1. EXPLANATION

2. DOCUMENT PROPERTIES

2.1 File format
2.2 De-identified
2.3 Length

3. DOCUMENT STYLES

3.1 Paragraph
3.2 Fonts
3.3 Headings
3.4 Dashes
3.5 BC/AD

4. LANGUAGE

4.1 Proof-reading
4.2 Translation
4.3 Spellings
4.4 First-person language
4.5 Capitalisation
4.6 Conjunctions
4.7 Commas
4.8 Other punctuation
4.9 Miscellaneous

5. RESEARCH, QUOTES, ELLIPSES

5.1 Research
5.2 Quotes
5.3 Ellipses

6. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

6.1 General
6.2 Subsequent citations
6.3 Author and editor styles
6.4 Title and post-title variations
6.5 Journal data
6.6 Bracketed data
6.7 Page number styles
6.8 Web data styles
6.9 Book review data

7. BIBLICAL REFERENCES

7.1 Book names
7.2 Multi-references
7.3 Independent chapter and verse
7.4 Bible reference dashes

1. EXPLANATION

For many authors, it will suffice to follow just the stipulations in the ‘Submission Agreement’. For those who need to resolve more complex style issues or who want to know the standards that the RTR administrator and editors will apply, the extended style guide may be consulted.

For matters not covered below, RTR may follow precedent from previous issues or use the University of Oxford Style Guide.

2. DOCUMENT PROPERTIES

2.1 File format
2.2 De-identified
2.3 Length

2.1 File format

1. The submission file: Microsoft Word format (.docx). An MS Word Article Template is available for optional use and the MS Word Book Review Template should be used for reviews.
2. For documents with special fonts, illustrations or other complex formatting, a supplementary PDF could be appropriate.
3. All illustrations, figures, and tables: placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.

2.2 De-identified

1. Articles, when being submitted for review, should have identifying information removed (including the removal of author identification in the Word document properties).

2.3 Length

1. Book reviews: 300–700 words. Footnotes are usually unnecessary.
2. Articles: 7,000–10,000 words including footnotes and bibliographical data.

3. DOCUMENT STYLES

3.1 Paragraph
3.2 Fonts
3.3 Headings
3.4 Dashes
3.5 BC/AD

3.1 Paragraph

1. Line-spacing (main text and footnotes): single.
2. Paragraph alignment (main text and footnotes): justified.
3. Paragraph indent: main text first line 0.5cm; footnotes 0.0cm.
4. Sentence spacing: one space (not two) between sentences within a paragraph.
5. Paragraph spacing: no spacing around main text and footnote paragraphs.
6. Line spacing: 14pt main text; 12.6pt foonotes.
7. Bulleted lists: 0.5cm indent from left, hanging 1cm. The use of bulleted lists should be minimised.
8. Numbered lists with short entries: 0.5cm indent from left, hanging 0.5cm, or if a long list with double digits, 1cm.
9. Numbered lists with long entries: as for shorter, except kept at 0cm indent from the left, but better to use normal paragraphs with subheadings rather than a list.
10. First level numbered lists: numerical with one dot after the number (1. 2. 3.).
11. Further levels numbered lists: if there are lists within lists, second level is lower-case alphabetical (a. b. c.) and third level is lower case roman numerical (i. ii. iii.). Each new level adds 0.5cm indent.

3.2 Fonts

1. Main article text: 12pt Times (RTR actually uses Arno Pro)
2. Book reviews main text: 11pt Times (RTR actually uses Arno Pro)
3. Footnotes (article and review): 11pt Times (RTR actually uses Arno Pro)
4. Unicode fonts should be used for Greek and Hebrew. E.g. the free fonts provided by the Society of Biblical Literature. RTR actually uses Linguist Software Unicode fonts (New Jerusalem U, GraecaUBSU—the editor will make the conversion).
5. To emphasise terms, italics may be sparingly used, usually only to indicate which terms in a quote are being discussed, which use requires a note such as 'italics added', and underlining and bolding should almost never be used.

