Submissions

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Author Guidelines

What we publish:

Past Imperfect welcomes original research articles and book reviews covering a broad range of times and places. The journal especially encourages the submission of revised term papers, conference presentations, or thesis chapters. 

Who can submit to Past Imperfect:

 To be published by Past Imperfect, you must be either:

  • a current graduate student at any post-secondary institution in any faculty, or
  • a recent alumnus of a graduate program (within the last 12 months).

Submission preparation checklist: 

Submissions that do not adhere to these guidelines will be returned to the author for revision.

*The submission cannot have been previously published, and cannot currently be before another journal for consideration.

*All submissions must be made through the Past Imperfect website and include:

  • One copy of your work, which must have all identifiers removed,
  • An abstract of no more than 300 words,
  • A cover page containing your email and a short biography (educational background, institutional affiliation if applicable, and area of research),
  • And three to five keywords that tag your submission.

Peer review process:

Submissions will undergo an anonymous review process by two to three reviewers (including at least one faculty member).

Reviewers make their recommendations for publication based on the following criteria:

  • Clarity and coherence
  • Structured and organized presentation
  • Adherence to the Chicago Manual of Style
  • Based on original research and primary sources
  • Sound methodology
  • Conversant with relevant literature
  • Sophisticated analysis

Submission Guidelines for Articles and Reviews

Authorship:  

Each submission must have a corresponding author, who is available throughout the submission and review process to respond to editorial or administrative inquiries from the journal. The corresponding author is also responsible for ensuring that all those who qualify for co-authorship are listed as such in the submission, and that all co-authors (including the faculty supervisor, if applicable) review and approve the final version of the submission for publication.

Authors are encouraged to provide or create an ORCID when submitting their work for publication in order to link their publications to a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes them from other researchers. For more information on ORCID please review the following library resource: https://www.library.ualberta.ca/research-support/orcid. 

Language: 

Submissions may be in English or French. Quotations in other languages must appear with English or French translations. 

Citations of languages using non-Latin scripts do not need to be transliterated, and use of the original script is encouraged. Authors are responsible for the production, copyediting, and proofing of text in non-Latin scripts.

Citation Style: 

Past Imperfect follows the Notes-Bibliography system of the Chicago Manual of Style. Citation guides are available here: guides.library.ualberta.ca/citing/chicago. 

Research Articles: 

Article submissions should include footnotes and a bibliography, and should normally not exceed 8,000-10,000 words in length (inclusive of footnotes, exclusive of bibliography). Submissions are evaluated for their clarity and coherence, structural organization, methodology, engagement with relevant literature, use of primary sources, and the sophistication of analysis.

Book Reviews: 

Book review submissions should include footnotes and a brief bibliography. They should be approximately 4-6 double-spaced pages in length. Works under review must have been published in the last five years.

Citations of the book in question should use in-text citations. Footnotes are to be used for citations of other scholars’ work and any additional explanatory material/commentary.

File format(s):  

Please submit the entire work (including the abstract, cover page, article or review, references, and all figures/tables) in Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, RTF, or Google Doc format. 

If your work is accepted for publication, we may request that figures and tables be provided as separate files for the production stage.

Images: 

  • When submitting images, please provide the highest-quality image possible (minimum 300dpi resolution).
  • For review purposes, all images should be included in numerical order at the end of your text document. If your work is accepted for publication, you may be asked to submit the original images as separate files.
  • All images must be numbered in the order in which they are referenced in the main text of the submission, and must include a descriptive caption.
  • For images of works of art, your descriptive caption should include: author name, title of work, year created, medium, dimensions, and date and location (incl. institution) of access.
  • Authors agree to determine, prior to publication, whether it is necessary to obtain permissions from any third party who holds rights with respect to any photographs, illustrations, drawings, text, or any other material (“third party work”) to be published in connection with your work. Copyright permission will not be necessary if the use is determined to be fair dealing, the work is in the public domain, or the rights-holder has granted a Creative Commons or similar licence. For any third party work included in your submission, please indicate in the caption whether permission is necessary, whether it has been granted, and details about what permissions have been granted.

Acknowledgements (for all non-author contributions): 

Authors are encouraged to include an acknowledgements section to list any contributions that do not meet the criteria for co-authorship. Examples include acknowledging funding agencies or sponsors for their support, and acknowledging those who were involved in the proofreading of the manuscript. Please note that Acknowledgements may be redacted from the submission prior to peer review in order to ensure anonymity of the submission. 

