Studia Liturgica

Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Studia Liturgica

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/stl to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Studia Liturgica will be reviewed.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you

1. What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper
2. Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
3. Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving
4. Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Language
4.2 Formatting
4.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.4 Supplementary material
4.5 Reference style
4.6 English language editing services
5. Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions
6. On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article
7. Further information

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Studia Liturgica, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

1.2 Article Types

The Editorial Board welcomes for consideration articles that match the quality and interest generally characteristic of Studia Liturgica, including papers from diverse traditions, cultures, and geographic regions. Illustrative line drawings, charts/tables, and high contrast black & white photos are encouraged. Please refer to section 4.3 on artwork, figures and other graphics for further information.

Original articles normally should not exceed 6,000 words in length, including notes. Articles should be submitted as “ready for publication”.

While Studia Liturgica is an international review with contributors and readers in many parts of the world, articles are usually published only in English. Please refer to section 4.1 on Language or further information.

1.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

Studia Liturgica adheres to a rigorous double-blind reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties.

The journal operates a strictly blinded peer review process in which the reviewer’s name is withheld from the author and, the author’s name from the reviewer. The reviewer may at their own discretion opt to reveal their name to the author in their review but our standard policy practice is for both identities to remain concealed.

Authors always should keep for themselves a copy of the article submitted for purposes of comparison.

2.2 Authorship

All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

2.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

2.3.1 Third party submissions

Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

2.3.2 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

2.4 Funding

Studia Liturgica requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

Studia Liturgica encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

3. Publishing Policies

3.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.

3.1.1 Plagiarism

Studia Liturgica and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software.

Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

3.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.

3.3 Open access and author archiving

Studia Liturgica offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

Please see below for Style Guidelines for contributors for Studia Liturgica.

4.1 Language

While Studia Liturgica is an international review with contributors and readers in many parts of the world, articles are usually published only in English.

Authors whose first language is not English should, where necessary and possible, secure the help of a person of English mother-tongue in order to ensure that their text accurately expresses their meaning.

Please refer to section 4.6 for more information on professional English Language Editing Services.

If the article was written first in another language, a copy of the text in the original language should be submitted to the editor. In some rare cases, the editors themselves may be able to arrange for a translation into English.

As a matter of principle, gender-inclusive language is used when referring to human beings.

4.1.1 Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Coptic lettering

When the lettering of ancient languages is included in the essay, please use the fonts available here.

SPTiberian is preferred for Hebrew; SPIonic for Greek; SPEdessa for Syriac; and SPAchmim for Coptic.

When the preference is to transliterate individual words or book titles cited in Hebrew, Greek, or other alphabets, care should be taken to write them accurately.

4.1.2 Spelling, Punctuation, and Capitalization

American spelling and punctuation conventions should be adopted.

The general rule regarding capitalization is that lower case is to be preferred except when clarity of meaning demands capitalization. Thus:

Initial capitals should be used for nominal references to the persons of the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), but pronouns referring to them should be lower case initials (he; who).

The word “Church” should have an initial capital where it denotes a specific denomination or building (the Methodist Church, the Church of the Holy Nativity), but otherwise the church universal should be written as “church.” “Bible” is given an initial capital but “scripture” is not.

Names of liturgical rites normally take a lower-case initial (e.g., baptism, eucharist, Lord’s supper, matins, evening prayer) as do names of types of liturgical books (missal, lectionary), but initial capitals are used for the titles of specific texts or for the names of rites in a particular service book (the Leonine Sacramentary, the Order for Morning Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer); and other terms, as for example “confirmation” and “mass,” may sometimes require capitalization for the sake of clarity.

4.1.3 Numbers

In the body of the text, words should generally be used for numbers less than 100 (thirty-one, not 31; the seventeenth century, not the 17th century) and figures for numbers 100 and higher (125; 5,673; 842).

Where figures are used, whether in the body of the text or in notes, and especially in page references, the following forms of expression should be adopted: 71-79, 107-8, 121-31, 1985-986.

In bibliographical citations, Arabic rather than Roman numerals are preferred for volume numbers.

4.2 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. Word templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

Articles should be typed, double-spaced, and one (1) inch margins on all four sides.

Margins should be justified on the left, but not on the right.

Block quotes should be indented and single-spaced.

The article should be divided into sections by sub-heads/titles with Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3…); then sub-sections (within sections) by sub-sub heads/titles with Arabic double numeration (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4…).

If necessary, further subdivisions may be indicated by Arabic triple numeration (1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, 1.1.4 …) but, normally, no titles.

All new paragraphs should be indented from the margin.

Non-English words and other expressions requiring such should be italicized. NOTE, however, that op. cit., ibid., and similar Latin abbreviations should not be italicized, nor words such as “anamnesis” and “epiclesis,” which have become standard technical terms.

4.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.

4.4 Supplementary material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.

4.5 Reference style

Studia Liturgica adheres to The Chicago Manual of Style. If in doubt, please view the most recent Chicago Manual of Style guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

All titles (periodicals, books, encyclopaedias, multivolume works) should receive a full bibliographical citation in a note the first time they are mentioned, including place of publication and publisher.

Titles of journals or dictionaries can be abbreviated or identified only by initial letters, but at the first appearance should be written out in full. Books cited that are referred to in subsequent notes may be identified by the author’s last name, short title, and the appropriate page numbers(s).

