Une approche de la guérilla des années 1970,” Tracés. Revue de Sciences humaines 14 (2014): 17-42, doi:10.4000/traces.5993.

Theses

Titles of theses, dissertations, and other unpublished texts appear in quotation marks and are not italicized. Otherwise, theses are cited like books, with the kind of thesis, the institution, and the date supplied within parentheses following the title. There is no need to mention the supervisor.

• Fatiha Sifou, “La protestation algérienne contre la domination française. Plaintes et pétitions (1830-1914)” (PhD diss., Université de Provence, 2004).

Please note that unless there is an official English version of the institution’s name, it should be given in the original (Université de Provence, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, but University of Tel Aviv)

Translations

When citing a translated book or long work, use the abbreviation “trans.” and provide the translator’s full name. There is no need to specify either the original language or the language of the translation. If significant, the original date of publication can be placed in square brackets after the title:

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reveries of the Solitary Walker [1782], trans. Peter France (London: Penguin, 1979).
• Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot, On Justification: Economies of Worth [1991], trans. Catherine Porter (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006).

For an article in an edited volume or a journal, it is not usually necessary to give the translator’s name.

• Max Horkheimer, “Un nouveau concept d’idéologie ?” [1930], Théorie critique (Paris: Payot, 1978), 41-63.

Where a canonical published translation of a text in a foreign or ancient language exists, it is not usually necessary to provide a reference to the original. If it is necessary to adjust a direct quotation from a published translation, please add the mention [translation modified] to the footnote.

Working Papers

Working papers should be treated in much the same way as theses, with the following information included:

Author’s Name, “Paper Title” (working paper, number, name of the host or organizer, year), URL.

• Justin Sandefur and Amanda L. Glassman, “The Political Economy of Bad Data: Evidence from African Survey and Administrative Statistics” (working paper, 373, Center for Global Development, 2014), https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/political-economy-bad-data.pdf.