Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  • The submission file is in .doc, .docx, or .txt file format and adheres to the citation and formatting requirements found in the Author Guidelines at https://journal.iasa-web.org/index.php/pubs/about/submissions
  • References adhere to the requirements listed in the Author Guidelines at https://journal.iasa-web.org/index.php/pubs/about/submissions. URLs and/or DOIs have been provided for references wherever possible.
  • All illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points (without use of text wrapping), rather than at the end; and include captions with all necessary credits and acknowledgments.
  • The accuracy of citations, including names, titles, dates, page numbers, and quotations, is the responsibility of the author. All information should be carefully verified before a contribution is submitted.
  • If multiple authors are listed, all approve of the submitted manuscript.
  • The text and accompanying materials do not infringe copyright or other rights elsewhere.

Author Guidelines

Manuscript Preparation

The following guidelines are provided for manuscripts submitted to the IASA Journal. Publication style is beyond the scope of this guide.

Peer-reviewed articles should normally be between 5,000–12,000 words, including tables, references, captions and footnotes. Substantially longer manuscripts may be edited for length or authors may be instructed to resubmit after reducing length. The typical length of profiles is 2,000–4,000 words.

Please read the About the Journal page for information on the journal’s scope, review and editorial processes, and ethics and compliance information. 

Required elements: 

  • Abstract (maximum 250 words)
  • All authors should include their full name, affiliation and country under the title of the manuscript on a separate line. Each author should include a separate footnote with a 60-word maximum biographical statement.
  • 3–5 keywords
    • For keywords only, IASAJ follows American English spelling
  • Main text (with Chicago Manual of Style in-text citations)
  • References (following CMOS)

Illustrations and figures should be submitted separately as high-resolution files (TIFF, PNG, JPEG), with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Lower resolution images may be embedded in the submission, but higher-resolution is required for publication. Tables should be supplied as editable text, not images.

Refer to the journal’s Style Guide below for details on layout of manuscript, figures and tables, and reference styles. Manuscripts may be returned if they do not sufficiently follow the guidelines listed below.

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Citation Style

References follow the author-date system of The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition. DOIs should be included whenever available. Sample citations for typical reference formats can be found in Chicago’s Quick Guide for Author-Date referencing. Please refer to the IASA Journal Style Guide for further details and required elements for other types of resources.

The accuracy of citations, including names, titles, dates, page numbers, and quotations, is the responsibility of the author. All information should be carefully verified before a contribution is submitted.

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IASA Journal – Style Guide

General Style

The IASA Journal style follows the guidelines provided in the 18th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, with some exceptions (marked in bold type throughout). 

  • Any accepted form of English spelling is permitted; usage should be consistent within a manuscript. Keywords should follow American spelling for improved indexing.
    • Acronyms should be spelled out on their first occurrence and abbreviated thereafter.
    • Numbers from one to ten should be spelled out; use numerals for 11 and higher. Numbers beginning a full sentence are always written out.
  • Write dates in the format “20 September 2025.”
  • Use metric units where appropriate, including Celsius for temperature, but retain customary units used in audiovisual archival contexts (7½ ips tape speed, 12" transcription discs).
    • Non-English terms are italicized on first occurrence only, and should be defined if unfamiliar. Transliterate terms if they are spelled in a non-Latin alphabet. If translation of a term is provided in the text, supply in quotes within parentheses. If non-English terms occur frequently or are integral to the text, use roman type throughout. If a term appears in standard English dictionaries without italics, it should be set in roman (e.g. “sitar”, “a cappella”, “avant-garde”). 
  • Include personal communications in reference list entries.
  • Individual song titles should be in quotes. Song titles in non-English languages should also be in quotes and not italicized. Long-form musical works and album titles should be italicized. 

Manuscript Layout

Formatting requirements in these guidelines apply to manuscript preparation only and are intended to ensure clarity during review and editing. Final published articles will be styled and typeset according to the journal’s house style, which may differ from the manuscript format.

Submit manuscripts in Microsoft Word file format (.docx or .doc) with minimal formatting:

  • Use sentence case for text body and title case for section headings.
  • Do not use page breaks.
  • Text must be left-aligned.
  • Use 12-point Times New Roman font throughout. 
  • Do not apply styles to section headings.
  • Do not include page numbers, headers or footers.
  • Use 1.5 line spacing and default margins (1” top, bottom, left, right).
  • Do not indent paragraphs in the text body; use hanging indent in the References section.

