The London Philatelist: Notes for Contributors
Background
The London Philatelist is the journal of the Royal Philatelic Society London. The magazine is published ten times each year, appearing monthly excluding January and July.
Each edition carries news items concerning the society itself as well as the philatelic world in general. One of the most important aspects of the journal is the publication of articles by members covering their original research.
Major articles should be predominantly new research; The London Philatelist (LP) does not generally reprint articles that have previously been published elsewhere.
The Royal Philatelic Society London does not pay a fee to contributors.
The author(s) of each individual article retain the copyright, although this is not normally stated in the journal itself. If a request is received to reprint an article, it is the author who will decide whether permission is to be granted. It would be expected that a period of at least six months would elapse from a publication in the LP before any article is reprinted.
It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that they have obtained permission to include any material that is subject to an earlier copyright.
Preparation of Manuscript
Articles are always willingly received by the editor to be considered for publication. If a long article is being written solely for the LP, then it is advisable to approach the editor in the first instance to establish the likelihood of publication prior to commencing writing.
Manuscripts must be written in English. Notes on typesetting and style are given in this paper; articles that adhere to these guidelines are most welcome.
Text
The text of articles can be produced in any form, however the following is the preferred order:
- a Microsoft Word document attached to an email
- any other Windows compatible format, saved as a .txt file and attached to an email
- text in an email
- a Microsoft Word document on a CD or 3½ in. floppy disk
- any other Windows compatible format, saved as a .txt file on a floppy disk
- typewritten text printed in black ink on white unfolded A4 paper
- hand-written.
For typewritten text the font used by contributors does not matter, as the Editor will convert text to the font used as standard in the LP. Currently this is Minion Pro, 11pt. The use of CAPITAL letters, or italic fonts throughout should be avoided, as these do not always scan successfully.
If a hand written manuscript is provided, then all proper nouns must be spelled out clearly in capital letters in the margins.
Tables
Tables should be included within the text as part of a normal word-processing document, or provided as a separate spreadsheet file. The Editor's preferred spreadsheet format is Microsoft Excel, although most IBM PC compatible formats can be handled.
Illustrations
Ideally, illustrations should be scanned in CMYK colour at 300 dpi and saved as tif files. These can be emailed to the Editor, put on a CD and mailed, or transmitted by using the Society's File Transfer Protocol (ftp) site facility. Details of the ftp site can be obtained from the Editor.
If illustrations cannot be scanned, photographs or high quality photocopies can be sent
Each illustration must be clearly identified by an appropriate file title which includes the Figure number, or have "Fig x" written on the back in pencil if on paper.
A short caption must be included with each illustration, ideally no more than one line of text.
Under no circumstance must original material be sent to the editor.
Editing
The Editor may edit an article. Minor changes to the text to ensure conformity to the LP style instructions will normally be made without reference to the author. Similarly, spelling and punctuation may be amended. The editor uses The Oxford Dictionary for Writers & Editors (Second edition, 2000) for reference.
Should an author insist on verifying all changes, however minor, then this must be made clear when an article is submitted for consideration for publication.
By Line
The house preference for naming an author is simply <Forename Surname>, e.g. Frank Walton. If authors have a particular request to be named in a different format, then this should be made clear.
Unless otherwise requested, non-philatelic titles and awards will be omitted, e.g. Prof. John N. Smith VC, RDP will be reduced to John Smith RDP. More than one philatelic honour will be included as appropriate, eg John Smith RDP FRPSL.
Typesetting / Style Instructions
The Editor adopts the following standards, based on James Negus' work Philatelic Literature,
and all contributors are strongly urged to follow these guidelines to minimise editorial time.
Variant spellings
Use -ise spellings, not -ize spellings.
Decimalise, specialise, etc., not decimalize, specialize, etc.
Specific spellings:
| use air mail | not airmail |
| use bluing | not blueing |
| use canceller | not cancellor |
| use centring | not centering, not centreing |
| use checklist | not check list |
| use collectables | not collectibles |
| use datestamp | not date stamp, not date-stamp |
| use De La Rue | not De la Rue |
| use dispatch | not despatch |
| use gram | not gramme |
| use handstruck | not hand struck, not hand-struck |
| use Luxembourg | not Luxemburg |
| use post office | not postoffice, not post-office |
| use prepaid | not pre-paid |
| use selvage | not selvedge |
| use spelled | not spelt |
Names
Cite book and magazine titles in italics with no quotes.
The London Philatelist
The Postmarks of Sierra Leone 1854 to 1961.
Cite names of ships, trains and aircraft as books.
the Colombo
the Royal Scot
the Concorde.
When an acronym appears before a ship name, HMS RMS SS MV, it will be in upright capitals without full stops.
HMS Tennant
RMS Queen Mary.
Dates
In normal text, dates must always be written in day month year format, with the month being spelled in letters rather than numbers.
