Over the last volume year the total number of submissions was sixty-two, and I remain pleased with the quality of manuscripts we are receiving. Our acceptance-to-publication timeframe is approximately nine months.
Deep thanks and appreciation go to Dan Bowell (Taylor University), outgoing Book Review Editor, and Niva Tro (Westmont College), outgoing Associate Editor for Natural Science, for their invaluable service to CSR; they have done a wonderful job ensuring the high quality of the scholarly book reviews and essays that we publish. We welcome Todd Ream (Indiana Wesleyan University) and Perry Glanzer (Baylor University) as our new Book Review Editors and Don Petcher (Covenant College) as our new Associate Editor for Natural Sciences.
The theme issue for summer 2010 is “Christian Higher Education as Character Formation.” Guest editors are Shawn Floyd (philosophy), Stephen Moroney (theology), Matthew Phelps (psychology), and Scott Waalkes (political science) of Malone College. Articles should be submitted via e-mail to the lead guest editor, Matthew Phelps (mphelps@malone.edu). Submission deadline is September 15, 2009. The theme issue for summer 2011, “Reel Presence: Intersections between Faith & Film,” will be guest edited by Craig Detweiler (Fuller Theological Seminary) and S. Bradley Shaw (Greenville College). Articles should be submitted via email to Professor Shaw (brad.shaw@greenville.edu). If you have questions about the appropriateness of manuscript topics, please contact Professor Shaw via e-mail. Submission deadline is September 30, 2010.
I have enjoyed this past year and look forward to 2009-10.
Don W. King
Montreat College
Montreat, NC
August 4, 2009
Guidelines for Contributors
Those who contemplate submitting an article for publication in CSR, or who intend to write an article for the journal, should be guided by the policy statement found on the inside front cover of each issue. They should also, if possible, look at back numbers of CSR for specimens of articles that have been found suitable in length, subject matter, level of scholarship, and approach. Though the editorial staff has undergone changes from time to time, it is safe to assume that CSR’s past and present is a reasonably reliable indicator of its future criteria for editorial evaluation of submitted manuscripts.
It may be useful to add some information about editorial practice and policy:
1. Editorial handling of manuscripts
a. An author need not be a faculty member of a sponsoring institution. Submissions are welcome at any time from any person; however, authors should not make simultaneous submission to CSR and another journal.
b. Manuscripts that are to be considered for publication as articles or responses should be sent to the editor (Don W. King) with the author’s name deleted and in electronic format using Word or WordPerfect on a Windows compatible disk or as an e-mail attachment; one hard copy should also be sent to the editor. The author should also provide an e-mail address. Manuscripts that are to be considered for publication as book reviews should be sent to the book review editors: Todd Ream (Todd.Ream@indwes.edu) or Perry Glanzer (Perry_Glanzer@baylor.edu).
c. Manuscripts will be screened by the editor. If a manuscript is obviously unpublishable, it will be returned to the author promptly (if a S.A.S.E. was provided) with an explanation. If worthy of further consideration, it will be acknowledged and placed in the hands of an associate editor for evaluation, usually with the advice of referees. The final decision about publication is made by the editor, who will inform the author. The process normally takes from three to six months.
d. The editor and associate editors will be aware of the contributor’s identity, but it is CSR’s policy to send submissions to referees “blind,” without identifying the authors. In pursuance of this policy, it is requested that authors identify themselves only in a separate cover letter.
2. Criteria for publishable articles
a. Length: Typically 15 to 25 pages of double-spaced text for articles; 2 to 3 pages for responses; 3 to 5 pages for reflection pieces.
b. Fit: The article should be written for CSR with a view to its particular standards and purpose. Unrevised lectures, chapel talks, and the like are not acceptable.
c. Currency: Since CSR is a journal, its articles should address matters of current importance. When the subject matter is one of the “perennial questions,” the author should do more than repeat what has been said already in places that are readily accessible to other scholars.
d. Scholarly level: CSR accepts no undergraduate papers. It accepts interpretive or critical summaries of one or more books, poems, stories, etc., only if in the judgment of the editors the author ’s contribution is significantly original. The ideal CSR article reveals a quality of scholarly depth, of mastery without ostentation. A specialist in the field of the article should be able to tell that the author knows the relevant problems, arguments and literature pertaining to the subject; a non-specialist, on the other hand, should not feel excluded from a private scholarly domain.
e. Interdisciplinary breadth: Since CSR intends to be attractive and intelligible to scholars in all disciplines, its authors are asked to make a particular effort to communicate across disciplinary lines. They should avoid, where possible, esoteric language, and they should not presuppose information normally possessed only by specialists. Opening sentences and paragraphs are especially important: if they are clear and provocative, they will help to draw the reader into the essay.
f. Christian perspective: The author may assume that his or her readers are generally familiar with, and sympathetic to, the Christian religion. While this assumption does not preclude articles that address topics in apologetics and philosophy of religion, including discussion of the rational justification of Christian belief, it does free the author from an obligation to provide such justification. Most sponsoring institutions of the CSR are evangelical and Protestant; its editorial policy, however, is ecumenical.
