Editorial Policy

Harvard Studies in Classical Philology has been published by Harvard’s Department of the Classics since 1862. HSCP welcomes articles dealing with all aspects of the civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome and adheres to an inclusive definition of what constitutes philology. In addition to scholarship on language and written texts from the ancient world, HSCP publishes work, for example, on ancient history, philosophy, art history, and the reception of classical culture in late antiquity, the medieval period, and beyond.

All submissions should be made via our Scholastica website. Please direct questions to the Managing Editor, Ryan Pasco, at hscp@fas.harvard.edu.

Current evaluation time (from submission to decision) is four months.

Submissions

All submissions should be made via our Scholastica site.

The instructions in this section should be followed when preparing your submission. It is not necessary for the initial submission to comply with the HSCP Style Sheet, but if the article is accepted, the author will be responsible for revising to conform to the HSCP style. For guidance on matters not treated below, contributors are urged to contact the Managing Editor or consult the Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition). HSCP uses a slightly modified version of Chicago’s “reference list” format.

Article Length

HSCP will not consider articles whose main text is longer than 12,000 words or whose total word count (including footnotes, bibliography, appendices, etc.) is greater than 15,000 words. In some cases, you may choose to divide a longer paper into two completely independent articles and submit them separately. If you submit them both to HSCP, each will be evaluated on its own merits with no guarantee that either would be published; nor, if both are accepted, is there any guarantee that they will appear in the same volume.

Whatever the length of the manuscript, all writing should be clear and concise.

File format

For the initial submission, PDF is the preferred format as it avoids most of the problems caused by incompatible fonts, but if the article is accepted, an editable electronic version (in Word) will be required. Authors are expected to keep up-to-date copies of their submissions. All manuscripts should be double-spaced, with 12-point font and one inch margins. Please also be sure to number all pages.

Fonts

Use a Unicode font (either a specialist one, e.g., New Athena Unicode, Gentium-Plus, or an up-to-date version of a standard one, e.g., Times New Roman or Palatino). Most computers come with at least one font that includes polytonic (ancient) Greek characters. Unicode is the current encoding standard for all languages, and has been supported in Word for Mac since 2004 (and earlier in Word for Windows). All modern word processors (such as Pages, OpenOffice, NeoOffice, and Mellel) support Unicode fonts. Older fonts may be used if the initial submission is made in PDF format, but the author is responsible for updating Greek or anything else outside of the western roman character set to a Unicode font for publication.
Proofreading

All manuscripts should be carefully proofread before submission. Non-native English speakers are strongly encouraged to have a native speaker, preferably one with knowledge of the field, edit their work before submission.

HSCP publishes in American English; articles in British English will be adapted for publication, if accepted.

Citations

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of all citations and quotations, which should be verified before manuscripts are submitted. Please indicate which editions of ancient texts you have used, in the notes and/or in the bibliography.

Images

Line drawings and photographs may be embedded in the PDF (and of lower quality) for the initial submission, but if an article is accepted, the author must supply high-quality digital images as separate files.

When preparing images that include text, such as maps, please bear in mind that they may need to be reduced to fit the 4 by 6.5 inches of usable space (the “text block”) on the HSCP page—a space which must also include any caption, headings, vel sim.—and that any text within the image will shrink correspondingly. For example, a map prepared to print on 8.5-by-11 in. paper with 12-point type will become illegible when reduced to fit the HSCP text block. If there is text within the image, it should be sized to allow for shrinkage if the image as a whole is reduced.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce images. HSCP cannot subvent the cost of acquiring permissions.

Contact information

Be sure to keep your e-mail address current in your Scholastica account. Scholastica is the service that HSCP uses to manage submissions.

Ensuring anonymity

Authors are responsible for ensuring the anonymity of their submissions. Please take care to disguise internal references that could reveal the author’s identity; these citations can be adjusted later. Acknowledgments may be added in an unnumbered note after acceptance.

Be aware that electronic files store data about their creator. Delete this information using the instructions below.

Microsoft Word files

Choose File > Properties Click the Summary tab Delete identifying information 

PDF files (Acrobat Pro; you cannot directly edit PDF properties with Abode Reader or Preview)

Choose File > Properties Click the Description tab Delete identifying information