Note: We are currently accepting submissions for consideration for the next issue. Please contact us immediately if you have a submission to make.
General Guidelines. To be considered for submission, authors must hold to the Reformed Faith. Material submitted should be new and unpublished and uncirculated on the Internet (exceptions may be made for substantially updated articles). It should adhere to the author’s church’s confessional standards (Westminster Standards, Three Forms of Unity, etc.) and any material or incidental exception to those standards expressed in the article need to be clearly noted as such.
The submitter agrees to grant the journal exclusive use of the material until the subsequent issue comes out and the journal retains ownership of the material as it is published in the journal format with any contributed editing, editorial additions, etc. Authors should retain final versions prelayout for their own future use. The journal also reserves the right to reissue any material accepted and published, in a digital format if a digital version is issued in the future and/or in reprints when the original print run has been exhausted. The author by submitting material grants permission for editing to Confessional Presbyterian style and format preferences. All material is subject to internal review by the editors before acceptance and all articles and some department material depending upon content, is subject to peer review before final acceptance for publication.
Length. Special consideration may be given to shorter or longer Articles, but as a rule, Articles should be in the range of 8,000 to 15,000 words. Length guidelines for Reviews, Responses, and Opuscula Selecta can be found below.
File Format. Please submit files in Microsoft Word document format, or save in RTF format if you do not have MS Word.
Bibliography. Please provided a full bibliography in alphabetical order by author, following Chicago Manual of Style. Do not insert line breaks or format the paragraph to indent as that is done in layout and simply adds work to remove the line breaks.
Formatting: Please use the following paragraph and character style names or at least something consistent covering these categories. Italic, Bold, etc. character styles. Please use a distinct style for journal titles called “journal title.” Headings: SubHead-1, SubHead-2, SubHead-3. If possible do not go beyond three subheads in division of the material. First paragraph under a subheading: Body Text No Indent. Regular paragraphs: Body Text. Block Quotations: Quotation. A submission with no paragraph style assignments will be rejected. Please also make use of similar character styles appropriately named for text within paragraphs set in italics, bold, underline, etc.
Form, Tone, and Format Considerations. Material should be written at a scholastic level. Focus should be on evidence, reasons and arguments rather than linguistic devices such as sarcasm, irony or ridicule. Responses to Reviews, and Replies to Responses, should be kept on the same scholastic level, even though disagreements may be strongly expressed.
General Style. Generally, The Confessional Presbyterian requires following the Chicago Manual of Style.
Footnote style: Use Chicago Manual of Style for footnote references and the bibliography (and please do include a full bibliography of sources referenced). Please include p. or pp. before the page number(s) in book citations, but not in journal article footnote citations. All parenthetical citations (of either books or articles) should include p. or pp. before the page number(s). The journal uses a mixture of footnotes and parenthetical references. The first citation of a work should be a footnote, and each subsequent footnote should have a shortened title followed by the page referenced. If one or more works are preponderantly relied upon and cited more than a dozen times, all subsequent references after the first should be parenthetical with author, or with author and title if more than one work by the author is cited, and the page number.
Examples.
Book: 1 Gerald R. McDermott, Jonathan Edwards Confronts the Gods (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 1.
Article: Peter Wallace, “The Foundations of Reformed Biblical Theology: The Development of Old Testament Theology at Old Princeton, 1812-1932,” Westminster Theological Journal 59, no. 1 (Spring 1997): 41-69.
As the author says regarding Jonathan Edwards (McDermott, p. 2), ….
If more than one work by the same author is cited:
1 Gerald R. McDermott, Jonathan Edwards Confronts the Gods (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 1.
As McDermott says regarding Jonathan Edwards (Jonathan Edwards Confronts the Gods, p. 2), ….
An excessively long title may be appropriately truncated, and if there may be a lack of clarity, “Hereafter [shortened title]” may be placed at the end of the first footnote.
1 John H. Gerstner, Heaven & Hell: Jonathan Edwards on the After-life (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980), p. 1. Hereafter Gerstner, Heaven & Hell.
As the author says (Gerstner, Heaven & Hell, p. 2), ….
While our long format can accommodate some fairly long footnotes, if a note is the equivalent of a column of text, roughly 900 words, create an appendix or Endnote and number them A, B, C., etc.
It is not desirable to have more than 100 actual footnotes (not counting parenthetical references as described above) for an article in the 8,000 to 15,000 word range. Please make use of parenthetical references if you find you have some sources used dozens of times for instance.
Subheadings. Judicious use of subheadings is desirable, but do not use more than three levels.
Dashes. If using a long dash for punctuation we prefer the Em dash, but whether using the Em or En dash please use as follows:
The author has made no effort at all—unless you count…
The author has made no effort at all – unless you count…
For ellipses use the following rules:
Mid sentence ellipsed text: The author has made no effort … you(spaces surrounding the ellipse).
End of sentence ellipsed text: The author has made no effort…. (no space before, one space after the period).
If any final punctuation is included use the following form:
The author has made no effort;… (one space after the ellipse).
Don’ts. Do not use tabs to indent paragraphs. Do not use two spaces after any punctuation, including after the period.
Again, Please provide a full bibliography in alphabetical order by author following Chicago Manual of Style.
Further Information on Departments. If submitting material for one of the recurring department features of CPJ, consider the following information.
Reviews and Responses. This department is for submission of Reviews of any media material of significant interest to Presbyterians. These should be critical (i.e. analytical) and not simply plugs for the material in question. Ordinarily Reviews should be in the 2,000 to 6,000 word range, and on average should be about 3,000 words in length. Responses to reviews, or Replies to Responses, should ordinarily not be longer than 3,000 words. A bibliography of works cited other than those under review should be provided, using alphabetical order and following Chicago Manual of Style.
In Opuscula Selecta. Email us if you are interested in submitting translation work. Considering the work required we are not looking for translation work outside the 1,000 to 8,000 word range. Longer submissions may be run serially across more than one issue. Some commentary of sufficient length to explain the significance of the piece translated is desirable. We are looking for significant work translated into English that would be of interest to Presbyterians.
