Author Guidelines

Harvard Library Bulletin Guidelines for Authors 

Harvard Library Bulletin publishes a wide variety of content relating to Harvard Library collections.  

Founded in 1947, HLB has always published scholarly articles and essays relating to librarianship (mostly at Harvard University), and Harvard Library’s collections. Relaunched in 2020 as an online journal, HLB will continue to publish in these areas, along with creative essays, translations, and work that is facilitated by a digital publishing environment. 

HLB publishes work on a rolling basis, releasing individual articles as they are ready rather than in issues. In addition to text content, we welcome submissions in audio/video or multi-modal formats; please get in touch with us if you wish to submit a project in a non-text format. Please note that creators are responsible for ensuring that their content conforms to Harvard's accessibility standards: https://accessibility.huit.harvard.edu/digital-accessibility-policy. 

General guidelines for text-based submissions 

HLB welcomes articles up to 11,000 words including footnotes. Long-form scholarly articles (generally 3,000-11,000 words) undergo blind peer review and must address Harvard Library collections or history, or make substantial use of one or more collections to answer a critical research question. Articles that exceed 11,000 words may be divided into parts and published separately. 

 Short-form pieces of up to 3,000 words must engage with Harvard Library collections but can vary in approach, formality, and format; examples include short critical analyses of collection items, practice-based or teaching-focused essays, interviews, and reflections. These generally do not undergo blind peer review.  

Submission Details 

Articles should be submitted as Microsoft Word documents. 

Long-form articles will be distributed for blind peer review. Authors should remove all identifying details from the manuscript document, including their name(s), contact details, and personal acknowledgments. Instead, authors should upload a title page with this information. Articles of less than 3,000 words will not receive blind peer review, so it is not necessary to redact identifying details or upload a separate title page.  

Please prepare the manuscript using the following formatting guidelines: 

Page setup 

  • Letter page size (8.5” x 11”) 
  • Default margins (1.25” left and right; 1” top and bottom) 
  • Left alignment 
  • Page numbers in upper right header 
  • Text should be double-spaced and set in 12-point Times New Roman 

Headings 

To facilitate online publishing and reading, authors should divide articles into sections with headings. Headings should be in Bold Title Case. 

Citation and Style 

Articles may be submitted in any recognized academic citation style. Upon acceptance, the author will be expected to convert citations to Chicago style. HLB’s style sheet provides more detailed information on style and copyediting. 

Images 

Images should be numbered (i.e., Fig. 1), captioned, and referenced in the text: (see Figure 1). High-quality images are not expected at the time of submission. Upon acceptance, the author is responsible for obtaining high-quality images, the appropriate permissions, and providing alt text. 

Tables 

Tables should be inserted using Microsoft Word’s table function rather than formatted manually, and placed where the author would like them to appear. Each table should be referenced explicitly in the text: (see Table 1). As with the illustrations, each table should be accompanied by a caption that begins with its identifying information, e.g. Table 1. 

Translations 

Articles should be submitted in English. Non-English passages of a few words may be included in the body of the article, italicized, and followed by a translation. When quoting non-English sources at length, please present the quotation in translation in the body of the text. The original quotation should be included in an accompanying footnote or as an appendix. The source of all translations should be cited appropriately; multiple translations by the author should be cited in the first instance, along with a note that the following translations are also the author’s work. 

Permissions 

Authors are responsible for securing permission for all copyrighted material, including images and lengthy quotations. We ask authors to provide proof of permission after their submission has been accepted for publication and prior to copyediting.