What does the Section Editor role entail?

The Section Editors are tasked with planning, securing authors, and reviewing content for a specific topical area of the encyclopedia. The SEs work with the General Editor and Content Manager at Routledge during this process.

We see the primary duties of the Section Editor as follows:

1. Suggesting new topics for inclusion;
2. Inviting authors for the topics;
3. Reviewing submitted manuscripts in the topic for accuracy and for encyclopedic scope; and,
4. Securing Editorial Advisers (as needed) for your section.

Routledge will assist with tasks such as providing the authors you recommend with a contract and instructional guidelines and ensuring that entry each will be copyedited and prepared for publication.

Frequently asked questions

Q: What information is needed for the outline/ scoping out/ report of the section?

Unless the General Editor has specific requirements, we just need the following:

1. A list of topics and entries that should be included in the section;
2. A rough indication of the length of each entry;
3. Ideas for authors;
4. A tentative deadline for entries (optional at this stage, just to give a rough idea of timescale).

If you choose, you may use this spreadsheet to record the outline of your section, but a Word document or other format is also fine.

Q: What software and other resources will support our work?

Routledge uses an online invitation and peer review system called Editorial Manager. EM makes it easy to track an entry’s progress through all stages including author invitation, submission, peer review, and acceptance. The system automates many of the more time-consuming aspects of managing a project of this scale by, for example, sending mass author/ reviewer due date reminders and overdue notices.

There will also be a dedicated project manager at Routledge on hand at all times to answer contributor questions, assist you with Editorial Manager, etc. Your project manager will be very experienced with encyclopedias and will help you facilitate the project from conception to publication and beyond.

Q: How many reviews are required, and who will review the entries?

We are envisioning that each entry will receive two reviews to ensure the content is written to the highest academic standards. The two reviewers will be drawn from the pool of Section Editors, Editorial Advisers, and the General Editor. All reviews and decisions will be submitted through Editorial Manager, which collates feedback for the author.

Q: What is the role of the Editorial Advisers?

In addition to securing authors, we also ask that SEs secure Editorial Advisers for their section. Editorial Advisers are primarily responsible for reviewing entries and recommending topics for inclusion.

Q: For revised articles, are authors permitted to use track changes?

Yes, and this is actually encouraged, as tracking changes makes it easier for our production team to process content. However, it’s not a problem if authors do not track changes.

Q: Do we need an abstract for all articles, even short ones, and why?

Yes, abstracts are required for all entries. Routledge began requiring abstracts for all online content in 2016. Our research has shown that online publications with short abstracts for every entry, chapter, etc. are treated very favorably by search engines and ranking metrics. Thus, content that has abstracts is much more discoverable and generally has a much larger readership.

Abstracts have also been shown to improve the reader experience. With our online encyclopedias abstracts serve as short previews for entries; they will display in search results and will help our readers better determine if they would like to read further.

Q: How long should abstracts be? Are there other requirements for entries?

We are recommending an abstract of approximately 10% of the length of the entry (though not shorter than 75 words). However, we can be flexible according to the needs of the encyclopedia.

An abstract should give a brief snapshot of the topic, as it will be available for free to all users when the encyclopedia goes live. We prefer that contributors not use “guideposting” statements such as “in this entry I will” as this language makes the entry sound more like a journal article.

An entry consists (at minimum) of the abstract (or “B” entry); the body (or “main entry”) divided into sections; a bibliography (not included in the word count); keywords; a list of related articles; and both bibliographic references and cross-references to other entries in the body of the text. Other requirements may be set at the discretion of the General Editor.

Q: How should author names be displayed (especially in the event of revisions by a new author)?

Generally, if a new author is revising an old entry we suggest both the original author and new author be listed. The original author should usually be listed first. However, in the event of very substantial revisions if may make more sense to list the revision author first (or even exclude the original author’s name).

NB: It is not necessary for authors to include their names and/or affiliations in the actual manuscript file. Editorial Manager requires author names, order, and affiliation to be included in the system during submission.

Q: Can authors include in-text citations?

Yes, this is strongly encouraged! We do ask that any works cited in the text are also listed in the bibliography.

Q: Can authors include figures, tables, and other media? How will permission be obtained?

Yes, and again these are encouraged. As the RREs are fully online products, we can accommodate a wide range of media including image and video.

Routledge will be responsible for securing permissions for third party media via a freelancer. Our current policy is for authors to recommend videos, figures, etc. during submission but we may reserve the right not to use a particular piece if obtaining permission for it is prohibitively expensive.

Please also note that just because an image is available for free or is in the public domain in a particular country, we still may not be able to use it free of charge in the encyclopedias. Some content has restrictions on use for commercial purposes, and even if media is in the public domain in your country it may not be in the rest of the world.

Q: How should authors cite their articles?

Most style guides recommend including the author’s name, year of publication, article title, encyclopedia title, a DOI, date accessed, and a URL for an online encyclopedia. For instance, an article in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism would be cited as follows in APA style:

For some of our existing projects, authors have indicated that they would like to acknowledge the general and/or section editors. Our suggestions for doing so are as follows:

General Editor

General Editor and Section Editor