3.3 Headings

1. Subheadings are usually required for essays, up to three levels as appropriate.
2. Headings should be as short as possible and the article heading should be no longer than two lines.
3. Article heading (‘Heading 1’): 18pt Arial bold centred; Paragraph spacing 24pt before, 22pt after.
4. Subheadings: 0.0cm indented, including numbered subheadings and any 2nd line.
5. Numbered subheadings are preferred: numbered and sub-numbered (1. … 1.1 … 1.1).
6. Numbered subheadings hanging indent: 0.5cm (i.e. 0.5cm between the number and the text), and increments added of 0.5cm if that is required to avoid running the number and text together.
7. Main subheading (‘Heading 2’): 11pt Arial bold; paragraph spacing 14pt before, 2pt after.
8. Second subheading (‘Heading 3’): 11pt Arial italics; paragraph spacing 14pt before, 2pt after.
9. Third subheading (‘Heading 4’): 12pt Times italics; paragraph spacing 0pt before, 2pt after.
10. Capitalisation: title capitalisation for heading levels 1–3 (capitalise first word, and then all words other than articles and prepositions).
11. Headings examples: are provided in the MS Word Article Template available on the website.

3.4 Dashes

1. Em dashes rather than ordinary dashes when setting apart words in a sentence—like this em dash here, with no spaces around the dash.
2. En dashes when ‘through to’ is meant, such as when giving dates and verse ranges.

3.5 BC/AD

1. bc and ad: small caps, no dots, and after and before the year respectively (586 bc, but ad 70).
2. bce and ce are permitted but not preferred.

4. LANGUAGE

4.1 Proof-reading
4.2 Translation
4.3 Spellings
4.4 First-person language
4.5 Capitalisation
4.6 Conjunctions
4.7 Commas
4.8 Other punctuation
4.9 Miscellaneous

4.1 Proof-reading

1. The article should be substantially free from typographical errors, and the Word Processor’s Spelling and Grammar check function used.
2. The language in the Word Processor should be set to UK or Australian English (if installed) in both the body and footnotes.
3. Preferably, the author will check the article in Grammarly.
4. Preferably, the author will check the article in anti-plagiarism software.

4.2 Translation

1. Translation should be provided for any non-English language used (including Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and all modern languages).
2. Hebrew and Greek transliteration should not be used, except for well-known words. E.g. koinonia can be used. Transliteration should be italicised.
3. Hebrew pointing should not be used unless significant to the discussion.

4.3 Spellings

1. ‘S’ spellings are preferred: -ise -yse, and -isation, not -ize, -yze, nor -ization. Minimise, recognise, evangelise, realise, baptise, sympathise, emphasise, memorise, polarise, criticise, modernise, realisation, summarisation, Judaiser, secularisation, Christianisation. The British spelling in the Oxford Dictionary can be consulted.
2. The style of the Tetragrammaton is the author’s decision: Yahweh, Yhwh, Yhwh, small capitals, etc., but not normally Jehovah. The use of the Hebrew characters requires the English translation to accompany it.

4.4 First-person language

1. Authors generally should avoid referring to themselves as ‘I’.

2. ‘We’ should not be used for a single author (and see below on 'we' and 'us' for reader engagement).

4.5 Capitalisation

1. In-text capitalisation should be minimised. E.g. ‘the crucifixion’, ‘the church’; but still ‘Passover’ and ‘Exodus’.
2. Capitalisation of divine pronouns is the author’s decision: He, Him, he, him.

4.6 Conjunctions

1. Do not commence sentences with conjunctions: And, But, For, Nor, Or, Yet, So. A sentence starting with a conjunction does not give a full thought and is still often avoided in academic writing.

4.7 Commas

1. Commas, including the so-called Oxford comma, are to be used whenever they will help the reader to see word groupings and to indicate emphasis, including:

2. Examples:

3. Direct quotes: Commas before direct quotes unless the quote fits smoothly into the sentence (and so no comma if the quote is preceded by ‘that’).

