Style
East Central Europe follows the Author-Date System of referencing commonly used by journals of the social sciences. For historians not too familiar with this form of in-text citation with minimal footnoting, a short primer on the matter will help to ensure that submitted articles follow the house style. The ECE author-date system is a slightly modified version of the Chicago Manual of Style’s instructions on reference lists and text citations (see 15th ed., 16:90–16:120).
For questions concerning editorial style, consult The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003). It contains numerous sample entries for both notes and bibliography, and authors are encouraged to consult them. Where appropriate, the author may follow a style that is specific to his or her discipline, provided the style is used consistently.
For questions concerning spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation, consult Webster’s Third New International Dictionary and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed.
The preferred language is American English, unless the author is a native speaker of British English.
Upon submission of an article, we request also a paragraph-long abstract of the work laying out the most important points as well as a short list of key words for the classification of the article, both immediately preceding the text of the article.
Quotations
If they are brief (5 lines or fewer), quotations should be run in with the text, using quotation marks (“ ”). Longer quotations should be indented, without quotation marks. All indented quotations should be typed double-spaced. Single quotes are discouraged, except for quotes within quotes.
Short words or phrases of a foreign language that precede or follow translations can be in italics without quotation marks. Longer, more complex sayings or excerpts should have quotation marks.
Footnotes
Authors should eliminate lengthy discursive footnotes either by omitting the material or by working it into the narrative body of the text.
Author-Date System
The author-date system places the citations directly into the text using an abbreviated system of referencing. As such, it eliminates already the majority of the footnotes, but it requires a reference list or bibliography at the very end of the article, which serves the purpose of a guide to the in-text abbreviations. ECE refers to their reference list as a bibliography, and it contains further elements of full bibliographies, such as fewer abbreviations. Thus the first and last names of authors are written out completely, or terms such as translator are usually not abbreviated. Also, though it is alphabetized according to authors’ names, several works from the same author are listed in sequence of date of publication.
The following is an example of how the in-text citation is meant to be embedded in the body of the article:
The composite term “transnational” was first coined by the German linguist Georg Curtius as early as 1862 (Saunier 2009: 1047). In social sciences, explicit transnational approaches first emerged in the 1970s in the field of international relations and, more recently, in world and global history. According to a pioneering definition advanced by Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, “transnational relations” describe “contacts, coalitions and interactions across state boundaries that are not controlled by the central foreign policy organs of government” (1971a: 331).
Above we see how the first citation mentions the author’s last name, date of work, and page source. The second instance mentions only the date and page number since it unambiguously refers to the authors in the same sentence. In most cases it is possible to add the citation at the end of the sentence, but for the sake of clarity, it can also be placed mid-sentence. See the following example:
In the 1930s, the concept of totalitarianism was transferred from the political to the academic realm, being increasingly employed by scholars in the United Kingdom and the United States as an overarching conceptual framework highlighting the similarities between Italian Fascism, German Nazism, and also Stalinism (Halberstam 1998), the latter being often labeled—in a controversial manner—“Red Fascism” (Adler and Paterson 1970).
(Excerpts are from Constantin Iordachi and Péter Apor, “Studying Communist Dictatorships: From Comparative to Transnational History,” East Central Europe 40, nos. 1–2 (2013): 1–35)
The following presents the varieties of in-text citation formats (note lack of difference between author and editor):
- 1 author or editor: (Verdery 1991: 134)
- 2 authors or editors: (Swain and Swain 1993: 19)
- 3 authors or editors: (Berger, Donovan, and Passmore 1999)
- 4 or more authors or editors: (Apor et al. 2004: 260)
- 2 or more works from the same author or editor: (Nebřenský 2011a: 152; 2011b)
- 2 or more works from different authors or editors: (Apor et al. 2004: 223; Swain and Swain 1993: 19; Piffer and Zubok 2011)
- citing a particular volume among several: (Haupt 2001, vol. 4: 399).
- citing in footnotes: 4. On his life and scholarly legacy, see Piffer and Zubok (2011: 170–211).
The author-date system also allows for further abbreviation of the same source if cited several times in close succession, but only when no other cited work comes in between. Thus one can write in the first instance: (Szűcs 1985: 137); second instance: (1985: 62); and third and more instances: (125).
Finally, archival references in the author-date system can be a bit tricky. One should give a shortened name or an acronym for the archive itself and the fond source, name and/or number. Often, the full identifying marks can be too long to easily include in the text, and thus it is possible to give an arbitrary number corresponding with a list in the bibliography. (In either scenario, full citation of all archival sources in the bibliography is necessary.) Thus an example from the Magyar Országos Levéltár, or Hungarian National Archives in Budapest, depending on the above factors, could appear as either:
(MOL, C 37, Acta Sanitatis, Lad. A./1763, 1769.) or (MOL 1), etc.
