Guidelines for Submission of Articles to RBM

Instructions for authors

• Submit original, unpublished articles only. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the statements and sources in their articles. If the paper has been presented at a conference, identify the conference by name and date in a cover letter. Include the name of the sponsoring organization of the conference.
• Articles are to be double-spaced. The title, name, and affiliation of the author should precede the text. Articles usually range in length from three thousand to five thousand words, although longer texts are occasionally received. Please submit a floppy disk with the text in Microsoft Word and one print copy. Alternatively, submission of a Word file by e-mail attachment is encouraged.
• Bibliographical references are to be consecutively numbered throughout the manuscript, and should be formatted as footnotes.
• Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary(supported by Webster's Third International) or the new (second) edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Languagefor spelling and usage; prefer the first spelling if there is a choice. Verify the spelling and accuracy of names in an appropriate reference work.
• The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003) as authority for capitalization, punctuation, quotations, tables, captions, and all matters of bibliographical style.
• In general, follow the practices recommended by The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed., with these exceptions: cite journal articles according to author's first name or initials, author's surname, title of article, title of journal, volume number, issue number, issue date, and page references. E.g.: Ralph Fabrizio, Ira Kaplan, and Gilbert Teal, "Readability As a Function of the Straightness of Right-Hand Margins," Journal of Typographic Research1.1 (January 1967): 90-95.
• Submit each table and illustration on a separate page. Indicate the desired placement in the text by adding an instruction in parentheses; e.g.: (Insert table 2). Provide a brief caption for each illustration or table. Type all tables double-spaced and follow the examples in The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed., in constructing the tables, omitting the vertical lines to indicate columns. Use tables sparingly.
• Submit original, camera-ready art or digital files for photographs, illustrations, figures, and graphs, and supply information for a credit line if needed. Please protect camera-ready copy when mailing your article. All original, camera-ready art will be returned to the author(s) after publication. Digital files should be grayscale, TIFF format, and a minimum of 300dpi.

Subject Content

RBM publishes articles on the theory and practice of special collections and related fields. For example, the journal will consider items on acquisition and collection development; access to and use of special collections; conservation and preservation; cataloging of special materials; security; fundraising; donor relations; computer applications and the impact of electronic communication and data storage on cultural heritage institutions; exhibition preparation; historical articles; legal and ethical issues; trends in the antiquarian market; and other topics.

Publication

If accepted for publication, the manuscript is generally published from six to nine months after acceptance (depending on the supply of accepted manuscripts). The manuscript will be edited to conform to the style of the journal, and the editor may suggest changes to the author.

ACRL, as publisher of RBM, supports copyright retention by submitting authors.