Irish Theological Quarterly

Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Irish Theological Quarterly

Please read the guidelines below hen visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/itq to upload your manuscript. . Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Irish Theological Quarterly will be reviewed.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

Please note that Irish Theological Quarterly does not accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers.

1. What do we publish?
   1.1 Aims & Scope
   1.2 Article types
   1.3 Writing your paper
2. Editorial policies
   2.1 Peer review policy
   2.2 Authorship
   2.3 Acknowledgements
   2.4 Funding
   2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
3. Publishing policies
   3.1 Publication ethics
   3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
   3.3 Open access and author archiving
4. Preparing your manuscript
   4.1 Formatting
   4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   4.3 Supplementary material
   4.4 Journal Style
   4.5 Reference style
   4.6 English language editing services
5. Submitting your manuscript
   5.1 Permissions
6. On acceptance and publication
   6.1 Sage Production
   6.2 Online First publication
   6.3 Access to your published article
   6.4 Promoting your article
7. Further information

 

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Irish Theological Quarterly, please ensure you have read the aims and scope which can be found in the Description.

1.2 Article Types

The Irish Theological Quarterly publishes original research articles and reviews that match the journal’s aims and scope.

Typically, an article submitted to the ITQ should be c. 8000 words in length (including footnotes).

1.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources.

1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

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2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

The Irish Theological Quarterly is a fully refereed journal.

The author must certify that the article is not being submitted simultaneously to another periodical.

2.2 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.

The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

(i)       Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,

(ii)     Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,

(iii)    Approved the version to be published,

(iv)    Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

2.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.

2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

2.4 Funding

Irish Theological Quarterly requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

Irish Theological Quarterly encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

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3. Publishing Policies

3.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.

3.1.1 Plagiarism

Irish Theological Quarterly and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

3.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.

3.3 Open access and author archiving

Irish Theological Quarterly offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

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4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

4.1 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.

4.3 Supplementary material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.

4.4 Journal Style

In general, follow the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition (2010), unless otherwise instructed. For spelling, follow the Oxford Dictionary.

Articles
Italicize titles of books and journals. Italicize foreign words, but not foreign expressions familiar in theological English (e.g. ibid., de iure, prima facie, etc.)

Eliminate from the main text all unnecessary bibliographical data or parenthetical references to sources; such information is to be placed in the footnotes. The only exception to this would be references to biblical texts identified in parentheses, e.g., (Exod 23:5-6).

Use double quotation marks; single quotation marks should be used for quotations within quotations. Use 'smart' ('') quotes as opposed to straight quotes if possible.

Capitalize what are clearly proper names and adjectives, and lowercase everything else except to avoid ambiguity. E.g., God in his mercy

Do not use abbreviations. E.g., write Ex corde ecclesiae, not ECE.

Quotations from other languages (e.g. German, French, Latin) should be translated if in the main text; the original may be reproduced in a footnote if it is deemed important.

For Greek and Hebrew, please use the SPIonic and the SPTiberian fonts that are available, free of charge, from the SBL website (http:/www.sbl-site.org/Resources/Resources_BiblicalFonts.aspx).

For numbers in the main text, use commas only in those of more than four figures (e.g. 10,000, as distinct from 1000). Numbers lower than ten must always be spelt as words, while those over and above are to be written as figures.

Titles and Headings in Articles
Start your first paragraph immediately after this without any subtitle (or block citation at this point).

First-order headings are to be in bold, in large and small letters, and left justified only. E.g.,Certitude and the Illative Sense

Second-order headings (subdivisions under the first-order headings) are indicated by large and small letters, in bold, italicized, and left justified only. E.g., Patristic Theology

Third-order headings are indicated by large and small letters, left justified, but not in bold. E.g., The Oxford Sermons

As a rule, avoid following a heading directly with a subheading.

Block citations in Articles 
Indent your block citations one half-inch from the left margin in your text. Ensure your block citations are double-spaced.

Citations set apart in this way should always be long enough to occupy at least four full lines on the printed journal page. Do not set apart brief citations, unless they will be the subject of some discussion and will require extraordinary relief on the page.

When material is omitted from a citation, if the omitted material falls in the middle of a sentence, the omission should be signalled by three double-spaced periods (. . .). If the omitted material comes toward the end of a sentence, or the end of one sentence and material from one or more subsequent sentences, it should be signalled by four double- spaced periods (. . . .). Ellipsis points are rarely to be used at the beginning or at the end of quotations. The convention '[T]he etc.' is normally replaced by 'The etc.'

Omit quotation marks at the beginning and end of block citations.

Book Reviews
Information about a book for review is to be given as follows: Title (in bold) + full stop + 'By'/'Edited by' + name(s) of author(s)/editor(s) + full stop + (where applicable) 'Translated by' + name(s) of translator(s) + full stop + place of publication + colon + name of publisher + comma + date of publication + full stop + Pp. + number of pages + full stop + Price (€/$/£) + hbk/pbk in brackets, where appropriate + full stop + ISBN + full stop. E.g., Nicaea and its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology. By Lewis Ayres. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Pp. 492. Price £87.00 (hbk). ISBN 0-198-75506-6.