Bibliography
The bibliography should be alphabetized according to the last name of author. If more than one work is listed from an author(s), it should be listed in sequence of publication date, and not alphabetically by title. English titles should be capitalized according to headline style, meaning all words except conjunctions and articles, unless it is the first word of a sentence or after a colon. Three “em” dashes (———) denote the repetition of a name or names. An “en” dash (–) denotes a range of numbers or dates. See the following examples:
Mertelsmann, Olaf, ed. 2003. The Sovietization of the Baltic States, 1940–1956. Tartu: KLEIO Ajalookirjanduse Sihtasutus.
Nebřenský, Zdeněk. 2011a. “Die ‘Weltoffenheit’ der tschechoslowakischen und polnischen Jugend 1956-1968.” In Kulturtransfer aus Ostmitteleuropa als Herausforderung für die Zeitgeschichte Europas, Vergleichen, Verflechten, Verwirren? Europäische Geschichtsschreibung zwischen Theorie und Praxis, edited by Agnes Arndt, Joachim C. Häberlen, and Christiane Reinecke, 140–168. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
———. 2011b. “Die Repräsentationen studentischer Klubs in zentraleuropäischen Städten: Prag, Warschau und Bratislava in den 1960er Jahren.” Documenta Pragensia 30: 459–488.
Péteri, György. 2004. “Nylon Curtain: Transnational and Trans-Systemic Tendencies in the Cultural Life of State-Socialist Russia and East-Central Europe.” Slavonica 10, no. 2: 112–123.
———. 2008. “The Occident Within—or the Drive for Exceptionalism and Modernity.” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 9, no. 4 (Fall): 929–937.
Suny, Ronald Grigor. 1994. “Revision and Retreat in the Historiography of 1917: Social History and its Critics.” Russian Review 3, no. 2: 165–182.
———, and Michael D. Kennedy, eds. 1999. Intellectuals and the Articulation of the Nation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Swain, Geoffrey, and Nigel Swain. 1993. Eastern Europe since 1945. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Tóth, Eszter Zsófia. 2007. Puszi Kádár Jánosnak: Munkásnők élete a Kádár-korszakban mikrotörténeti megközelítésben [A kiss to János Kádár: Lives of women workers in the Kádár period in a microhistorical perspective]. Budapest: Napvilág.
Tucker, Robert C. 1967. “On the Comparative Study of Communism.” World Politics 19, no. 2: 242–257.
Verdery, Katherine. 1991. National Ideology under Socialism: Identity and Cultural Politics in Ceauşescu’s Romania. Berkeley: University of California Press.
If necessary, the bibliography can be subdivided into sections such as Primary Sources and Secondary Sources, or Archival Sources and Published Sources, which usually depends on the type of research conducted.
Book
- 1 author: Verdery, Katherine. 1991. National Ideology under Socialism: Identity and Cultural Politics in Ceauşescu’s Romania. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- 2 authors: Swain, Geoffrey, and Nigel Swain. 1993. Eastern Europe since 1945. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
- 4 or more authors: Apor, Balázs et al. 2004. The Leader Cult in Communist Dictatorships: Stalin and the Eastern Bloc. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- 1 editor: Mertelsmann, Olaf, ed. 2003. The Sovietization of the Baltic States, 1940–1956. Tartu: KLEIO Ajalookirjanduse Sihtasutus.
- 2 editors: Turner, Paul, and David Pitt Hadley, eds. The Anthropology of War and Peace. Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvery.
- 3 editors: Berger, Stefan, Mark Donovan, and Kevin Passmore, eds. 1999. Writing National Histories: Western Europe since 1800. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Chapter in a Book
- LaCapra, Dominick. 1994. “Rethinking Intellectual History and Reading Texts.” In Modern European Intellectual History, edited by Dominick La Capra and Steven L. Kaplan, 57–78. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994.
Note above that the page range of the chapter is located after the listing of editors.
Chapter in an edited Book
- Lüdtke, Alf. 1982. “The Historiography of Everyday Life: The Personal and the Political.” In Culture, Ideology and Politics: Essays for Eric Hobsbawm, edited by Raphael Samuel and Gareth Stedman Jones, 38–54. London: Routledge-Paul.
Chapter in a several volume Book
- Haupt, Heinz-Gerhard. 2001. “Comparative History.” In vol. 4 of International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, edited by Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes, 397–403. Amsterdam: Elseviert.
- Linz, Juan J. 1975. “Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes.” In Handbook of Political Science, vol. 3: Macropolitical Theory, edited by Fred I. Greenstein and Nelson W. Polsby, 175–411. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Translator in addition to author
- Iorga, Nicolae. 2000 [1935]. Byzantium after Byzantium. Translated by Laura Treptow. Iaşi, Oxford, Portland: The Centre for Romanian Studies. Originally published in 1935.
