Publish With Us

The E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Trust seeks to promote the study and advancement of research related to the history, literature, philosophy and religion of the Turks, Persians and Arabs where the pre-modern period (i.e. before 1918) is concerned, and welcomes book proposals related to such topics. The Trust has its base in Cambridge; its books are produced by Oxbow Books (Oxford).

Publications contact: Clare Litt, Publishing Director, Oxbow Books (clare@oxbowbooks.com)

Selected Titles:

1) Submissions

Submitting a book proposal

A book proposal should contain a detailed statement of purpose explaining the aims and significance of the work; an outline of the contents including an abstract of each chapter, and in the case of an edited volume, the names and affiliations of the contributors; and a sample chapter. The proposal must contain an indication of the length of the book (the word count) and the number of illustrations, maps and tables.

The Trustees will decide on the basis of the submitted proposal either to reject it or to take it further. If the proposal is deemed to be potentially of scholarly value and to be within the remit of the Trust, the author (or, in the case of an edited volume, the main editor) will be invited to submit the complete manuscript.

Submitting a manuscript

A manuscript submitted to the Gibb Memorial Trust will be peer-reviewed by at least two specialist readers; these may be appointed by the Trustees from among themselves or chosen as external assessors. These readers will report to the Trustees and recommend acceptance, or revision, or rejection. The Trustees will make a decision on the basis of the recommendations. If re-submission after revision is recommended, the author should be given a detailed list of required changes, additions, deletions, and corrections.

The manuscript must be submitted both as hard copy and electronically, in MS Word as well as pdf format, on a CD-ROM or DVD. Oxbow should not be sent manuscripts as email attachments.

Once the manuscript has been accepted for publication, it must be submitted, if needed after the required revision, in properly edited condition. The Trust does not provide copy-editing and therefore all copy-editing should be completed before the final submission of the manuscript. Oxbow Books will check for consistency of style and punctuation, but will not read the text for spelling mistakes, language or make suggestions for changes to the text.

Authors are encouraged to submit camera-ready copy where possible, which reduces production costs and speeds up the production process. Detailed guidelines on the process of submitting camera-ready copy are available from Oxbow Books, as is a page template. The author will normally be required to produce at least one sample chapter for checking before being advised to proceed with the rest of the book. Whether or not the manuscript will be submitted camera-ready, Oxbow Books may be consulted for technical advice at any stage prior to submitting the final manuscript.

It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that all copyright permissions have been obtained. The Gibb Memorial Trust does not expect to pay copyright or reproduction fees. The copyright for illustrations, where necessary, should be cited either in the captions or in the acknowledgments section at the beginning.

Standard production procedure

1. The Gibb Memorial Trust agrees to publish a title
2. The manuscript is submitted by author/editor
3. A contract is provided to the author
4. The manuscript comes to Oxbow Books
5. The manuscript is allocated to a typesetter
6. Oxbow produces printing quotes
7. The Typesetter works on producing first proofs
8. First proofs are sent to the author/editor for approval and/or corrections
9. Second proofs: when first proofs received back from author, any corrections/changes suggested by author are made to produce second proofs
10. Second proofs are sent to the author/editor for final approval. Minimal corrections are requested at this stage. If the volume has an index, it is done at this stage
11. When second proofs are returned the typescript is finalized at Oxbow Books
12. The cover is produced (NB this could be at an earlier stage in process)
13. The finished files for text and cover go to the printers
14. The finished book arrives 4–6 weeks later

The overall length of this process depends on the complexity of the project and the amount of time authors take to return proofs, but the standard amount of time for the production to take for a straightforward title is 6–8 months.

Reprints (from camera ready copy)

A. Copy of original needed
B. New prelim pages/and or corrections/updates
C. Camera ready copy prepared
D. To printer

Reprints take about 6 weeks at the printers.

2) Style Guidelines

Authors should ensure that they adopt a consistent style throughout the manuscript and that the spelling is consistently British. Gibb books often follow The Chicago Manual of Style for references and bibliographies. However, in recognition of the fact that the “author-date” system of reference is suitable to some disciplines, especially social sciences, whereas the “traditional” Humanities system suits other disciplines, the Gibb Memorial Trust does not want to impose a standard style but leaves it to the author or editor to select the system that is most appropriate to the book and to make the volume internally consistent.

It is recommended that the Gibb Memorial Trust should be consulted about the adopted system before submission of the manuscript.

In general, publishers seem to prefer endnotes to footnotes, while authors and editors may prefer footnotes. The Gibb Memorial Trust leaves the choice to the author or editor; a profusion of lengthy footnotes is to be avoided.

It is normally expected that the book will contain an index, or several indexes, to be made by the author or the editor using the second set of proofs.

