2.1 Readership

The encyclopedia will be used by students from the high school to the graduate school level, librarians, scholars, journalists, writers, and the educated member of the general public. Write clearly and authoritatively to a general audience that shares your interest, if not your expertise, in the subject. With the general reader in mind, avoid technical vocabulary as much as possible. When technical vocabulary or colloquialisms are necessary, make their meaning plain within the context of your writing or give equivalents in English.

2.2. Scope description

The scope description appropriate to your article is part of your contract. It is meant to guide—not restrict—your thinking. As a specialist, you are encouraged to shape your article according to your best judgment, although we urge you to cover the points noted in the scope description. If you wish to expand or restrict the scope of your article or if you have specific questions about it, consult directly with your assigning editor. Whether explicitly stated or not, the scope description’s intention is to relate the topic to African-American history and culture.

2.3 Word allotment

The word count for your article is shown in your contract; it applies to your text only and does not include the bibliography or boxes.

Deviation from your word allotment—especially if your article is too long—will require editorial correction. If you find that, despite every effort, you are unable to keep your article to the number of assigned words, let your assigning editor know. Early consultation will help avoid cutting or rewriting at a later stage.

A manuscript page, typed or printed out, double-spaced on 8 ½ by 11-inch paper with generous margins will contain between 250 and 275 words depending on your font size. The following scale serves as a rough guide for number of words and pages. At the end of your manuscript, provide an actual word count if your program can generate it.

250 words 1 manuscript page 500 2 manuscript pages 750 3 1000 4

2.4 Consensus of interpretation

Your interpretation of particular issues is essential to the integrity of your article; at the same time, as a reference work, the encyclopedia has an obligation to present all significant sides of controversial and unresolved questions in a fair manner, striking a balance among diverse viewpoints. Avoid language that might be construed as partisan or polemical. Wherever appropriate, your article should alert readers to a debate, its implications, and where additional information can be found.

3.1 Opening paragraph

All AANB entries will follow a standard format for their opening paragraphs, beginning with the first sentence. Below is an example of the AANB format for first sentences:

Parks, Gordon, Jr. (7 Dec. 1934 -3 Apr. 1979), filmmaker, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the eldest son of Sally Alvis and Gordon Parks, Sr., the latter an award-winning photojournalist, author, composer, and filmmaker.

Each entry should follow this format: entry term, complete dates of birth and death, occupation(s) or reasons for renown, place of birth, parents’ names and occupations, if known. The subject of the entry should be identified at outset by the name that would usually be used in the historical record. For example, the entry on Joe Louis should begin “Louis, Joe”; his full formal name should be given later on: “. . . was born Joseph Louis Barrow….” The rest of the first paragraph should contain a brief account of the subject’s early life and education, not an overview of his or her accomplishments.

3.2 Body of text

Present the subject’s life generally in chronological order, focusing on the primary events that made the subject a notable person; significant events in private life should be woven into the chronology. Place the subject’s life and career into the broader context of history, and especially African American history, with reference to relevant people, events, movements, organizations, etc.

3.3 Marriages

Refer to a marriage by giving the spouse’s name before the marriage, the year the marriage occurred, and the number of children born to the couple. In the case of divorce, identify the year a marriage was terminated.

3.4 Death and summation

Cite the place of death near the end of the text. Place of burial should not be given unless particularly noteworthy. The date of death, which is identified in the opening sentence, need not be repeated. The concluding paragraph should not be a condensation of what you have already said, and it may be redundant to add anything to the chronological account of the subject’s life. More often than not, however, an assessment of the subject’s place in history ought to round out an article.

3.5 Living people

AANB entries should be timeless. If you are writing about a living subject, be sure not to end the entry with a magazine-like summation (“he lives in Pittsburgh with his wife and children”); instead, attempt to write in a style that will remain correct even after the subject passes on. Attempt to use concrete dates and the simple past tense, rather than open-ended timelines and the present tense. For instance, instead of writing “she continues to serve on several corporate boards,” you should write, “in 1995 she joined the board of Acme Corporation, one of many corporate boards she served on beginning in the 1990s.”

