Submissions

Author Guidelines

Submissions

Manuscripts should be submitted directly through the online submission procedure unless otherwise requested by an editor.

All manuscript submissions to should be prepared in 12 point Times New Roman and should conform to the Chicago Manual of Style for both succinct footnoting and bibliography.

Authors are responsible for submitting a carefully proofed text.

All manuscripts for publication are reviewed by two scholarly peers in the area of the subject matter.

Manuscript Text

Avoid the suggestion of oral presentation. For example, avoid the use of first person and the use of contractions.

Capitalization.

• Do not use capitalization for the sake of emphasis.
• Use capitals in reference the Bible and books of the Bible. For example, Scripture, Gospel according to St. Mark (however, use lower case, gospel, in reference to the message of Christ.
• Use capitals in reference to institutional bodies, such as Institute of Lutheran Theology and Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

Italics.

• The textual citation of published works should be in italics: e.g., The Book of Concord. However, citation of confessional symbols should appear in Roman type: e.g., the Small Catechism.
• Single words and short phrases in languages other than English will be italicized. Do not set them off in quotation marks.
• Books of the Bible should be capitalized but NOT italicized.

Quotations.

• Less than five typewritten lines may be set off in quotation marks; more than five lines should appear as a block quotation, indented, and without quotation marks.
• Use quotation marks to identify titles of essays cited in the text; use italics for titles of books and other complete publications not otherwise noted.

Scholarly abbreviations.

• While the use of scholarly abbreviations is acceptable in parentheses and in the footnotes, they should not be used in the text. For example, in place of “i.e.,” use “that is”; in place of “e.g.,” use “for example”; in place of “etc.,” use “and so forth.”

Diacritics.

• In spelling German ä, ö, and ü diacritics should be used, not ae, oe, ue.
• Diacritics should always be employed where appropriate, particularly in the citation of languages other than English.
• Care should be taken in the citation of Greek and Hebrew. Authors should use the Greek and Hebrew fonts available from the Society of Biblical Literature.

Spelling.

• Use “-ize” endings when given as an alternative to “–ise.”
• Use American form, not British; for example, savior, not saviour.

Dates and Numbers.

• 1990s; not 1990’s.
• Sixteenth century; not 16th century (at the beginning of a sentence).
• July 2024; not July, 2024.
• Sixty–seven; not 67; but use numerals for numbers over one hundred.

Acronyms.

• Avoid the use of acronyms. Cite the referent fully in the first usage. After that you may use the acronym.

Footnotes & Endnotes

In the text, references to the footnote or endnote numbers should appear in superscript.

The first citation of a work in the footnotes or endnotes should include the complete bibliographical data—Author, Title: Sub-Title, volume & issue number/s (city of publication: publisher name, date of publication), page number/s.

For example:

• Luthers Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe, 57 vols. Eds.J.F.K. Knaake et al. (Weimar: Böhlau, 1883ff.) 2:45.6-10. (Hereafter cited as WA.)
• Luther's Works, American Edition, 55 vols. Eds. Pelikan and Lehmann (St Louis and Philadelphia: Concordia and fortress, 1955ff.) 2:45. (Hereafter cited as LW.)
• Corpus Reformatorum, 28 vols. Eds. C.G. Bretschneider et al. (Brunsvigae and Halis Saxorum: C.A. Schwetschke et Filium, 1834-60) 3:75-76. (Hereafter cited as CR.)

Nota bene: All footnotes or endnotes should also be copied and pasted into the file itself at the end of the article, after the author biography. Please also leave all footnotes or endnotes remaining in their automated notes program.

Checklist of Additional Helpful File Preparations

• All submissions should include an abstract and any references or notes as part of the actual file text.
• The manuscript should be prepared textually and bibliographically according to published author guidelines.
• The manuscript must be considered fully completed by the author/editor upon submission for production.
• The spelling of any/all proper names or special terms should be checked for consistency and standardization.
• All footnotes or endnotes should be checked for numerical consistency with superscripted numbers in the text.
• All text (including titles, sub-titles, footnotes) should be set in 12 pt Times New Roman font.
• All text should be single spaced and contain no additional spacing either before or after any paragraph.
• You do not need to include any page formatting beyond specific textual usage (italics, superscript/subscript) and indented quotation paragraphs or partial paragraphs. Please do not use boldface for emphasis.
• All text should be set to left justified only, regardless of usage for title, sub-title or body text.
• Lengthy indented quotations of more than 4 lines may/should be identified and broken into a separate paragraph of text. All page formatting is done through the publication process.
• Italics are not typically used on superscripted footnote numbers when with foreign words, titles, emphasis.
• Do not use a tab to indent new paragraphs at all.
• Do not use any column or page breaks at all.
• Do not include any empty or additional paragraph breaks or space (hard returns) between paragraphs of text. (In other words, do not place any extra spaces between paragraphs). Remove any/all extra/additional spaces and paragraph breaks from the entire manuscript file.
• Remove any/all other tabs (unless used for special formatting of a chart or list necessary with manuscript [please identify accordingly and also provide a reference to original manuscript for production layout comparison]).
• Do not use any stylistic formatting for font or paragraph appearance style and/or size (other than any foreign language font faces as needed). All formatting production will conform to the publication’s editorial style. Please communicate any questions or specific needs/requirements for the manuscript at the time of submission.

Questions?

Please contact: Martin A. Christiansen, Managing Editor / mchristiansen23@ilt.edu