Author Guidelines

Please submit your article via our Submissions portal. Your article will be assessed by the Editorial Board of Historical Life Course Studies. All submission are peer reviewed. For the editorial procedure, please consult the Editorial Statute. A sample of the Publication and Copyright Agreement to be signed by the authors can be found here. 

In principle Historical Life Course Studies accepts only original manuscripts. Under certain circumstances it is possible to deviate from this rule under the conditions that copyrights are not violated. It is the duty of the author(s) to inform the editors in case the manuscript has already been published elsewhere.

General

  • Articles should be written preferably in Word.
  • The manuscript itself should not contain any author-names in order to make sure that the review process is blind.
  • Articles should be divided into section and sub-sections and they should be numbered accordingly. No more than three layers of numbers are allowed. So for instance:

1 Introduction
1.1 Aims of the study
1.1.1. Research questions
1.1.2. Hypotheses

  • Try to avoid abbreviations.
  • Footnotes are placed at the bottom of the page. Use a superscript number following the punctuation mark.
  • Start your article with a short abstract of 250 words maximum and submit it as a separate file.
  • Please submit the acknowledgments section, to be placed at the end of the article before the references, as a separate file.
  • Submit a short biography of each author which contains the author’s name, academic title, email address, year of birth, place of work, position, and recent publications as a separate file.
  • The manuscript itself should not contain any author-names in order to make sure that the review process is blind.

Types of articles
The journal publishes both methodological articles, which are identified under the header ‘data handling’, and substantive research articles.  

Methodological Articles
This section includes methodological articles that describe all forms of data handling involving large historical databases, including extensive descriptions of new or existing databases, syntax, algorithms and extraction programs. Authors are asked to upload the software they describe in the form of ‘journal contents’ and/or to provide links to relevant data and software. They are also encouraged to share their syntaxes, applications and other forms of software presented in their article, if pertinent, on the EHPS-Net website.

Research articles
This section includes substantive articles reporting the results of comparative longitudinal studies that are demographic and historical in nature, and that are based on micro-data from large historical databases. Research articles are expected to deal with population issues in the past, including population growth, fertility, family planning, marriage, migration, mortality, longevity, family and household configurations, social structure, social mobility and related issues. No geographic boundaries are set, which means that research from and on every part of the world is welcomed. The same is true for historical period. The editors encourage in particular comparative studies on the micro-level with the help of the Intermediate Data Structure (IDS).

Language
Only manuscripts written in English are eligible for publication. Authors can choose between American or British English as long as one of the two is applied consistently throughout the whole manuscript. Authors are themselves responsible for any language errors with respect to orthography and grammar. The editors recommend non-native English speakers to make use of professional language assistance before submitting a paper.

Layout
Keep the layout as simple as possible. Please do not use page breaks, styles, etc. Paragraphs should not be indented. We recommend not to go into too much detail concerning the layout before your paper if accepted for publication. This also applies to the formatting of the illustrations, graphs and tables; this is only necessary when making the final submission for print. The same goes for submitting these items as separate files.

Illustrations, tables, graphs, etc.
Insert the item in the text at the place you want to present them to the reader. Place a short title above each of them and, if applicable, source information and notes below. Please be sure that all items used are free of rights or that a permission to use is provided for.
In addition, each item should be submitted as a separate file (TIFF, JPEG, Excel, etc.; images in a resolution of minimal 300 dpi). Make sure that tables and graphs are editable.
Graphs are preferably created in Microsoft Excel. Don’t use grid lines in graphs. Use the simplest form of lay-out for tables with solid black lines (0,5 pt) only.
If you are using programs like Stata or R and it’s not possible to produce an editable graph, please make sure that your graphs are as much in line with the graphs in previous articles.

Please use the following colours in graphs, diagrams, etc.:
Main colours (RGB):         
Pink           241, 100, 182
Orange      245, 116, 33
Grey          209, 210, 212

Additional colours (RGB):               
Blue            20, 137, 216
Red            173, 57, 10         
Sand          190, 152, 107      
Grey           147, 148, 152
Green         26, 68, 22

References and citation
Historical Life Course Studies follows the APA 7 Reference Style. Below you find some guidelines and examples for this style. More useful information can be found here.

More information on the use of capitals and format can be found here.

Any source cited in your text, should appear in a section ‘References’ at the end of the article. Entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author.

Please make sure to add a persistent identifier or URL if available.

  • In-text citation

Citing a work by one author
In the body of a text: Surname (year)
In parentheses: (Surname, year)

Citing a work by two authors
In the body of a text: Surname and Surname (year)
In parentheses: (Surname & Surname, year)

Citing a work by three or more authors
In the body of a text: Surname et al. (year)
In parentheses: (Surname et al., year)

Works that stand alone (books, dissertations, etc.) are italicized and capitalized, works part of a greater whole (journal article, book chapter, etc.) are put inside double quotations marks and capitalized:

The book An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it affects the Future Improvement of Society (Malthus, 1798) made an important contribution (…)

The article “Socio-Economic Status and Clustering of Child Deaths in Rural Punjab” (Das Gupta, 1997) made an important contribution (…)

Incorporate quotations fewer than 40 words into the paragraph and enclose it in double quotation marks:

According to Author (year), "Quote" (p. x).

Place direct quotations that are 40 words or longer in a free-standing block and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line.

Quotes that are not in English, should be translated in a footnote.

  • References

List up to 20 authors. After the first 19, use a comma and an ellipsis in place of the remaining names and end with the final author’s name. Do not use and ampersand: Author19, S. S., … AuthorLast, Z. Z.

Article in journal
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year). Title of article. Title of journal, volume(issue number if applicable), page numbers xx-xx. DOI or URL (if available)

Pozzi, L., & Barona, J. L. (2012). Vulnerable babies. Late foetal, neonatal and infant mortality in Europe (18th–20th centuries). Annales de Démographie Historique, 123(1), 11–24. https://doi.org/10.3917/adh.123.0011

Book
Author, A. A. Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher. DOI or URL (if available)

van Leeuwen, M. H. D., & Maas, I. (2011). HISCLASS: A historical social class scheme. Leuven University Press.

Article or chapter in an edited book
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor & F. F. Editor (Eds.), Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (pp. pages of chapter). Publisher. DOI or URL (if available)

Mandemakers, K. (2000). The Netherlands. Historical Sample of the Netherlands. In P. K. Hall, R. McCaa & G. Thorvaldsen (Eds.), Handbook of international historical microdata for population research (pp. 149–177). Minnesota Population Center.

Conference proceedings in a journal
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year). Title of paper. Title of proceedings, volume(issue number if applicable), page numbers xx-xx. Publisher. DOI or URL (if available)

Notestein, F. W. (1953). Economic problems of population change. Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference of Agricultural Economists, 13–31. Oxford University Press.

Data Set
Author, A. A. Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. or Name of the provider of the set. (year). Title of data set (Version no.) [Data set]. Publisher. DOI or URL (if available)

Historical Sample of the Netherlands (HSN). (2017). Civil certificates (Release 2017.01 (n=85,334)) [Data set].