The following guide is to assist you in preparing your manuscript for submission. If you follow these instructions carefully, your book will go through production faster and with fewer problems.
House Style
A brief house style sheet accompanies this guide. Read here
Manuscript
- Please submit Microsoft Word electronic document files, either in separate chapters, or in one document if you are confident in the use of section breaks to keep endnotes within the relevant chapter.
- Include a Contents page (without page numbers).
- Keep formatting as simple as possible. The whole manuscript, including headings, should be in 12pt Times New Roman, with 1.5 line spacing. DO NOT attempt to design your manuscript.
- All headings and first lines flush left; first lines of the following paragraphs indented (using para styles, NOT tabs).
- Differentiate subhead levels visually (e.g. by using bold, then bold italic for the next level, then simple italic).
- Use sentence style for headings (not all caps).
- Use single quotes: double quotes are only for quotes within quotes.
- Do not embed photos or illustrations within the text; these are to be supplied separately.
- Use macrons for Māori words where applicable (see style sheet).
- For extracts, change the width of the left margin – do not use tabs.
Referencing
- See the house style sheet for OUP’s preferred referencing style. Care and consistency in citation style are essential.
- Format your notes, bibliography/reference list with hanging indents (using the ‘hanging indent’ feature of your software, not your tab key).
- Use endnotes (notes at the end of each chapter) rather than footnotes.
- Notes for each chapter must begin with note 1. Number notes consecutively using Arabic numbers; do not use roman numerals or symbols.
Permissions
If you want to use extracts or from a copyrighted work, or reproduce an illustration that is covered by copyright, you as author (or editor of a multi-author book) are responsible for obtaining permission from the copyright owner. You may have to pay a fee. This can be a big job and you need to allow time to do it.
In New Zealand, the copyright term for literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works is the life of the creator plus 50 years from the end of the year of their death. (In the UK and US it is 70 years.) You will need to obtain permission to use any excerpted material not covered by copyright. Complete poems, original or in translation, and song lyrics used as epigraphs also require permission.
Copyright rules for graphic and artistic works (including photographs) are different. Permission is almost always required from the artist and/or the institution that owns the image.
In seeking permission for the use of work under copyright, make every effort to secure the broadest rights possible, i.e. ‘rights for all editions (print and digital) worldwide’. If you are knocked back on this, please discuss with OUP’s Publisher.
Photos, artworks, graphics
- Please do NOT embed your illustrations in the manuscript.
- Submit all illustrations as high-resolution (at least 300 dpi) jpgs or tiffs. Digital photos or other images downloaded from a Web page are usually only 72 dpi, making the resolution too low for print publication.
- Line art should be 600 dpi.
- We accept photographic prints (positives), slides, and transparencies, if digital images are unavailable. Photocopies or pictures from a book or magazine are generally not recommended (please consult us if this is your plan).
- Clearly label and number all illustrations.
- Provide a captions list with corresponding numbering, and including accurate credit information as provided by the copyright holder.
- Provide placement guidance within the text: <Insert pic 5 about here>
- Number any tables in a separate sequence.