Non-Latin script and transliteration

Longer passages of Arabic, Persian, Turkish or other languages in non-Latin script should be given in the original script, in an acceptable font. Shorter passages, phrases, or single words, when occurring in the middle of an English text, should preferably be given in transliteration, unless there are compelling reasons to give the original. The transliteration must be scholarly and consistent, preferably that used by the third edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam. The choice of a transliteration system may depend on the subject; in linguistic studies, for instance, one may prefer the system that uses ḏ, ǧ, ġ, ḫ, š, ṯ, instead of dh, j, gh, kh, sh, th. These systems should never be mixed. Using the Gentium font for a manuscript is strongly recommended. This is a free font compatible with PCs and Macs that can be downloaded from http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=Gentium_download It is a Unicode font that is fully compatible with Oxbow’s systems. There is no need to code diacriticals if using Gentium; it contains virtually all the characters that are needed for the transliteration of Arabic, Persian, Ottoman, Turkish, and many other languages. For special signs one can make one’s own custom shortcuts on one’s PC; but Oxbow Books can provide a template that already contains shortcuts for various common diacritics.

Using the word template provided by Oxbow Books

The Oxbow template contains ready-made styles for typing the text. There is no need for the text to be elaborately formatted. Single or double line spacing is acceptable.

Layout and format of the manuscript

The following things should not be done:

• insert tabs at the beginning of a paragraph immediately following a heading
• insert running headers or double columns
• use underlining in place of italics
• type headings in capitals
• supply embedded illustrations or tables (these should be submitted as separate, individual files)
• use superscript for 1st, 2nd, 4th, etc.

The following things should be done:

• re-format existing texts with the styles in the Oxbow template
• use italics where italics are intended
• insert tabs at the beginning of paragraphs other than paragraphs immediately following a heading
• use full stops after initials in people’s names, with spaces between them, both in the texts and the bibliography
• use a comma (not a colon) between volume and page numbers

Headings and Sub-headings

Headings and sub-headings should be typed according to the styles provided by the Oxbow template, in upper and lower case characters, not in capitals. There are four ready-made styles: Large Roman for the top level, medium Italics for the second level, small Italics for the third level and SMALL CAPS for the fourth level.

Illustrations

Text and illustrations will be normally be printed in black and white. Inclusion of colour illustrations needs to be discussed with the Trust in advance. Where at all possible illustrations should be submitted electronically, with the exception of the cover image/s (see
below). All illustrations and tables need to be saved and submitted as separate files and not embedded in the text. However, they should also be printed out, in order to check that they show what they are supposed to show when printed in black and white before submitting
them. A hard-copy print out of the images should also be provided, in addition to the electronic version.

All illustrations should be numbered. Figures and tables in multi-authored volumes should be prefixed with the chapter number. For instance, Fig. 1 in chapter 6 should be referred to as Fig. 6.1. Line drawings and photos should all be treated as figures, to be
numbered in one sequence, and not numbered separately. Sub-numbering such as “Fig. 7a, Fig. 7b” should be avoided. The text must contain a numbered reference to each figure and table. All captions must be listed at the end of the book, after the Bibliography, or in a
separate file.

The author or editor will be asked to supply original artwork for a suggested cover image, which will be scanned at a much higher resolution than the specifications below. If this is difficult, Oxbow Books should be consulted.

The following image formats are acceptable:

TIFF: This is the preferred format for scanned images. If professional quality scanning facilities are not available, the art-work should be sent to Oxbow Books for scanning.
Photos and slides: to be scanned at 300 dpi;
Black and white line artwork: 600 dpi;
Mixed line and tone illustrations: 600 dpi.
Excel: Tints and patterns in Excel charts should be noticeably different. Tints need to be in increments of at least 25%. Complicated patterns must be avoided. Vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines are best; they must be easily recognisable in the legend. The chart must not be placed on a grey background.
EPS: to be converted to Tiff or high-resolution pdf with all fonts embedded.
Word: high resolution line artwork and tables. Embedded photos cannot be accepted.
Adobe Illustrator: to be converted to black and white. If versions earlier than 9 are used, all fonts must be embedded or included on the disk, or saved as a PDF.
Photoshop: All formats are accepted.
PDF: High resolution black and white with all fonts embedded at 100%. They need to be compatible with Acrobat 5.
Formats not to be sent: Low resolution Jpegs (see note below)
Gifs
Powerpoint files (the resolution is too low)
WMF files
CorelDraw
JPEGS

Oxbow prefers not to have JPEGS where possible, but if there is no other option they can accept them providing they are high resolution (e.g. not 72 dpi taken from the internet). See specifications for TIFFs above.

When taking photos for publication with digital cameras, set the highest quality picture setting.

Submitting original artwork

If original artwork is supplied, whether photos or drawings, each item must be labelled clearly. Photos need to be glossy with good contrast; photos with a matt finish cannot be scanned. Artwork larger than A4 should not be submitted without prior discussion.