At the first appearance, the full name of the author should be given (including the author’s first name).

The following examples indicate the style to be adopted.

Citation of a whole book:
Jean-Paul Audet, La Didachè: Instructions des apôtres (Paris: Librairie Lecoffre, 1958).

Josef A. Jungmann, The Early Liturgy to the Time of Gregory the Great, trans. Francis A. Brunner (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1959).

Books that are part of a series:
F. van de Paverd, Zur Geschichte der Messliturgie in Antiocheia und Konstantinopelgegen Ende des vierten Jahrhunderts, Orientalia Christiana Analecta 187 (Rome: Pontificium Institutum Orientalium Studiorum, 1970).

Edited works may be cited in one of two ways:
Cheslyn Jones, Geoffrey Wainwright, and Edward Yarnold, eds., The Study of Liturgy (London: SPCK; New York: Oxford University Press, 1978).

Symbol and Art in Worship ( = Concilium 132), ed. Luis Maldonado and David M. Power (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark; New York: Seabury, 1980).

Citation of articles in journals or of selected pages from a book:
Anscar J. Chupungco, “A Definition of Liturgical Inculturation,” Ecclesia Orans 5 (1983) 11-23.

R. C. D. Jasper and Geoffrey J. Cuming, eds., Prayers of the Eucharist: Early and Reformed, 3d ed. (New York: Pueblo, 1987) 137 [hereafter cited as PEER].

Pierre Maraval, ed., Égérie. Journal de Voyage, Sources chrétiennes 296 (Paris: Cerf, 1982) 7-9, 13-17.

Ruth A. Meyers, “Journeys of Faith: Current Practices of Christian Initiation,” in The Conviction of Things Not Seen, ed. Todd E. Johnson (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Brazos, 2002) 84-88.

Citation of dictionaries and encyclopedias:
Dorothea Sattler, “Apostolisches Glaubensbekenntnis,” in Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. Walter Kasper et al., vol. 1, 3rd ed. (Freiburg: Herder, 1993) 878-80.

Citation of unpublished and non-print material:
Christian McConnell, “Baptism in Visigothic Spain” (PhD diss., University of Notre Dame, 2005).

Roman Catholic Church, Sacrosanctum Concilium, http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents....

Biblical Citations
The names of biblical books should be written in full unless they appear within parentheses or footnotes. Then the following abbreviations should be used:

Gen, Exod, Lev, Num, Deut, Josh, Judg, 1 Sam/2 Sam, 1 Kgs/2 Kgs, Isa, Jer, Ezek, Hos, Joel, Amos, Obad, Jonah, Mic, Nah, Hab, Zeph, Hag, Zech, Mal, Ps or Pss, Job, Prov, Ruth, Cant, Eccl or Qoh, Lam, Esth, Dan, Ezra, Neh, 1 Chr/2 Chr, 1 Kgdms (2, 3, 4), Add Esth, Bar, Bel, 1 Esdr (2, 3, 4), 4 Ezra (5, 6), Jdt, Let Jer, 1 Macc (2, 3, 4), Pr Azar, Pr Man, Sir, Sus, Tob, Wis, Matt, Mar, Luke, John, Acts, Rom, 1 Cor/2 Cor, Gal, Eph, Phil, Col, 1 Thess/2 Thess, 1 Tim/2 Tim, Titus, Phlm, Heb, Jas, 1 Pet/2 Pet, 1 John (2, 3), Jude, Rev.

Other matters of Style
For pages and biblical verses, hyphens should be used.

For indicating book chapters, dates, and opposing/linked components, an endash should be used.

For B.C., B.C.E., A.D., use small caps.

4.5.1 Explanatory notes

Explanatory notes should be numbered consecutively throughout the article, and should be placed at the foot of each page. Automatic footnoting is preferred.

Note: numbers should be superscripted, and placed after any closing punctuation in the body of the text as follows.

4.6 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

5. Submitting your manuscript

Studia Liturgica is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/stl to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

Each manuscript should contain:

A cover sheet with the following information:

• Full title and subtitle (if any).
• A short author biographical note, including details of your current position, church allegiance and institution.
• For the purposes of blind refereeing (submissions will be refereed anonymously by at least two referees), full name of each author with current affiliation and full address/phone/fax/email details plus short biographical note should be supplied on this sheet, but should not appear in the main body of the article.
• Abstract of 100-150 words.
• Up to 10 key words.

The full text of the article containing:

• The abstract.
• Word count suggested target for the main text is about 6000 words. Text to be clearly organized, with a clear hierarchy of headings and subheadings and quotations exceeding 40 words displayed, indented, in the text. Texts of a length greatly exceeding this will be considered as interest warrants and space permits.
• End notes, if necessary, should be signalled by superscript numbers in the main text and listed at the end of the text before the references.
• Contributors are requested to submit their articles anonymised in order to assist the peer review process.

5.1 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities ensuring that their work is recognised.

We encourage all authors to add their ORCIDs to their Sage Track accounts and include their ORCIDs as part of the submission process. If you don’t already have one you can create one here.

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

5.3 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.

6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly.  Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. 

6.2 Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

6.3 Access to your published article

Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.

7. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Studia Liturgica editorial office as follows:

Peter C. Bower, Editor-in-chief
Studia Liturgica
587 Moorhead Place
Pittsburgh, PA 15232-1426
USA
Email: PBowerStudiaLit@aol.com