For Authors
Submitting a Manuscript Proposal
Manuscript proposals are accepted by the University of Calgary Press.
Please provide:
* A Prospectus (see our Prospectus Guide in the Downloadable Forms section)
* Introduction or preface
* Sample chapters (double-spaced and paginated)
Send your submission either by email or hard copy to:
* Manuscript Submissions
* University of Calgary Press
* 2500 University Dr NW
* Calgary, AB T2N 1N4
* ucpress@ucalgary.ca
If sending hard copy, do not send irreplaceable materials. If you wish
your materials returned, please make that indication. Otherwise, your
materials will be recycled.
Editorial staff will review your proposal. If the project is found to
be potentially suitable for our publishing program, you will be asked
to provide your manuscript for our two-stage peer review process.
The Peer Review Process
If you are invited to submit your manuscript for peer review, the
completed manuscript must be in our hands before the review process can
begin. The submitted manuscript must be self-contained and must
represent the final draft upon which evaluation is to be made.
Manuscripts must be of a scholarly nature, i.e., they must contribute
to the advancement of knowledge, be appropriately annotated, and
possess adequate bibliographical apparatus. All cited sources must be
fully documented.
The Editorial Board, comprised of University of Calgary scholars, will
first examine the manuscript. If this preliminary assessment is
favourable, the manuscript will be sent to two or more external
reviewers. Blind copies of the external reviews will be provided to the
author (or editor) who will be asked to prepare a formal response to
the reviews. The reviews and the response will then go to the Editorial
Board for discussion. The Editorial Board's decision to reject a
manuscript at any stage is final; the decision cannot be appealed, nor
will the Press consider for publication a revised version of a rejected
manuscript.
After the Editorial Board has accepted the manuscript formally for
publication, the author (or editor) and the Director of the Press will
negotiate the terms of the publication agreement. In all cases, the
author (or editor) retains the copyright to the work.
When the Editorial Board accepts a manuscript for publication, it is
with the proviso that final revisions are made and funding is acquired.
External funding is needed to assist with the book production costs.
Therefore, we appreciate any suggestions for possible funding and
encourage authors to investigate funding sources.
Copyediting
Once your manuscript has been accepted for publication, you will be
asked to provide the revised manuscript. The Press requires computer
files for text, photographs, maps, or other artwork pertaining to your
manuscript. All such materials should be submitted on CD. See the AAUP
Graphics Guidelines for help in preparing illustrative files.
All manuscripts published by the University of Calgary Press are
subject to copyediting in accordance with the style guidelines set out
in The Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed.). Depending upon the nature
and extent of the required editorial changes, the copyeditor will
consult you either during or immediately after completing the editing
of the manuscript. The marked-up copy will normally be returned for
your approval (sometimes with first proofs). The copyeditor will also
send you a list of questions, comments, and suggestions resulting from
this reading of the manuscript. Please resist the temptation to take
this stage of production as an opportunity to rewrite your manuscript.
Substantive changes are not normally allowed after a revised manuscript
has been approved for publication. In the extreme case, such changes
could result in a very different manuscript – one that might not have
received approval from the Editorial Board if it had been submitted for
publication. Demonstrable improvements will be looked upon more
favourably the earlier they are made.
When you review the marked-up manuscript, you may, of course, restore
the original reading of a text wherever the changes suggested by the
copyeditor result in a distortion of meaning or the inadvertent
introduction of inconsistencies. Once you have satisfactorily responded
to the questions raised by the copyeditor, page proofs will be prepared.
Preparation of the Index
After the final pages have been created, you will be asked to provide
an index. The preparation of an adequate index requires a thorough
knowledge of the subject matter of a book. Therefore, a case can be
made that the author is really the only person who can do the job.
Nevertheless, many authors have little experience in the technical
aspects of creating an index and wisely hire an indexer. The Chicago
Manual of Style presents an extensive discussion of the procedures
involved with creating an index.
Marketing and Distribution
The University of Calgary Press has an active marketing program,
including sales representation within Canada and abroad. To make this
program successful we welcome your advice and cooperation. The close
relationship that the Press has developed with many North American
university libraries and agents assures the effective and appropriate
distribution of your book. You can assist us greatly by providing the
names of appropriate individuals, societies, institutions, and
scholarly conferences that might have an interest in your book.
Book Reviews. Favourable book reviews, published in appropriate places,
can be crucial to the marketing prospects of your book. Soon after your
book has been accepted for publication, you will be asked to complete
an Author Publicity Form which (among other things) asks for a list of
names and addresses of scholarly journals or periodicals that might be
interested in publishing reviews of your book. As soon as your book is
published, we will send copies to appropriate individuals or journals
for review. We ask publishers of reviews to send us copies so that we
may include extracts in future publicity. We will forward copies to you
as they are received.
Some Helpful Publications
* American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the
American Psychological Association, 3rd edition. Washington, D.C.:
American Psychological Association, 1983.
* The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
* The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English. Edited by J. B. Sykes. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983.
* Gage Canadian Dictionary. Walter S. Avis et al. Toronto: Gage, 1983.
* Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press,
Oxford., 39th edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.
* Modern Language Association. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research
Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. New York: Modern Language
Association of America, 1984.
* Partridge, Eric. Usage and Abusage; A Guide to Good English. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1965.
* Strunk, William, Jr. and White, E. B. The Elements of Style, 3rd edition. New York: Macmillan, 1979.
* Swanson, Ellen. Mathematics into Type: Copyediting and
Proofreading of Mathematics for Editorial Assistants and Authors,
revised edition. Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, 1979.
* The Times Atlas of the World, 7th comprehensive edition. London: Times Books Ltd., 1985.
* Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses,
and Dissertations, 5th edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1987.
* Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English
Language, Unabridged. Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1981.
* Words into Type, 3rd edition. Based on studies by Marjorie E.
Skillin and Robert M. Gay and others. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice
Hall, 1974.
Copyright Law
* Any author who quotes extensively from a work under copyright is
responsible for providing the Press with a "letter of permission to
publish" covering all the material used from each copyright source.
* Authors should not assume that they will not be held responsible
for observing copyright because their writing is scholarly.
* All material on which the copyright symbol © or the word
"copyright" appears must be assumed to be under copyright and
permission must be requested.
Whether the material you are borrowing from other sources is protected
by copyright or not, it will help our copyeditors if you provide
photocopies of the originals (illustrations, tables, quoted passages,
etc.), each stapled to copies of the title page and the copyright page
of the source document.