Article
- Péteri, György. 2004. “Nylon Curtain: Transnational and Trans-Systemic Tendencies in the Cultural Life of State-Socialist Russia and East-Central Europe.” Slavonica 10, no. 2: 112–123.
- David-Fox, Michael. 2003. “Stalinist Westernizer? Aleksandr Arosev’s Literary and Political Depictions of Europe.” Slavic Review 62, no. 4 (Winter): 733–759.
Note in the above cases that volume number follows directly after the periodical name without punctuation. In the case that only an issue number can be located, then a comma separates it from the title.
Translation of titles into English
Directly following foreign titles (except for German and French) in your bibliography, please insert an English translation in sentence style in square brackets [ ] (no quotes, no underlining, and only the first word and proper names capitalized).
- Tóth, Eszter Zsófia. 2007. Puszi Kádár Jánosnak: Munkásnők élete a Kádár-korszakban mikrotörténeti megközelítésben [A kiss to János Kádár: Lives of women workers in the Kádár period in a microhistorical perspective]. Budapest: Napvilág.
- Lipatov, Aleksandr Vladimirovich. 1995. “Prosveshchenie: Antinomii i edinstvo epokhi” [The Enlightenment: Antinomies and the unity of the epoch]. Slavianovedenie, no. 1: 40–49.
- Gyáni, Gábor. 2008. “Keleti és nyugati hatvannyolc: különbözőség és egység” [Eastern and western ’68: difference and unity]. Mozgó Világ 34, no. 8: 29–34.
Archival Sources
- Magyar Országos Levéltár (MOL), Budapest (Hungarian National Archives), C 37 (Acta Sanitatis), Lad. A./1763, 1769.
- MOL, C 66 (Departamentum Sanitatis) Nr. 43/1785–86.
- Országos Széchényi Könyvtár Kézirattára (OSZKK), Budapest (Manuscript Collection of the National Library), Quart. 1980.
Transliteration and Foreign Names
For transliteration from the Cyrillic alphabet we prefer the Library of Congress Transliteration System. In the bibliography, the Cyrillic original can be added in parentheses after the full reference. In some cases, titles should remain in original alphabet with translations in brackets, such as in Greek, but the names of author, editor, and publisher require transliteration.
The name of the publisher should be that of the original imprint and date of publication (the names of some publishers have undergone changes over the years). Publishers’ names must be completely spelled out. Names of cities in the region should be given in the internationally recognized English version, where applicable:
Belgrade, not Beograd; Cracow, not Krakow; Frankfurt, not Frankfurt am Main
Given that localities in this region have had different names over the centuries and sometimes 2 or 3 names concomitantly, the author is advised to explain in a footnote the choice of name and to follow this choice throughout the paper.
If the publisher has several locations, choose either the headquarters or the location of first publication. Avoid the following: Wien–Köln–Weimar: Böhlau. Choose rather Vienna: Böhlau; or Cologne: Böhlau.
There are cases of joint publication, however, which will require information on both publishing houses:
Trencsényi, Balázs et al., eds. 2001. Nation-Building and Contested Identities: Romanian and Hungarian Case Studies. Budapest; Iaşi: Regio Books; Polirom.
If the city of publication is not widely known, the abbreviation of the state name should follow it. For example:
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1975.
The state of publication should be abbreviated in the following manner: NY, not N.Y.; CT, not Conn.; MA, not Mass.
However, in many instances, such as with state university presses, the location of the state or province quickly becomes evident, thus not requiring its repetition: Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1998; not Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1998.
Internationally renowned characters will be referred to by their English name: Pope John Paul II, William II, etc. Historical actors of less international fame will keep their original name.
Tables
Tables should be numbered and identified by number and by title. (For example: Table 3 Agricultural Production, 1935-1945.)
Illustrations
Photographs. When submitting the final version of the manuscript, please send us original photographs with good tonal range, preferably 8” x 10” or 5” x 7”, or scanned with high resolution. Photographs cut from or shot from printed material are not recommended because they have already been screened for the printing process and will reproduce poorly if screened again. Although as a rule we will not reproduce from photocopies, we would consider high resolution photocopies, provided they are submitted early in the consideration process.
Captions. Illustrations should also be accompanied by a list of their captions, typed double spaced. Identify the illustration by its number, describe it with a concise caption (include the location and date, if relevant/known), cite the full source, and acknowledge credit (permission granted). For art images, captions should include the artist’s name (if relevant/known), title and/or description of the artwork, year of the artwork, year or time period (if known), medium, size, and archival location.