3.6 Identifying people, places and things

Most readers of your article will not be specialists. For their benefit, give, wherever appropriate, brief explanations to identify people, places, concepts, and objects mentioned in your article. For example:

Fannie Lou Hamer, a leader of the Southern Freedom Struggle, . . .

The International Sweethearts of Rhythm, the African American female swing band of the 1930s and 1940s, . ..

Signs, the early Black Women’s Studies journal, . . .

3.7 Dates

Make generous reference wherever appropriate to dates or periods of major events, etc. For example:

The National Council of Negro Women, founded in 1935, was long active . . .

Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, a fictional retelling of the desperate act of Margaret Garner in 1835, ...

3.8 Quotations and permissions

Whenever possible, avoid quotation from previously published works protected by copyright, even if the works are your own. We suggest this for two reasons: (1) to avoid having to secure written permission to reprint material from copyrighted sources and (2) to encourage you to write an original article.

Use quotations only when they are essential to full understanding. Cite personal interviews with author as follows:

Reeves explained: “I'd never heard a voice like that, that was so rich and deep and beautiful, just sang all over the place. I thought, ‘You mean, there are those kinds of possibilities?’” (Interview with author, 2000).

If your article requires extensive quotation from previously published works, contact aanbonline@oup.com for guidance.

Indicate the source, with exact page numbers, for any quoted material as well as for interpretations and facts taken from secondary sources.

We will routinely check your article for material that may require permission to reprint. But the responsibility for determining copyright status of your sources and for judging the need for permission to reprint it is yours. Submit letters of permission to us along with your manuscript.

3.9 Citations

The AANB will not include footnotes. If your article requires an occasional citation of a specific source, give it in a short form in the text (with the page number in parentheses) and give the full reference in the bibliography. For example:

As Anna Julia Cooper suggests in A Voice from the South (p. 39) . . .

Citation of sources listed in the Further Reading should give author’s surname and page number: …where 15,000 people gathered to hear King declare Meredith’s walk against fear “the greatest demonstration for freedom ever held in Mississippi” (Dittmer, p. 402).

If there is more than one book cited by that author, give a short title reference; e.g. if there were two books listed by Dittmer, the above reference would be (Dittmer, Local People, p. 405).

For sources not otherwise listed, give a short parenthetic reference:

…is in fact an “unrepentant black nationalist” (New York Times, 2 Feb. 2003)

Of this tendency, Lorde said in an interview, “There’s always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself…. But once you do that, then you’ve lost” (Denver Quarterly 16.1 [1981], pp. 10–27).

But try not to cite sources that are too specialized, academic, or old and inaccessible.

Biblical quotations: Identify chapter and verse, and translation, where relevant. Use AV for the King James version; e.g.: “which includes the line ‘Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me’ (Psalms 40.13 [AV]).”

3.10 Plagiarism 

Your article should represent your own original scholarship. If you have written on the same topic for other reference works or in a journal article, try to reword and reorganize to offer a fresh approach to the topic. We realize that there are only so many ways to state facts, but we do not want to include already published material in our reference works. More important, we cannot infringe on the copyrights of other publishers.

The Web makes it easy to search for information and to cut and paste it from other sources. If you do gather information and quotations from the Web, make sure that you identify the sources in whatever records or documents you maintain. Be cautious about the quality of information you find on the Web. It is easy to start research on a topic using Wikipedia, but Wikipedia is not refereed by scholars and the quality of its content is uncertain. Therefore, verify any item of information that you find there—and on similar sites—in trustworthy sources.  (See also Online Sources 5.3 Availability of works.)

