Submissions

Author Guidelines

General guidelines:

• Tydskrif vir Letterkunde (TL) only publishes original research. Only proceed with a submission that was not published previously, and has not been submitted to any other journal.
• Authors may not submit a second manuscript within 12 months of the submission of a previous manuscript (even if the submission was rejected). Authors may not submit a second manuscript while a previous manuscript is still under review.
• Contributions should be submitted in Afrikaans, Dutch, English or French.
• ORCID: Authors need to register with the ORCID facility at www.orcid.org. This ID must be entered into the required field under the author's profile on TL's journal management system.
• Anonymity: Since articles are blind reviewed, authors are requested not to indicate their names anywhere in their manuscripts, including the properties of the document.
• Language editing: Manuscripts should be properly edited before submission.
• Word limit: A limit of 6000-7500 words (including the abstract) is set as a general guideline for the length of articles.
• Abstract: Articles must be accompanied by an abstract in English of between 200 and 250 words.
• Abstract: The abstract must not make reference to or quote from the work of other researchers. Rather, it must highlight the original contribution made by the submitted article.
• Abstract: The abstract does not function as the introduction to an article. The article must have an introduction that clearly sets out the research goals and structure of the paper.
• Abstract: Although written in narrative style the abstract should at least contain all of the following: problem statement, theoretical points of departure, key findings, at least 4 keywords.
• Quotations, epigraphs and mottos at the beginning of articles are not used.
• Conclusion: The article must have a conclusion. No new insights should be introduced in the conclusion and no reference should preferably be made to the work of other researchers. The conclusion is a summary of how the research goals of the paper were met.
• Citations: Authors must not submit an article in which the references have been generated by reference software, even the inbuilt software of a word processing programme.
• Title: The title of the article must not exceed 10 words.
• Typeface and line spacing: The typeface to be used is Times New Roman 12 pt with 1.5 spacing between lines
• Paragraphs: Leave a line open between paragraphs; do not indent paragraphs.
• Headings: Use a capital letter only for the first word, titles and proper nouns (sentence style capitalization).
• Headings: Use headings and subheadings sparingly. Headings are not numbered.
• Headings are bold. First subheadings are italic bold. Second subheadings are italic normal.
• Citations: Citations less than 60 words are not indented but quoted in the running text. Citations longer than 60 words are indented with a line space following the quotation, not before the text.
• Citations: The most recent version of the MLA Citation Style is used (MLA 8th edition).
• Citations: In keeping with the MLA citation style, authors must endeavour to provide page numbers whenever they reference a source (Bus 24). Never provide a "Surname date" citation (Apple 2014).
• Citations: With repeated references, the abbreviation “Ibid” is NOT used.
• Endnotes: Endnotes must be used sparingly. In-text references are cited according to the MLA guidelines (see above) and never as endnotes. Footnotes are not used.
• Endnotes: Acknowledgments, funding statements, citations of previous publications in an earlier version, etc., are written under the heading "Acknowledgements" at the end of the text of the article and above the "Works Cited" and are therefore not part of the endnotes.
• Endnotes: The automatic endnote generating function of word processing programmes must not be used. All endnotes must please be indicated manually by placing an Arabic number (1, 2, 3, etc.) in ^superscript at the end of a sentence.
• Translations: In instances where authors quote translations from original works, short quotes of ONE line maximum is followed in the text by the translation in brackets.
• Translations: More extended translations are indented and are followed by another indented paragraph with the translation.
• Translations: If there is an official translation of the title of a literary work, put that in brackets in italics. If there is no official translation, put the author’s translation of the title in brackets in normal text, no italics.
• Poetry: Poetry quotations are treated as other citations, and rendered in its verse form in the text.
• Emphasis. Use italics for emphasis and not underline, bold or capital letters.
• Emphasis: If words in a quote are rendered in italics, please indicate “emphasis in original” or “emphasis added” in brackets.
• Quotation marks: Double quotation marks are used. Within a quote, single quotation marks are used, unless the quote is indented. Single quotation marks are used when an author wants to highlight, problematize or question a concept, eg. ‘race’
• Works cited: URLs and DOIs have to be provided for online sources and journal articles that are available online. Please consult the most recent issue of TL for examples.
• Sexist or racist language is not encouraged. Gender-specific terminology should not be used when mixed groups are intended. (E.g. do not refer to "the literary critic and his practice" when a more generic reference is intended.) Racial nomenclature should be used with caution, if at all. Where writers deviate from this guideline, it should be motivated.

Graphics:

• Graphics should be provided with appropriate captions.
• Photographic material submitted digitally should have a resolution of at least 300dpi and should be submitted in a format no smaller than 150 x 210mm or A5 page size.
• It is the responsibility of the author to secure permission to reproduce copyrighted material.
• All graphics must be submitted in camera-ready as well as in digital format.

Obligations and responsibilities:

• Material published in Tydskrif vir Letterkunde will be published in open access format under the Creative Commons Licence allowing for its maximum dissemination and use.
• The opinions of contributors expressed in Tydskrif vir Letterkunde do not necessarily represent the views of the advisory council, consulting editors or editors.
• Errata or retractions of findings or statements in published articles should be brought to the attention of the editors immediately. Such corrections or alterations would be flagged and may, if necessary, be replaced with a corrected version of the article. In the event of serious transgressions of the generally accepted standards of responsible scholarship a published article may be removed from Tydskrif vir Letterkunde’s website.
• Tydskrif vir Letterkunde is published digitally. Printed and bound copies are no longer available.
• Where submissions are accepted provisionally, it is expected that writers will return their revised versions within four weeks to the relevant section editor.
• No correspondence will be entered into about submissions that were turned down.
• The copyright of the published materials rests with Tydskrif vir Letterkunde.
• On the acceptance of research and overview manuscripts article author processing charges (or page charges) become payable. Generally authors and their institutions will be invoiced for such fees. If authors do not have the funds to pay such fees, they may apply for a revision of the fee. The Tydskrif Editorial Committee does not want fees to prevent the publication of worthy research.