Search SBL
 







SBL Forum - Write for Forum
The SBL Forum is the online newsletter of the Society of Biblical Literature. It features essays, interviews, and up-to-date news of general and professional interest to SBL members. Its mission is to provide short, useful articles to inform, educate, and address the professional needs of biblical scholars, as well as those interested in biblical studies.

Why publish in The SBL Forum?  Articles posted on The SBL Forum enjoy a large audience worldwide, and authors benefit from the valuable feedback that posting online makes possible. All articles submitted to SBL Forum are reviewed by at least one advisory board member prior to acceptance.

Upcoming Forum Themes for 2008-2009:
 
The Election and the Bible (October 2009)
Essays highlighting special sessions at the AM (November 2009)
Music & the Bible (December 2008-January 2009)
Love & the Bible (February 2009)
Climate Change & the Bible (March 2009)
Pilgrimage / Sacrifice (April 2009)
The Neo-Hittites (May 2009)
Issues in Bible translation (Summer 2009)
 
If you are interesting in submitting an article to The SBL Forum on any of these themes, please contact us at forum@sbl-site.org
 
We always have a wish list but many of the most popular articles stem from member suggestions. Please send your suggestions to forum@sbl-site.org

Download a pdf version of the Forum Submission Guidelines (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

The SBL Forum
Instructions for Contributors


The SBL Forum feature categories are:

IN THE CLASSROOM
Pedagogical subjects both from practical experience and methodological reflection

IN THE PROFESSION
Articles on job hunting, hiring trends, general job experiences not related to scholarship

IN THE ARTS
The Bible in music, literature, and visual and performing arts

IN POPULAR CULTURE
The Bible in film, on TV, and on the Internet

IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE
The intersection of the Bible and political rhetoric; news; and issues affecting research collections

IN TRANSLATION
Articles that focus on contemporary translation issues

PERSONAL PROFILES
Interviews with senior scholars, adjuncts or teaching assistants, speechwriters, religion news writers, or anyone else of interest to SBL members

ON LOCATION
Reports from professional meetings other than SBL meetings

REVIEWS
Brief reviews of popular and semi-popular fiction and nonfiction titles.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR present reader opinion and reaction to The SBL Forum. The editor reserves the right to select letters for publication and will consult writers about edits prior to publication. Leonard Greenspoon: forum@sbl-site.org

The SBL Forum Submission Guidelines

In all matters not addressed here, The SBL Forum follows the guidelines provided in the SBL Handbook of Style (SBLHS) and the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition.

1. Submission

1.1 Essays must be submitted in electronic form and use a Unicode font whenever possible. When using a non-Unicode font, please identify all special characters and diacriticals.

1.2 Submissions must include a byline stating the author's affiliation and title.

1.3 Submissions are strictly limited to 2,500 words, including endnotes.

1.4 Article titles should reflect the content clearly and concisely

1.5 Hebrew, Greek, and other non-Latin scripts must be transliterated according to the general-purpose style described in SBLHS, chapter 5.

1.6 To write for The SBL Forum, submit proposals, drafts, and news to Leonard Greenspoon: forum@sbl-site.org

2. Editorial Process

2.1 Convey ideas in nontechnical language with few to no endnotes. Excessive notes will be deleted.

2.2 Articles that exceed the word limit will be returned to the author for further editing.

2.3 SBL Forum articles do not include bibliographies or reference lists.
See number 4 below for endnote and reference-style guidelines.

2.4 All manuscripts accepted are subject to editorial modification. Writers retain copyright but should note in any future publications that it first appeared in The SBL Forum.

3. Style Guidelines

3.1 In a series of three or more items, place a comma after the last item before “and.” For example, “apples, peaches, strawberries, and bananas.”
 
3.2 e.g., i.e. A comma is used after e.g. and i.e.
 
3.3 Ellipsis. When abbreviating quoted material, use three dots (…) if the material before and after the ellipsis is within the same sentence; use four dots (….) if the material after the ellipsis is in another sentence.
 
3.4 Dashes. When using dashes, please locate and insert the appropriate “sign” from your list of symbols.  Avoid using double dashes (--) for this purpose.
 
3.5 Restrictive/nonrestrictive clauses. In carefully written English (which is the only kind we wish to publish) “which” and “that” are NOT interchangeable. “Which” is used to introduce a nonrestrictive clause, and a comma is placed before and after such a clause. “That” is used to introduce a restrictive clause, and no comma is used before or after such a clause.  Examples (nonrestrictive): “Leonard Greenspoon edits The SBL FORUM, which appears once a month in electronic form, and he also does 1,000 push-ups a day”; (restrictive) “The SBL FORUM is a journal that appears once a month.”
 
3.6 Be very sparing in the use of italics within the text for any purpose other than foreign-language use and endnote titles. For example, we would omit the emphases in the following: “We know we can trust the reader to get our point.”
 
3.7 Be very, very sparing in the use of quotation marks for emphasis.

3.8 Referencing persons. Give the full name (first name and/or middle and/or initials, plus last name) at the first reference in your text to every person, including “well-known” public figures. E.g. “George Washington may indeed have cut down a cherry tree. Everyone knows Washington liked cutting things down.”

3.9 We use "American" spelling and punctuation, unless it is within a title or the title of an institution/organization.

3.10 Avoid abbreviations, even for journal titles or organizations that are considered to be in common usage.

4. Endnote style.

4.1 The SBL Forum prefers the traditional documentation style, but without an accompanying bibliography. The complete publication data should be supplied in the first note referring to a given source. Subsequent notes referring to the same source should use a short title and abbreviated note form (see examples below).

4.2 Examples

Journal Article
[6] Robin Gallaher, "Teaching the Old Testament Book of Proverbs," Christian Higher Education 4.1 (2005): 57-69.

Book
[4] Deryck Cooke, The Language of Music (London: Oxford University Press, 1959), 23-55.

[12] Cooke, The Language of Music, 42.

Article in an Edited Book
[2] Kwok Pui-Lan, “Racism and Ethnocentrism in Feminist Biblical Interpretation,” in Searching the Scriptures (ed. Elisabeth Schüssler-Fiorenza; New York: Crossroad, 1994), 1:101-16.

[7] Pui-Lan, "Racism and Ethnocentrism," 114.

5. Illustrations

5.1 Illustrations should be submitted in digital format as a jpeg file, with a resolution of 72 dpi.

5.2 Illustrations should be cropped and ready for final publication.

6. Additional instructions specific to online presentation

6.1 "Smart" quotes do not display and therefore should be converted to simple quotes.

6.2 SBL Forum cannot display italics in the title of an article. Quote marks will be substituted.

How to post announcements on the Web Site:

NEWS reports awards, meetings, appointments, press releases, and other items of interest to members and are limited to 350 words. News should include valid dates, contact information, and sources.

CALENDAR announces meetings, conferences, calls for papers, and exhibits. Submissions are due one month in advance.

OBITUARIES normally relate losses within the Society membership.

All Obituaries, News, and Calendar items should be sent to Sharon Johnson at: forum@sbl-site.org

Return to SBL Forum

 


JOIN   |  DONATE   |  CONTACT   |  SBL TWITTER   |  BIBLE ODYSSEY TWITTER   |  PRIVACY POLICY

© 2024, Society of Biblical Literature. All Rights Reserved.