Contribution guidelines

Submissions
  • reCollections is published biannually, in April and October. However, as the publishing process is ongoing there are no specific deadlines and articles may be submitted at any time.
  • reCollections prefers articles up to 8000 words in length. However, submissions above this length may be considered at the editors' discretion. See 'About the journal' for acceptable themes and subject areas. We are also interested in other contributions such as letters to the editor, book reviews and exhibition reviews.
  • Articles should not have been previously published elsewhere or be under consideration by any other publisher in any form, print or digital.
  • If the manuscript is based on a lecture, reading, talk or other event, details should be supplied at the time of submission.
  • All articles must be submitted electronically, either by email to recollections@nma.gov.au or on a CD or DVD mailed to reCollections, Publishing Office, National Museum of Australia, GPO Box 1901, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia. Please provide your mailing address (including telephone, fax and email details) as well as title and institutional affiliation for each author.
  • Submissions should include, as separate files: a brief bio for each author; a separate abstract, approximately 75 words in length; the article; any accompanying images, tables or media (see 'File format' below).
  • As all submissions will be considered under the 'double blind' peer review system, please remove any identifying text from the article before submitting.
  • Authors are responsible for clearing all copyright and permissions before submitting their work, and for meeting any costs associated with this. A written declaration of clearance is required for each image, sound or video file included in an article.

    • Peer review and editorial processes
  • Articles will undergo the 'double blind' peer review system, and anonymous referees' reports will be forwarded to the authors.
  • Authors may be asked to revise articles prior to the peer review.
  • Other submissions, such as book or exhibition reviews, will not undergo the peer review process but may be edited prior to publication.
  • Authors will frequently be asked to revise their papers prior to acceptance for publication. If any in-house editing is done, authors will be given a final copy to approve prior to publication.

    • Document formatting
  • Articles will be published online in html format.
  • Generally, we will consider articles up to 7000 words. Longer articles may be accepted at the discretion of the editors.
  • Please divide your article into at least one heading level, to allow for online publishing in html format; do not use more than two heading levels. Level one headings must be indicated by <1> to the left of the heading text; level two headings by <2> to the left of the heading text.
  • Do not use headers, footers, or page numbers.
  • Paragraphs should be indicated by leaving a clear line after the preceding text. Do not number paragraphs.
  • Articles should be double spaced, left justified only, and typed in Times New Roman 12pt. Level 1 headings should be Times New Roman 14pt bold and level 2 headings Times New Roman 12pt bold.
  • Quotations longer than approximately 30 words should be separated from the main body of the text by a new paragraph and indented approximately 1 cm on both sides.
  • For referencing, use endnotes in the following formats:
    Jennifer Craik, The Face of Fashion: Cultural Studies in Fashion, Routledge, London, 1994, p. 161.
    Laura Baker, 'The way it was', Vanity Fair, vol. 10, no. 3, 1998, 58–69, p. 60.
  • Note the formatting for citing a newspaper source:
    Philip Lewis, 'The economics of the thing', Canberra Times [no 'the'], 27 September 2005, p. 83.
  • Note that titles of books and journals have maximal capitalisation, while titles of articles take sentence case (initial capital for title and sub-title only).
  • Every reference should finish with a full stop.
  • Show references to websites as www.nma.gov.au/collections/.

    • Style guide
  • For spelling, please refer to the latest edition of the Macquarie Dictionary.
  • Use italics to show emphasis; do not use bold or underlining.
  • Foreign words that do not appear in the Macquarie Dictionary should be italicised.
  • Use single, smart (curly) quote marks for shorter quotations, names of books, etc; do not use straight quotes. Double quote marks are used only for secondary quotations (a 'quote within a quote').
  • Dates are to be formatted as '1 January 2006'.
  • Full stops are not used after an abbreviation when the last letter of the abbreviation is the same as that of the contracted word, such as 'ed.' for 'editor' but 'eds' for 'editors'.
  • Use a single space after a full stop.
  • Acronyms and initials have no full stops or spaces, for example, CSIRO, Dr RO Smith.
  • Acronyms should be spelt out in full on their first use. Please note that the National Museum of Australia should be referred to as the 'Museum' rather than 'NMA'.
  • For maximum clarity please fully identify people and places referred to in the text, for example 'Broken Hill, in western New South Wales' or 'Craddock Morton, Director of the National Museum of Australia' rather than simply 'Broken Hill' or 'Craddock Morton'.
  • Maximal capitalisation is applied to titles of conferences, events, and books.
  • Headings take sentence case (initial capital only).
  • Numbers up to and including ten are spelt out in full; numbers above ten are shown in figures, unless they begin a sentence. Use figures when a unit of measurement accompanies the number, such as 5 per cent.
  • Please show spans of dates in the following format: 1926–34; 1900–02; but 1998–2002.
  • The -ise, -our and -re forms of words (for example 'sympathise', 'honour', 'centre', 'kilometre') are preferred unless the alternative form is part of an official title.
  • Please use the following preferred forms of common words: 'program', 'telegram', 'focused', 'travellers', 'coordinate', 'cooperate', 'email'.

    • File format
  • Authors are encouraged to make full use of online media and the inclusion of images, video and sound in the articles is welcomed.
  • Any images, tables, figures or other graphics that accompany submissions should be saved separately as individual files, one graphic per file, and sent with the submission as attachments to your email or on CD/DVD.
  • Please name each file with reference to the title of the article, then the form of the piece in the file; for example, files pertaining to an article on the labelling of exhibits would be named 'Exhibit labels - text', 'Exhibit labels - still image 1', 'Exhibit labels - audio'. The file names are for publishing purposes only and will not be used in the published journal.
  • Indicate clearly in the text where each file is to appear by inserting the name of the relevant file in square brackets, for example [Exhibit labels - still image 1].
  • Text should be submitted as MS Word files saved in rtf format.
  • Still images should be submitted in jpeg format. Please provide captions.
  • Sound should be submitted in wav or mp3 format.
  • Video should be submitted in mpeg4 (mov) format, and be accompanied by appropriate still images for use in the printed form of the journal.
  • For other multimedia content please consult the editors.