4.8 Other punctuation

1. Contractions should not be used: not can’t, don’t, I’ll.
2. Avoid the use of the oblique stroke or forward slash (/) for and, or, and nor, and so expressions such as ‘and/or’. Use and, or, or nor.
3. Abbreviations: no dots, full stops, or periods when the first and final letters of the word are contained in the abbreviation.

4. Exclamation marks: preferably not, and not used for emphasis but only for exclamations.
5. Et al.: not italicised, only one dot (et al.), and with a comma before it if preceded by two or more elements.
6. 'Circa': abbreviated as c. (not ca. and not italicised).
7. List punctuation: semi-colons are preferred.

4.9 Miscellaneous

1. Avoid colloquial language, metaphors, figures of speech, and illustrations.
2. Use ‘First…secondly…thirdly…’
3. Use ‘which’ for non-defining clauses (i.e. clauses that could be removed from the sentence); use ‘that’ for defining, essential, or restrictive clauses.
4. Use ‘an’ when followed by a vowel sound, and ‘a’ for a consonantal sound: ‘a historical occasion’; ‘a unique situation’; ‘a BTh’; ‘an MA’.
5. Historical studies should ordinarily use past tenses for people’s actions and thoughts: ‘Bavinck thought…’; ‘Calvin believed’.
6. Gendered language should be accurate. When male and female together are in view, use both masculine and feminine terms or gender non-specific language. An exception is when using the language of a source document, for which no explanation is necessary if the context of the article makes the reason for the use clear.
7. ‘They’ and ‘them’ may be used for 3^rd person singular pronouns, though the preference is to use the singular pronouns, especially if there is a sense of a clash caused by syntactical proximity.
8. Main text and footnotes: no definite article, day cardinal number first (no ordinal indicators), month non-abbreviated in main text but abbreviated in footnotes, full year, no inner punctuation. E.g.

9. The readers of RTR should not be referred to and no reflection should be made upon their thoughts and responses to the article (e.g. not: 'the readers of RTR will know/agree/remember', 'we may find', 'us').
10. Use 'different from' rather than 'different to' (and 'different than' when followed by a clause).
11. Old Testament and New Testament should usually be spelt out.
12. Paragraphs should have more than one sentence.

5. RESEARCH, QUOTES, ELLIPSES

5.1 Research
5.2 Quotes
5.3 Ellipses

5.1 Research

1. The essay introduction should state the rationale for the article in relationship to the state of current academic understanding, set out the contention of the article in terms of what is being added to academic understanding, and explain how the contention is going to be validated and so usually giving a summary of the structure of the essay.
2. The essay conclusion should summarise the contention of the article and the grounds upon which the contention was demonstrated throughout the essay.
3. The opinions and character of others are to be reflected upon respectfully, and no material is to be included that is defamatory or otherwise unlawful.

5.2 Quotes

1. Single quotation marks, but double marks for a quote within a quote.
2. Punctuation not part of a quote should never be within the quote.

3. Punctuation at the end of a quote may be inside the quote if part of the quote—the author can decide. E.g.

4. Short, non-whole sentence quotes typically will not have the full stop within the quote, even if at the end of the sentence.

5. A full stop should not be used before a closing bracket at the end of a sentence, and generally, punctuation should be avoided before a closing bracket.

6. Long quotations (four full lines or longer): separate paragraph, indented 0.5cm left and right, without quotation marks, 11pt font for articles, 10pt font for reviews.