We occasionally find that an article contains plagiarized material. Using another author’s exact sentences or phrasing without providing attribution is both plagiarism and copyright infringement. Simply including the source in the bibliography without quoting directly from that source is not considered attribution. Facts can and should be drawn from a variety of sources, but the presentation of the facts must be your own. For writing of this kind, especially in the case of biographies, we understand that facts can be related only in so many ways and that a biography necessitates a structure that may be the same from one book to another, but we expect contributors to submit work that contains their own original phrases and sentences. Simply changing a word or two here and there throughout a paragraph copied and pasted from another source is not sufficient.

We detect plagiarism in multiple ways. Members of the editorial board notice it, in-house OUP editors, and other subject specialists look for it while reviewing manuscripts, as do our copyeditors and proofreaders when checking facts. We also employ sophisticated detection software. Whether intentional or not, plagiarism is a serious betrayal of scholarly integrity and a breach of the contributor’s contract. We will reject articles that include verbatim passages (other than quotations) from other works and cancel the contract. In the case of an author contributing multiple entries, if plagiarism has been detected in any one entry, we will cancel all contracts for entries by that author, whether or not we have uncovered plagiarism in all the entries.

4.1 Style, grammar, spelling, etc.

Style will be based on the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. (CM) Open-closed-hyphenated compounds, accent marks, etc. will be taken from the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dict., 11th ed. For questions of usage, consult the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage.

4.2 Spelling

In text, use the first variant given in MW11. For names, titles, etc., use the form used by the person, book, institution, etc.

4.3 Punctuation The serial comma will be used (peas, beans, and potatoes not peas, beans and potatoes). No comma after short adverbial words or phrases at the beginning of a sentence, as set out in CM 5.38: “During 1982 the occurrence of sun spots….” “In 1934 Johnson began a series of…” “Between 1921 and 1923 the unpredictable behavior of the...”

4.4 Capitalization

Black Arts Movement, the Depression In the North, the South, etc.: capitalize specific regions (but he walked north, he looked to the north etc.). Capitalize the subjects of degrees: “received a B.A in Journalism,” “an M.A. in Religion and Contemporary Society,” etc.

4.5 Dates

For birth and death dates use any of the following styles (mostly taken from ANB), depending on the specificity of information available:

Sargent, John Singer (12 Jan. 1856 -15 Apr. 1925) Rumsey, James (Mar. 1743 -21 Dec. 1792) Hughes, Langston (1 Feb. 1902? -22 May 1967) Houston, William Churchill (1746 -12 Aug. 1788) Salomon, Haym (c. 1740 -6 Jan. 1785) Seattle (1786? -7 June 1866) Howetson, James (? -4 July 1777) Bierce, Ambrose (24 June 1842 -1914?) Pocahontas (c. 1596 -c. 21 Mar. 1617) Onesimus (fl. 1706 -1717) Dunham, Katherine (22 June 1909 -) [4 spaces after hyphen for living people]

Use the following for the months in birth and death dates and in source citations: Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., May, June, July, Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.

In running text, exact dates should be in the form 7 April 1943 without internal punctuation and without abbreviations: “On 14 April 1912 an iceberg…”

4.6 Racial terminology

The generally unmarked terms of reference in AANB are black and African American (always unhyphenated); e.g. “…for the newly freed African American constituency. On 8 February 1869, in a speech on the suffrage rights of African Americans….”

Other terms are discussed below:

Afro-American: use only in titles, quotations, etc.

black, white: lower case, no caps (e.g. “…became the first black in the county to vote and serve on a jury.”) However, keep caps as they occur in quotations.

Negro: Use, capitalized, in contexts where historical or contextual considerations make it the most natural choice; e.g. “the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry, a Negro regiment that was stationed in Maryland;” or [re: Green Pastures (film)] “A rather lavish version of a simple Negro interpretation of the Bible….”

Do not use the following words, except in quotations, unless there is a strong, contextual, and specific reason for doing so: colored, mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, etc. Such terms as person of color, mixed-race, light-skinned, might be better choices.