2 February 1955
| months not abbreviated | not 2 Feb 1955 |
| no -st, -nd, -rd, -th | not 2nd February 1955, not 2nd February 1955 |
| no preceding 'the' | not the 2 February 1955 |
| no leading zero | not 02 February 1955 |
| century always given | not 2 February 55 |
| from 6 to 8 May | not from 6 - 8 May, not held 6 - 8 May. |
An exception to this is in tables where the month name can be shortened to the first three letters. A further exception is when quoting, for example "the postmark reads 6.5.40".
| 19th century | not nineteenth century, not 19th Century. |
| 1890s | not 1890's |
| Twenties | not twenties. |
Numbers & Currencies
| one, two, three, ... ten | not 1, 2, 3, ... 10 |
| 12 | not twelve |
| 1234 | not 1,234 |
| 12,345 | not 12345. |
A million is 1,000,000; a billion is 1,000,000,000.
Currency amounts are treated as ordinary numbers with respect to the use of commas for thousands.
Weights and Measures
Weights and measures will be given in metric units unless quoting historical information. For example the size of a postmark will be given in millimetres. Units should be abbreviated as follows, always without full stops (apart from inches, where a full stop is exceptionally used to avoid confusion with the word "in"):
| gram | g |
| ounce | oz |
| pound (weight) | lb |
| millimetre | mm |
| inch | in. |
| foot | ft |
Unlike ordinary numbers, figures up to ten will be given in digits, not spelled out. One space should be present between the number and the unit. No -s will be added for plurals.
| 15 mm | not 15mm |
| 5 oz | not 5 ozs. |
Abbreviations
| Figure | Fig. with capital and full stop. | |
| Number | No. with capital and full stop. | |
| Titles | Use Mr Mrs Ms Miss Prof St (ie no full stops). | |
| Honours | Use VC FSIAD Bsc no full stops, not separated from name by comma. In particular, fellows of the Royal will be given as Mr F.L. Walton FRPSL. |
|
| Latin | ie eg etc viz | lowercase without full stops |
| BC AD | capitals without full stops | |
| am pm | lowercase without full stops. | |
Philatelic Abbreviations
Capital letters, no full stops:
| ABPS | Association of British Philatelic Societies |
| APS | American Philatelic Society |
| BPF | British Philatelic Federation |
| BPT | British Philatelic Trust |
| FIP | Fédération Internationale de Philatélie |
| FRPSL | Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London |
| Note members (rather than fellows) must not use MRPSL or RPSL | |
| GB | Great Britain |
| GPO | General Post Office |
| NPS | National Philatelic Society |
| NZ | New Zealand |
| PCGB | Philatelic Congress of Great Britain |
| PMG | Post Master General |
| PTS | Philatelic Traders' Society |
| RDP | Roll of Distinguished Philatelists: plural RDPs |
| RPSL | Royal Philatelic Society London |
| SG | Stanley Gibbons |
| UK | United Kingdom |
| UPU | Universal Postal Union |
| US | United States |
Lowercase letters, with full stops:
| c.d.s. | circular datestamp |
| f.d.c. | first day cover |
| perf. | Perforation |
Common Philatelic Misspellings
| Right | Wrong |
|---|---|
| Colombia | Columbia (country in South America) |
| discoloration | discolouration |
| fluorescent | flourescent |
| Gandhi | Ghandi |
| Gibraltar | Gibralter |
| Gilbert & Ellice | Gilbert & Ellis |
| Hanover | Hannover |
| Jeffery Matthews | Jeffrey Matthews |
| naphthadag | napthadag |
| Philippines | Phillipines |
| QE II | QE 11 |
| Romania | Roumania |
| Romania | Rumania |
| Tristan da Cunha | Tristan da Cuhna |
| vermilion | vermillion |
| Waterlow | Waterloo (printer) |
| Wedgwood | Wedgewood |
| Zemstvo | Zemstov |
General
Use double quote-marks for quotations.
He said, "Be consistent."
If the quotation itself includes another quotation, use single quote-marks inside double ones.
The paragraph above read "He said, 'Be consistent'."
The first word of a sentence is always spelled out, never abbreviated.
Wherever possible the use of foreign phrases is to be avoided.
References
The LP requires full bibliographic information to be provided for all references. Do not use footnotes. Within the text, the author should write:
An account of this subject is given by Smith (Ref. 1).
Or
An article in Stamp Collecting (Ref. 2) states...
At the end of the article a list of the references will then be provided in the following form:
- 1 Smith A.N.O., A Very Interesting Book Title, p??, Oxford University Press, London 1962
- 2 Author A.B., "Article Title as Given in Magazine", Stamp Collecting, Volume ? p??, Month Year
The LP itself should be referenced as:
- 3 Author A.B., "Article Title in LP", London Philatelist, Volume ? p??, RPSL, Month Year
Frank Walton FRPSL
Hon. Editor, The London Philatelist
15 October 2007
F.L. Walton FRPSL
8 Grasmere Road
Dronfield Woodhouse
DRONFIELD S18 8PS
United Kingdom
Email: lpeditor@rpsl.org.uk
| Telephone: | Home 01246 414953 | Office 0114 252 8836 |
| Fax: | Home 01246 417921 | Office 0114 252 9398 |
From outside the United Kingdom, replace the leading 0 by 44.
© The Royal Philatelic Society London 2000 - 2008. Top