5.3 Ellipses

1. An ellipsis character, not three separate dots (… not ...). MS Word usually changes three dots into an ellipsis, unless the feature is turned off.
2. No spaces around an ellipsis within a quote:

3. No fourth dot for a full stop.

4. There is seldom a need to start or end a quote with an ellipsis.

5. No square brackets around an ellipsis.

6. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

6.1 General
6.2 Subsequent citations
6.3 Author and editor styles
6.4 Title and post-title variations
6.5 Journal data
6.6 Bracketed data
6.7 Page number styles
6.8 Web data styles
6.9 Book review data

6.1 General

1. Bibliographic details for all references cited, consulted, or otherwise drawn upon should be appropriately cited. The copyright or property right of another should not be infringed.
2. Articles use only footnotes for bibliographical data: i.e. they do not have bibliographies. Only Supplement essays have bibliographies (last name first for the first author entry; everything else the same as for a footnote). Bibliographies are required by the website as part of the article submission process.
3. RTR uses the following style (which is similar to the Chicago style) or the Chicago style may be used but only with single quotation marks. Examples of footnoted data:

4. Multiple references in the one list: separated by semi-colons, no final ‘and’; in descending date order unless there is good reason otherwise.
5. Footnote numbers in the main text: at the end of the sentence wherever possible. In-sentence numbers may be rarely used, to avoid ambiguity, preferably at the end of a clause and after punctuation.

6.2 Subsequent citations

1. Subsequent citations should be shortened:

2. Do not use ‘ibid’ nor similar terms.

6.3 Author and editor styles

1. To indicate an editor or editors instead of an author or authors: use (ed.) or (eds) after the name.

2. Two authors: use ‘and’, no comma.

3. For multiple authors or editors: use commas before every entry and the final ‘and’; or et al. may be used, not italicised.

4. Given name abbreviations: full stops, with spaces between; first given name in full is preferred.

5. For in-text references to author’s names (i.e. not as part of footnoted bibliographical data), first names may be given in full or as initials on the first use. Thereafter, just initials should be used or just the last name.

6.4 Title and post-title variations

1. When there is a series title, volume title, and the volume number is included in the title, the entirety can be italicised.

2. ‘Edition’ abbreviation: edn (not ed. or edn.)

6.5 Journal data

1. Use journal abbreviations, as per The SBL Handbook of Style, and without full stops. Less well-known abbreviations should not be used, however, even if in the SBL Handbook.
2. Journal volume and number are placed before the brackets.

6.6 Bracketed data

1. Brackets: no commas are used before brackets, and the only information placed in brackets is the place published, publisher, and date.
2. Use short publisher names.

6.7 Page number styles

1. Page range: en dash, and no number abbreviation.

2. Never f. or ff.; always give the exact range.
3. Referring to a footnote: n. x
4. For historical sources numbered by book, chapter, or paragraph, either that data should be given, or the page numbers, or both sets of data separated by a colon. The preference is to have both, particularly if just citing one or other could create confusion.

5. Page numbers independent of bibliographical data: p. x, pp. x–x

6.8 Web data styles

1. Web addresses should have a 'no-width optional break' after all single oblique strokes (/) (available from the Word 'more symbols' dialog box). This will not work in a bibliography manager like Endnote and can be added by the adminstrator after submission.
2. Abbreviate months in bibliographical data (e.g. web accessed information):

6.9 Book review data

1. Bibliographical data for book reviews should include the publisher's list price in the currency of the publication country. E.g. AU$, US$, £.

7. BIBLICAL REFERENCES

7.1 Book names
7.2 Multi-references
7.3 Independent chapter and verse
7.4 Bible reference dashes

7.1 Book names

1. Abbreviations should conform to The SBL Handbook of Style.
2. Main text and footnotes: not abbreviated at the start of a sentence, abbreviated when followed by both chapter and verse, otherwise not abbreviated. E.g.

3. No dots, full stop, or periods after abbreviations.

7.2 Multi-references

1. Semicolons between a list of bible references, with no final ‘and’.

7.3 Independent chapter and verse

1. When citing chapters and verses apart from the book names, use ch. and chs, and v. and vv.
2. Verses should never appear without the chapter reference or v. and vv.

7.4 Bible reference dashes

1. En dashes between verse ranges in the same chapter.

2. En dashes and spaces between verse ranges across chapters, and chapters across books

3. En dashes between chapter ranges.

4. En dashes between book ranges.