Submitting through the website:

For a tutorial on how to submit your files through the Open Journal System platform, please visit: https://openjournalsystems.com/ojs-3-user-guide/ (See Section 9: Authoring)

Please ensure that all authors on the submission are listed as contributors in the OJS Metadata form. All authors listed in OJS should receive email notification acknowledging the submission. 

You will also be prompted to paste the title and a copy of your abstract into the OJS Metadata form. Please note that reviewers do not have access to the submission metadata, so you must also include this information in your Word document. 

What happens after you submit:

Submission stage:

  • The Past Imperfect editorial board will do a preliminary review of your submission to ensure that the submission is complete, is an appropriate fit for the aims & scope of Past Imperfect and is of sufficient quality to proceed to peer review. 
  • If your submission meets these basic criteria, a corresponding editor will be assigned to handle your submission through the peer review process.   

Review stage:

  • Peer reviewers will be recruited and assigned to your submission. Reviewers will provide feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of your submission and provide a recommendation to the editors about whether they accept, decline, or request revisions on your submission.
  • Your corresponding editor will consolidate the information from all of the reviews and take their feedback into account when making a final assessment of your submission.  Based on the reviews, and in consultation with the Past Imperfect editorial board, the editor will then notify you of the editorial decision.  There are typically four possible outcomes:
    • Accept - the editor will provide details about what minor revisions are necessary and provide a deadline for submitting your revisions. 
    • Revisions Required - the editor will provide details about what revisions are necessary and provide a deadline for submitting your revisions. You will be asked to submit your revisions, along with an explanation of how you addressed any concerns from the reviewers. The editor will then record a final editorial decision. 
    • Decline - the editor will provide feedback explaining why your submission was not accepted for publication at this time. 
    • Revise & Resubmit - If there are major concerns with your submission that would require the submission to go through a new round of peer review, you may be asked to revise and resubmit for a future issue. Your submission would be treated as a “new” submission and would go through the peer review process again.

Copyediting stage: (Accepted submissions only)

  • Once you have submitted your revisions and they are accepted by the editor, your submission will be passed on to a copyeditor.
  • The copyeditor will review the submission for grammar, style, consistency, and formatting.
  • The copyeditor will notify you of any additional minor revisions that are necessary prior to publication, and will provide a deadline for submitting your copyedits.

Production stage: (Accepted submissions only)

  • Once you have provided a final, copyedited version of your submission, the editors will create a PDF proof of your submission, laid out in the Past Imperfect article template. 
  • The PDF will be sent to you to proofread. This is the final opportunity for you to review and make corrections to your submission prior to publication. You will normally be asked to notify your editor of any required corrections within one week.
  • You will also be asked at this stage to review and sign the Past Imperfect publication agreement. All co-authors must also sign the agreement. In the publication agreement, you must also designate the Creative Commons License you wish to assign to your submission.  

Publication - congratulations! 

Still have questions? 

Please feel free to contact the Past Imperfect team at pastimpe@ualberta.ca if you have any questions about submitting your work.

Copyright Notice

By signing the Past Imperfect publication agreement (download here), authors agree to the following:

  • The work has not been previously published in any format;
  • Past Imperfect is granted the royalty-free right to publish and disseminate the work in current and future formats;
  • The work will be published in Past Imperfect under a Creative Commons licence. All authors published in Past Imperfect retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under an International Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means that anyone may share, copy, and adapt the material for non-commercial purposes, as long as they credit the author and this journal and do not distribute the modified version.
    • Authors may however choose to have their work distributed under any of the Creative Commons licenses currently available by discussing with the editorial team. A description of the Creative Commons licences is available here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/
  • Authors retain their copyright, including the right to subsequently publish or disseminate their work elsewhere, provided that they make reasonable efforts to ensure that the publication in Past Imperfect is acknowledged. 
  • Authors agree to determine, prior to publication, whether it is necessary to obtain permissions from any third party who hold rights with respect to any photographs, illustrations, drawings, text, or any other material (“third party work”) to be published in connection with your work. Copyright permission will not be necessary if the use is determined to be fair dealing, if the work is in the public domain, or if the rights-holder has granted a Creative Commons or similar licence.
  • All co-authors and investigators (e.g. faculty supervisors) with claims to the intellectual property have read and signed the agreement, thereby providing their consent for the submission to be published in Past Imperfect. 

Unless otherwise specified, authors guarantee that all parts of the submission are the author’s original work. Submissions containing evidence of plagiarism will not be eligible for publication.

Privacy Statement

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