3. Style
a. Submit your manuscript in electronic format using Word or WordPerfecton a Windows compatible disk or as an e-mail attachment; also send one hard copy to the editor.
b. Ensure that your final manuscript follows The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition; manuscripts cannot be published until they are prepared according to The Chicago Manual of Style.
c. Follow Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition, for spelling and hyphenation. Follow American rather than British rules for spelling. In languages other than English, insert all diacritical marks, preferably by using accents on the font being used. Avoid using e.g. or i.e.
d. All text (including extracts within the text, footnotes, etc.) must be double-spaced and in 12 point Times Roman font.
e. Except as listed below, avoid all typographic embellishments, including bold, italics, underline, centering, type ornaments (dingbats), and words typed in all capitals.
f. Type one space after periods, colons, and semicolons.
g. Footnotes rather than parenthetical citations should be used; refer to the Chicago Manual for formatting guidelines. Use superscript for the footnote numbers in the text and for the footnote numbers themselves. In the text, no space should precede the footnote number. In the footnotes, no period or space should follow the footnote number.
h. Book, journal, magazine, or film titles should be italicized rather than underlined.
i. Left justify all text; do not full justify. Begin new paragraphs by typing a hard return and indent each paragraph .5 inch using a tab; do not use the space bar to indent. Do not insert extra space between paragraphs. Extracts should be indented from the left margin .5 inch using the indent command in your word processing program.
j. If your manuscript is divided into parts, type each heading in bold. If your manuscript is divided into subparts, type each subheading in italics. Do not number headings or subheadings. Type all headings and subheadings in upper and lower case; avoid all capitals, underlining, or other embellishments.
k. Use the en dash and em dash as appropriate, rather than the hyphen or two hyphens.
l. Consult the Chicago Manual for proper capitalization (for example, Bible and Scripture are capitalized, but biblical and scriptural are not).
On formal matters, CSR follows traditional humanities style as set forth in the Chicago Manual of Style. If a manuscript, otherwise acceptable, needs considerable correction to make it conformable to the style manual (e.g., in footnotes), the editor may return the manuscript to the author for correction.
Within the above limits, and the more general canons of logic and language observed by all scholarly publications, the editors try not to deprive an author of his or her distinctive idiom. However, CSR follows an editorial policy of inclusive language with regard to references to humans. In particular, articles and book reviews (etc.) should be written to acknowledge and affirm both genders. The editors reserve the right to revise wording which fails to meet this criterion.
Referees for Volume XXXVIII
The Christian Scholar’s Review expresses its appreciation to the following persons who served as referees for submitted manuscripts during the year ending March 31, 2009. (Any omissions will be corrected if brought to the editor’s attention.) Because of the wide range of subjects covered by CSR, we are heavily dependent on the judgment and advice of our referees. Their recommendations have a significant influence on our selection of papers for publication, but perhaps their most important contribution lies in the constructive guidance they give to our authors; many an article has been greatly improved as a result of a referee’s suggestions. All this work—sometimes hours on a single manuscript—is done for the love of Christian scholarship, with no expectation of material reward. Our thanks, then, to those who contribute so much to making this journal possible:
Byard Bennett, Grand Rapids Theological Seminary
Jeremy Bergen, Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo, Ontario
Hessel Bouma, Calvin College
James Bradley, John Templeton Foundation
Giuseppe Butera, Providence College
Hans Bynagle, Whitworth College
G. William Carlson, Bethel College
Joel Carpenter, Calvin College
Shun-hing Chan, Hong Kong Baptist University
Darrell Cosden, Judson University
Laura DeHaan, Calvin College
Andrew Dell’Olio, Hope College
John Fea, Messiah College
Steward Goetz, Ursinus College
Carl Gwin, Pepperdine University
Gene Haas, Redeemer University College
Charles Hampton, The College of Wooster
David Hoekema, Calvin College
Brian Howell, Wheaton College
Russell Howell, Westmont College
Rhonda Jacobsen, Messiah College
Beth Felker Jones, Wheaton College
Kelly Kapic, Covenant College
Wayne Kobes, Dordt College
Jon Laansma, Wheaton College
Denis Lamoureux, St. Joseph’s College, University of Alberta
Robert Larmer, University of New Brunswick
David Meyer, Hope College
Eric Miller, Geneva College
Betsy Morgan, Eastern University
Gord Oeste, Heritage College and Seminary, Cambridge, Ontario
James Penning, Calvin College
James Peterson, McMaster Divinity School, Hamilton, Ontario
Matthew Phelps, Malone College
David Reiter, Erskine College
Bill Romanowski, Calvin College
Kurt Schafer, Calvin College
Jeff Schloss, Westmont College
Victor Shepherd, Tyndale College and Seminary, Toronto, Ontario
Todd Steen, Hope College
Gideon Strauss, Cardus
Jitse Van der meer, Redeemer University College
Christina Van Dyk, Calvin College
Albert Wolters, Redeemer University College
Terry Young, Pepperdine University
