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Manuscript Preparation

Accepted Formats

We accept manuscripts sent in electronic format in a variety of word-processing formats, although we prefer Microsoft Word. When using a less common format, please check with your main contact at Brill if the format is acceptable. Please always send a PDF version with all fonts you have used embedded in the file. For manuscripts with non-western scripts you may be asked to send a hard-copy as well.

We offer a variety of guides for the use of Unicode and special scripts and fonts in your manuscripts. Please see the titles below for an overview of specific guides. You can access the files by clicking here:

  • Arabic
  • Greek
  • Hebrew
  • Coptic
  • Syriac
  • Summero-Akkadian cuneiform
  • Ethiopian
  • Metrical Symbols
  • Transliteration characters
  • Epigraphical and payrological texts
  • Fonts and Unicode

 

General Guidelines for Manuscript Preparation

These guidelines can be used for most books published by Brill. For a number of subjects special guidelines are provided. If in doubt, please contact your main contact at Brill before starting work on your manuscript.

If you have agreed to submit your manuscript as a print-ready PDF, you will be supplied with specific guidelines. The guidelines below are for manuscripts that will be typeset by Brill.

A professional typesetting firm will be composing your manuscript according to our house-style, so your manuscript needs only to have the minimum of formatting when you send it in. Please clearly mark headings, quotations, paragraphs, insertion points for illustrations and/or tables, footnotes or endnotes.

Make sure that paragraphs are clearly distinguishable either by a blank line or an indent.

If you use headers, make sure these are recognizable as such. If you have more than one level, there should be a clear and consistently used distinction between them. Please avoid numerical levels such as 1.1.1.3 for books in the humanities.

For typesetting purposes you could mark the levels with L1, L2, L3, which will be removed at typesetting.

Use footnotes rather than endnotes. Endnotes will be typeset as footnotes. Footnote numbering should restart in every chapter.

Use italics for italics. Underlined text will be typeset as italics.

The use of bold type is discouraged and will be typeset in italics or roman text, unless there is a very clear reason for using bold and it is used sparingly.

Quotation marks: single ‘quotation marks’ are used to distinguish words, concepts or short phrases.

Double quotation marks (“ ”) are used for direct quotations of fewer than 25 words, and run on in the text. Double quotation marks are also used for the titles of articles from journals of reference works.

Larger sections of quoted text should be set off from the running text by a blank line before and after the quoted text, and the text should be indented on the left side.


Citation
Please refer to the information page of the series in which your book will be published to check any specific guidelines.

The general rule is to use the system that is most accepted in your field of research and be consistent throughout the entire manuscript.

Brill accepts a variety of systems that are widely used. When in doubt, consult with your main contact at Brill.

For the humanities, the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is an accepted standard, where as for social sciences the Harvard style, or ‘author date’ is a common standard. A short document with examples is available here. See also Additional Resources clicking here.

Brill also recommendsThe Oxford Manual of Style: 2003 edition, by Robert Ritter, published by Oxford University Press.


Checklist
Please make sure that we receive the following parts of the manuscript as well:

Preliminary Pages “roman pages”:

  • Title page
  • Dedication page (optional)
  • Table of contents
  • List of Illustrations (if applicable)
  • Acknowledgements (optional)
  • Foreword (optional)

Main Text “arabic pages”:

  • Introduction (could be Chapter One)
  • Chapters
  • Bibliography

You are usually asked to compile the index on the basis of the page proofs.  The Production Editor assigned to you with give you information on compiling an index.

 

Illustrations

There are specific guidelines for electronic image files. Please consult an expert if you have trouble supplying these formats yourself.

  • Submit the illustrations as separate electronic file or hard copy. Do not embed illustrations in the text.  
  • Acceptable file types are tiff, jpeg and eps.

  • Color photographs (only after specific arrangements have been made about the use of these in the book) and black and white photographs should be scanned with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch) and at 10 cm by 15 cm. A small photograph cannot be enlarged without significant loss of quality. For this reason images downloaded from the internet are usually unusable.

  • Maps and graphs (line drawings) should be scanned with a minimum resolution of 600 dpi at the size of reproduction.
  • Number the files according to the number of the illustration: i.e. Illustration 1 should be illustration 1 in the List of Illustrations, in the caption with the illustration, in the running text, in the file name, etc.


Placing of illustrations
Mark clearly in the text where each illustration needs to be inserted. This will be the approximate place where the typesetter will insert the illustration as exact placing can only be determined at the time of typesetting. Make sure that the illustrations are clearly numbered and that the same number is used in the text and in the list of illustrations. E.g.


[PLACE ILLUSTRATION 1 HERE]

 

Permissions

Illustrations: It is the author’s responsibility to secure permission to use any approved illustrative materials that is not their own (whether re-drawn or not). In some cases the use of an illustration may be considered to fall under ‘the right of quotation’ but is better to clarify this officially in advance. It is important to realize that illustrations taken from another book are not owned by the publisher of the book. It is important to find out who the actual owner of an illustration is; this is often the artist or photographer, or the library or museum where it is kept.

Texts: There are universally accepted guidelines for the use of quotations from other people’s works, but these are also a bit vague: when in doubt, seek permission from the owner of the rights.

  • For extensive quotations of text; ‘extensive’ is generally taken to mean more than 100 words (even if spread out over more than one quotation). The Copyright Clearance Center is a good place to start and often faster than seeking permission from the publisher.
  • For any quotation from a poem, song, newspaper article or unpublished sources, whether in whole or in part.

It is important to request a wide scope of permission including the rights for electronic use. Your acquisitions editor or assistant editor will be able to help you with the details needed for the request. Always specify the use, e.g. a scholarly monograph with limited print run. Check whether a specific format for acknowledgement is required.

Please see the following document for guidance about the use of materials here.

Make sure that you start clearing permissions as soon as possible, as it often takes much longer than expected.

When you submit your manuscripts, enclose a list of illustrations and copies of the permissions you have received.