4.7 Explicit racial identification

Within an article, identify a person’s race when it is germane to the point being made, but not necessarily otherwise. If someone is generally/widely known, no mention of race should be necessary. When introducing a name into an article, identify race if it helps the reader get the point of what you are saying.

4.8 Gendered terms

The matter of adjudicating on gendered terms is a complex one. Avoid using dated or clearly problematic terms (sculptress, aviatrix, poetess). However, it is difficult to be dogmatic about a number of other

terms. While we will try to be reasonably consistent in first-sentence designations of entries, trust your sense of the subject and your own sprachgefühl (or ear for the language), especially in running text.

Actress: AANB will use actress. Actress is in unmarked frequent use throughout the language, though some object on the principle that to differentiate for gender is demeaning to women, especially when the “masculine” term is used for the generic sense (“All of the actors in the film….”). Comedienne: AANB will use comedian rather than comedienne. While the latter may be appropriate in some (esp. historical) contexts, use of the former should not seem out of place. Waitress: May be used in AANB.

5.1 Purpose

The purpose of the Further Reading section is to cite the principal sources of information contained in your article, to call attention to some of the most useful works concerning the subject of your article, and to recommend other sources for information on the subject. Be selective in suggesting further reading; it should not be an exhaustive list of all works related to your topic.

Except for autobiographical works, the subject’s own works are not listed in the Further Reading section; mention important works in the body of the text by title (in italics) followed by publication date in parenthesis. We are interested primarily in the biographical sources, not the literary or scholarly criticism (which can, of course, be referenced in the text when necessary).

List only the most important biographical sources, particularly those accessible to a general audience. The Further Reading section can have up to four parts. See the sample entries at the end of the manual for examples:

1. A statement in sentence form locating any significant collections or archives of the subject’s papers. (Skip a line)
2. Autobiography/-phies (Skip a line)
3. The two to four most important biographies or biographical sources (occasionally more for important figures with lengthier entries. Where possible, list only journals that will be accessible to a general audience; there may, of course, be instances in which the primary information has only appeared in academic journals, in which case it should be listed. (Don’t skip a line.)
4. Obituary/-ies: Source and date for obituaries in well-known, accessible sources. (Most common are the New York Times and the Washington Post, but other obituaries, especially in African American-owned newspapers, may also be significant.)
5. Number of items The Further Reading should not overwhelm the reader or the article. Emphasize the 3-4 most important sources of information about your topic and the most influential critical interpretations. Do not include the Further Reading in calculating the word count of your article.

5.3 Availability of works The Further Reading section is intended as a guide, not a list of the most significant sources. Favor book-length works available in most libraries. Do not include journal articles, out-of-print works, and works only available in research libraries and archives inaccessible to most readers, unless these are the only sources available. You may consult other biographical dictionaries for information, but should not include these in Further Reading. Likewise use online resources sparingly, if at all, in your Further Reading. Cite only trusted academic websites that have a degree of permanence. We will delete extraneous online resources. Because most users of the volumes will be nonspecialists, minimize references to specialized periodical literature whenever possible.

5.4 Format Type the word “Further Reading” at the beginning of the list. Arrange items alphabetically by surname of author. Multiple works by a single author should be listed in alphabetical order by title. Use hanging indents and double spacing.

An item should include:

1. Names of authors in full, exactly as they appear in print. If there is more than one item by an author, repeat the author’s name; do not use a 3-em dash.
2. 2. Titles of works in full, including subtitles. Italicize all titles, including end punctuation.
1. Edition if it is other than the first. Note particularly if you are citing a reprint or a revised edition. If more than on edition is available, cite the most recently published edition.
   
   1. Number of volumes of multivolume works. Give the volume number, when appropriate, for works in a series.
      
      1. Names of editors and translators in full.
      2. Date of publication in parentheses.
2. Verification of sources Readers will depend on the accuracy, completeness, and consistency of your Further Reading. Cite only trusted academic, government, or subscription websites that have a degree of permanence. Do not cite bibliographic information from memory; verify each entry in your Further Reading against the original source.