Punctuation and spelling:

  • The serial (Oxford) comma is generally omitted. Use it only when needed to avoid ambiguity.
  • Place closing punctuation marks after the closing quotation mark.
  • Footnotes are used for “see also” type references and explanatory notes only.
  • Place footnotes at the end of a sentence or clause, following any punctuation except a dash.
  • Quotations of five lines or more should be set as indented block quotations, without quotation marks.
  • URLs are written out in full (e.g. https://www.example.org), not embedded as hyperlinks.
  • Spelling of organizations, people, and places should follow entries in VIAF.org or English language Wikipedia articles.
  • Use one space between sentences.

Figures and Tables

  • Figures and tables should be numbered consecutively (Figure 1, Figure 2; Table 1, Table 2).
  • Captions should be placed below figures and above tables, without text wrapping.
  • When citing a source within figures, full credit should be given within the caption, not in a footnote.
  • All figures and tables must be cited in the text. Images and tables should not appear without reference or discussion in the body of the article.
  • Illustrations must include captions with all necessary credits and acknowledgments at the time of submission.

Citations and References

    • In-text citations use Chicago Author-Date style: (LastName Year, page or page range), e.g. (Smith 2020, 45–47). Multiple works are listed separated by a semicolon, e.g. (Brown 2018; Green 2021).
    • Do not use three em-dashes for reference list entries with a repeated author or group of authors, but repeat the author's or authors' name(s). 
    • Do not use ibid.; repeat the author and year in every citation, omitting the year only when multiple references to the same work appear within one citation.
    • Translations or latinizations of titles of works in reference list entries should be placed in brackets. Translations of titles retain the formatting of the original.
  • Access dates should be included for online resources in reference list entries.
  • Include the place of publication where available.

Elements to include in references

Resource types frequently cited in IASA Journal articles come in a wide range of formats and contexts, each with unique characteristics that affect how they should be cited and referenced. This section identifies the key elements to include in reference list entries when documenting resource types commonly encountered in the field of audiovisual archiving. While specific elements may vary depending on the resource type, the goal is to provide clear, accurate, and retrievable information. Include all available listed elements below for a given resource.

Archival Material

Creator. Year. “Item Title or Description.” Collection Name, Collection Number, Series Number: Series Name, Box Number, Folder Number: Folder Name. City, Repository/Archive. Medium/Format. URL/DOI. Accessed Day Month Year. (if online). 

Field Recording
Performer. Year. Title of recording. Recorded by [recordist name], [location]. [Medium and item or collection identifier.] [Online recording.] Collection name, City, Repository or institution. URL. Accessed Day Month Year. 

Omit online elements and repository details if citing a physical item not accessed digitally.

Historic Single Recording 

Performer. Year. “Title”. Recording date, Recording location. Label Catalog number (optionally include matrix and take number), format. [Online recording.] Name of platform. URL. Accessed Day Month Year.

For a non-online historic recording, omit the platform name and digital access elements.

Liner Notes

Annotator Name, “Title of Liner Notes”, in Album Title, performed by Artist, Label, Year, medium. URL. Accessed Day Month Year. (if online)

Listserv Message

Sender. Year. “Subject Line of Message.” Message to List Name list, Day Month Year. URL. Accessed Day Month Year. (if archived online)

Personal Communications

Creator/Communicator. Year. “Description of Communication”. Type of Communication, Month Day, Year.

Oral History/Interview

Interviewee. Year. “Title or Description of Interview.” Interview by Interviewer, Date of interview. [Medium/Format.] URL/DOI. Accessed Day Month Year. (if available online)

Omit bracketed elements if the interview is unpublished and not accessed online. Include elements from “Archival materials” example if recording or transcript is held by an institution.

Standards and Guidelines

Organization/Agency. Year. Title of Standard. Standard number. Edition. Publisher, Place of publication. URL/DOI. Accessed Day Month Year. (if available online)

Streaming Video

Creator/Uploader. Year. “Title of Video”. [Platform Name, duration if known.] Uploaded Day Month Year. URL. Accessed Day Month Year. 

Copyright Notice

Unless stated otherwise, authors license their work under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en). It is the author’s responsibility to secure permissions for images utilized in the text or if unpublished research is referenced or quoted. If multiple authors are listed, all must approve of the submitted manuscript. Text and accompanying materials may not infringe copyright or other rights elsewhere.