If quoting from the book under review, indicate where the quotation occurs using brackets and 'p.' or 'pp.' where appropriate: e.g., (p. 125) or (pp. 122-24) followed by any necessary punctuation (e.g., full stop); i.e. do NOT end a quotation with a full stop or comma and then add the page reference.

4.5 Reference style

The Irish Theological Quarterly in general follows the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition (2010). All notes are to appear as footnotes.

Double-space all footnotes.

The first line of each footnote should be indented like a normal paragraph, and each footnote should begin with a raised number. E.g., 1 See John Madden, etc.

Give complete bibliographical information the first time a work is referred to in your text. For information to be included in notes and the proper format, see the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition, chaps. 16 and 17. E.g., 1 Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998), 35. [for a book]; 2 John Galvin, 'The Origin of Faith in the Resurrection of Jesus: Two Recent Perspectives,' Theological Studies 49 (1988): 25-44. [for an article].

In subsequent references use the 'short title' format. E.g., 1 McDermott, Word Become Flesh, 20. [for a book]; 4 Galvin, 'The Origin of Faith,' 35. [for an article]. See the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition, chaps. 16 and 17.

If your first reference to an article in a journal or a collective volume refers to a specific page, give first the opening and closing pages of the article and then the specific page(s) referred to. E.g. 187-99, at 192. The dash is an 'en-dash.'

Within a footnote, if you are quoting or referring to a source, give your reference or comment first, and then, at the end of the sentence, within parentheses, cite the source of the quote or reference. E.g.: Dunn observed this also (Dunn, The Partings of the Ways, 239).

Spell out the full names of periodicals and series on their first occurrence. If the same periodicals and series are mentioned often in your article, standard abbreviations should be used after the first occurrence.

For references to Aquinas, use the following format: STh I-II 65.1, ad 1.

Follow the conventions of each language cited regarding upper and lower case in titles. For French and Spanish titles note Manual of Style, 16th ed., chap. 10. To divide titles from subtitles (in any language), use a colon (:); always capitalize the first word of the subtitle. E.g., 'Mirror of His Beauty: The femininity of God in Jewish Mysticism and in Christianity.'

In giving publication data, generally omit the words 'Press, Verlag, Editions, Publication, Ltd.,' etc. When several cities in different countries are listed on a book's title page (e.g., Oxford/Bern/Berlin/Bruxelles/etc: Peter Lang) give the nearest (to Ireland) European place of publication. E.g., Oxford: Peter Lang.

Book Reviews

No footnotes are to be included in reviews.

4.6 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

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5. Submitting your manuscript

The preferred length for an article in the Irish Theological Quarterly is circa 8000 words including footnotes; although the length of any article is to be determined by the quality and completeness of the article’s argument and methodology.

Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you carefully read and adhere to all the guidelines and instructions to authors provided below. Manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

Irish Theological Quarterly is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/itq to login and submit your article online.

Use Times New Roman 12-point type only. Do not use 'bold fonts.' Use italics where appropriate. Leave only one space after any item of punctuation - full stops, commas, semi-colons, etc.

Double-space your entire paper without exception: main text, blurb, titles, block quotations, footnotes, etc. Do not use headers or footers. Number your pages at bottom right.

Use one-inch margins all around. Do not justify the right side of your printed manuscript.

Articles

The author must certify that the article is not being submitted simultaneously to another periodical.

Your name, as author, should be printed in large and small letters, left justified, indented, and without any titles. E.g., Padraig O'Donnell. This should be followed by a hard-return with your institutional affiliation (if applicable), likewise indented, given on the next line.

A short ABSTRACT of 100-150 words, left justified, indented one half-inch, should follow with the heading ABSTRACT, followed by 4-6 KEYWORDS arranged in alphabetical order.

All notes are to appear as footnotes.

Your main title should be printed in large and small letters, in bold, and left justified only.

Do not use italic fonts.

Do not place a full stop after any of your headings. E.g., Approaching Theology with Newman

At the end of your article, give a short biographical note (50 words), followed by your email and full postal address.

Book Reviews

Submit reviews/shorter notices by e-mail attachment (in Microsoft Word) to the review editor's office at itq.revieweditor@may.ie.

The normal length of an Irish Theological Quarterly review is 800-1,000 words, and of a shorter notice 300-450 words. Double-space entire review or shorter notice. Number pages at bottom right. Only justify left hand margins. All paragraphs should begin with a half-inch indent.

If a reviewer considers a book does not require a full review, a shorter notice should be submitted.

At the end of a review/shorter notice, a reviewer should indicate her/his name (small caps) together with the name and location of her/his institution (where applicable). This information should, like the review itself, be left-justified.

The review editor reserves the right to modify reviews in accordance with the Irish Theological Quarterly’s general editorial policy.

The Irish Theological Quarterly cannot give any guarantees about publishing a particular review, nor about the precise publication dates for reviews submitted (though reviews will normally be published within a reasonable length of time after their submission).

5.1 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.

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6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly.  Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. 

6.2 Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

6.3 Access to your published article

Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.

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7. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Irish Theological Quarterly editorial office as follows:

The Editor, Irish Theological Quarterly
St Patrick's College
Maynooth
Co. Kildare
Ireland
Email: itq.editor@spcm.ie

Submit reviews/shorter notices by e-mail attachment (in Microsoft Word) to the review editor's office at itq.revieweditor@may.ie.