HOW TO PROPOSE A MANUSCRIPT
Before you submit your work
Take time to read the “Book Proposals” guidelines below.
Contact us
Once you have read the “Book Proposals” guidelines and feel ready to submit a manuscript, please contact us at iajs@bc.edu.
A note on peer review
Your completed manuscript will undergo a thorough peer review. A decision on your proposal is normally made within six weeks, on the basis of the peer-review reports and the advice of the editorial board.
BOOK PROPOSALS
Please take note of the following questions and guidelines before submitting a book proposal to the editor of Jesuit Sources
Aims & Scope
Include a one to two page overview of the work and how it contributes to scholarship. If the project is based on your doctoral thesis, please state how it will be amended to become a book.
Table of Contents
Please provide an annotated outline, including an abstract of each chapter. If the project is an edited volume, please include the names and affiliations of the contributors. Indicate if any of this information is subject to change.
Sample
If available, include some representative material for the project. This would include the introduction, a sample chapter, and, if applicable, a brief description of special production issues such as artwork or non‐Western scripts.
Length
Estimate the length of the project (number of words including footnotes, number of illustrations, maps, and tables). Jesuit Sources does not typically consider manuscripts of fewer than 100,000 words.
Time Schedule
What is the proposed submission date of the completed manuscript for review?
Market
Whom does the book’s prospective readership include?
Exclusivity
Are you submitting the proposal to a number of prospective publishers or only to Jesuit Sources? Please include a sentence or two explaining why you are submitting the proposal to Jesuit Sources. As a rule, we will not start formal review rounds while your work is being considered by another publisher.
CV
Please include a resume of your work experience and publication history.
Your Proposal
You may use the questions below as supplemental guides in constructing your proposal.
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Who will be the likely readers of this project?
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What academic societies or sections of major societies will be most interested in this work?
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What professional groups will be most interested in this work?
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How will they use the material?
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Does the approach taken in the project represent a departure from, or extension of, conventional wisdom? How will this contribute to the discipline?
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Is the project a monograph or an edited volume? Is a table of contents available? Sample chapters? Abstracts of chapters?
What Happens Next?
Each proposal receives a thorough evaluation. We usually let you know within one week if we would like to see the completed manuscript.
Peer Review
In general only final manuscripts are sent for peer review, in most cases to one or two readers. We endeavor to keep the review process blind, i.e. the author does not know the name of the reviewer. Sometimes the reviewer allows us to give their name to the author for further correspondence and advice.
The reviewer may make suggestions for improvement, but the review is not meant to provide detailed advice on how to proceed with the finalization of the manuscript or what approach to take. Decisions by Jesuit Sources usually come in one of three forms:
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Negative decision: Jesuit Sources declines your manuscript for publication.
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Positive decision, conditional on revision: the reviewer and/or the editorial board offers conditional publication, based on certain revisions. After revision the manuscript will be returned to the reviewer and/or the editorial board. Some advice may not be conditional but will be left to the author’s discretion. A contract or letter of intent to publish may be offered, depending on the amount of revision needed.
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Positive decision: the editor offers a contract for publication based on the existing manuscript.
It usually takes around six weeks before a report is sent.
Contract
Typically we offer a contract for publication only after we have received a positive recommendation following the peer‐review process. In some cases the editor may decide to offer a contract on the basis of a proposal alone. However, publication would then still be dependent on a positive outcome of the peer‐review process. Contracts for edited volumes are signed by the editor or editors and contributors are asked to sign separate consent‐to‐publish forms.