BRIEF VERSION OF THE SSA STYLE SHEET (PDF VERSION)
For the convenience of contributors to Society publications, we are providing here a brief version of the SSA Style Sheet, covering the essential points of its application. Please pay special attention to the important note at the bottom of this webpage.
Authors whose work requires more detailed discussion of these points should consult the full version of the Style Sheet, in The American Journal of Semiotics 4.3-4 (1986), 193-215, or the Semiotics 1984 Proceedings volume, pp. 715-739 (PDF link also at the bottom of this page). In this brief version, we elaborate only on the principle unique to the SSA Style Sheet, the principle of the historical layering of sources.
Articles are to be submitted electronically in standard word processing format (.rtf, .doc, .docx and .odt formats are acceptable) with an accompanying pdf file for formatting verification. Submissions are to be typed double-spaced throughout the text, notes and references, with at least 1 inch top, bottom, and right margins, using 11 point type size for text, 10 point for extracts (block quotes) and the list of References, and 9 point for notes.
Manuscripts are to be prepared for blind-review, with a separate cover sheet with the author’s name and contact information. Manuscripts may be divided as appropriate into numbered sections with headings, not numbers alone. Single quotes are to be used within double quotes; brackets within parentheses; italics for emphasized expressions.
Abstract: Articles (not book reviews) must begin, under the title and byline, with an abstract (9 point) introduced by the formatted word Abstract:.
Keywords: The abstract needs to be followed with list of comma-separated keywords introduced by the formatted word Keywords:.
Illustrations, line drawings, graphics, and photographs (all called “Figures” in the text) are to be reproducible originals submitted in separate file sheets as embedded .jpeg or .png images, carefully numbered and labeled with captions, and placed at the end of the electronic document. The optimal placement of such pictorial elements is indicated within the text with the phrase “Insert Figure # here.” The original position may shift in final camera-ready copy.
Tables should be numbered consecutively, captioned or titled, and must be referred to in the Text as “Table #”. Avoid referring to the “preceding” or “following” table, since the original position may be shifted in the final camera-ready
preparation.
Notes should be kept to a minimum. To prepare your submission, preferably use a word-processing software that supports footnoting. Otherwise, type the notes on a separate page at the end of the electronic file (double-spaced throughout) but before the References.
References are to add to the current scientific practice the refinement of historical layering. That is to say, references should be cited in the text by giving, all within parentheses: the name of the author(s) and the year according to which the work cited from (called the source work) is properly located within the lifetime of the author(s) who produced it, followed by a colon, a space, and the specific page number(s) of the actual volume according to which the citation is made (called the access volume). Note that citations are called for whenever the work or text referred to is paraphrased or adduced to support some specific claim even in the absence of a quotation. Including page numbers (or at the very least a particular chapter or section number) should therefore be the default practice and seen as an indispensable scholarly service to readers.
Paying explicit and systematic attention to this distinction between source works and access works is all that is meant by the “PRINCIPLE OF HISTORICAL LAYERING”, and is the essence of the Style Sheet.
Accordingly, in those cases where source work and access volume differ, the relation of the two, including any discrepancy of dates and publishers, and mediator between source and access where there is the added discrepancy of language (i.e., the special case of translations), and whatever additional information or glosses seem useful, are given in the list of References at the end of the manuscript. This list is to be arranged alphabetically by last name of authors, all in capital letters.
PLEASE NOTE: Regarding the numerous stylistic, grammatical, and syntactical matters that are not discussed in the SSA Style Sheet, The American Journal of Semiotics has adopted (as of June 2021) the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, as its standard set of guidelines. TAJS editors will conform any text accepted for publication to CMOS recommendations, except for matters related either to bibliographical citations and references or to the placement of punctuation marks relative to quotation marks, the two matters specific to the SSA Style Sheet. Authors are encouraged to consult CMOS 17 whenever in doubt about style, syntax, punctuation, and grammar.
