Style Sheet for Word and Music Studies

WMA Style Sheet PDF

Your text should be between 5000 and 7000 words (including footnotes and references). An abstract of 100 to 200 words precedes the article proper, which should be divided into sections labeled with Arabic numerals and headings.

Page Layout

The layout of your contribution will be taken care of in the copy editing process. Use as little formatting on the page layout level as possible. In particular, do not use tab stops (or spaces) to indent paragraphs. Should you be using chapter headings, please number and justify centre them. The basic page layout is as follows:

Text Formatting, Punctuation, Spelling, and Citations

• Double quotation marks are restricted to:
• direct (verbatim) citations from sources
• titles of articles, poems etc. (i. e., parts of a book or journal)
• Single quotation marks should be used for:
• meta-linguistic highlighting, i. e., ‘scare quotes’
• your own translations (see below for more on translations)
• Do not use 'straight" but ‘typographic” (single or double) quotation marks.
• Italics are reserved for:
• titles of books, journals, films, paintings, sculptures, etc.
• your own emphases (if you cannot do without them)
• Foreign words are not italicized, but may be put into single quotation marks.
• References to sources which are directly cited appear within the text and take the following form: (Brown 1987: 124f.). Any of the reference details (author’s last name, year, page numbers) should be omitted if they are mentioned clearly in the text.
• References to sources which are not directly cited take the same form, with the addition of:
• ‘cf.’ if you are referring to parts of a publication, e. g.: (cf. Brown 1987: 124–128)
• ‘see’ if you are referring to a publication as a whole, e. g.: (see Brown 1987)
• If you cite the same source several times consecutively you do not need to repeat the reference details, use ‘ibid.’ instead, e. g.: (ibid.: 125).
• References within your own text take this form: (see above 35), (see below 104). Reference to other contributors in the volume take this form: (see Last Name in this vol.).
• In a range of (page) numbers:
• separate the numbers by a twofold dash, not a hyphen, e. g.: 124–128 (not 124-128).
• do not omit the first digit if it is identical for both numbers, e. g.: 124–128 (not 124–28).
• if the reference extends over two pages, indicate only the first page, followed by the abbreviation ‘f.’, e. g.: 124f., not 124–125.
• do not use ‘ff.’ but give exact numbers; and do not use ‘passim’ but use ‘see’.
• Footnotes are generally restricted to content notes. Bibliographic notes are acceptable only if you wish to comment on a source or list a large number of them.
• Citations in the text:
• should be set off if exceeding 3 lines.
• if in a language other than English should be given in the original language in the text and in English translation in parentheses or, if longer, in a footnote. (When languages rarely cited in English scholarship are used the positions may be reversed.)
• English translations should be taken from a published source where possible. If such a source is not available or you prefer your own translation, add ‘[my translation]’ after the respective reference, e. g.: (Brown 1987: 124 [my translation]). If you frequently translate material yourself, drop ‘[my translation]’ and add a footnote after the first translation reading: Unless otherwise indicated, all translations are mine.
• Square brackets should be used for all of your own alterations (additions, omissions, text changes) to direct citations, e. g.: […], [my emphasis]. To avoid ambiguity, also use ‘[emphasis in the original]’.
• For ellipses use the appropriate character (…) and not a series of three full stops (...).
• Closing quotation marks and footnote numbers precede punctuation marks (e. g.: L. Kramer calls this a “tandem reading” 1.), unless the citation consists of one or more full sentences (e. g.: He quotes Pope: “Whatever IS, is RIGHT.” 4)
• Dashes take the following form: The text - or at least part of it - is highly ambiguous.
• The letters in both ‘i. e.’ and ‘e. g.’ are separated by a non-breaking space. The same goes for initials used for personal names, e. g.: W. J. T. Mitchell.
• Consistent American and consistent British spelling are equally acceptable.
• Note the following spellings: “In the 1990s critics began to question Brahms’ status as a composer of ‘absolute music’.”

Tables, Illustrations, and Captions

All illustrations must be greyscaled TIF(F)-files with a resolution of 300dpi at full size (the print space is 11cm wide and 18cm high) and sent as separate attachments.

If you wish to use copyrighted material, you must request permission from the copyright owner for the work to be reproduced in your article.

Tables are labelled ‘Figures’, excerpts from musical scores: ‘Examples’, and all other types of visual material ‘Illustrations’. Captions are placed underneath each and numbered through. They take the following forms:

• music:
  Example 5: Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata op. 106, 4th movement, mm. 152–167.
• visual art:
  Illustration 2: Giorgio de Chirico, Gare de Montparnasse – La Mélancolie du départ (1914). Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. (Orig. in colour.)
• film:
  Illustration 1: Frame enlargement from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
• book:
  Illustration 3: Raymond Federman, Double or Nothing: A Real Fictitious Discourse. Bolder, CO/Normal, IL: Fiction Two Collective, 1998. p. 88.

Always refer to the illustrations within your text, e. g.: (see Illustration 1).

List of References

Full references for sources should be listed alphabetically at the end of the text. The title of this section is ‘References’.

If more than one publication by an author is documented, these publications are listed chronologically. The exception to this is that authored publications precede edited publications. More than one publication per year by one author are distinguished by lowercase letters, e. g.: 2007a, 2007b. Example:

Note that in this case the author’s name is not repeated but replaced by a fourfold dash followed by a non-breaking space.

If the edition of a work you use is not the first edition, indicate the original date of publication (if known) before the date of the edition you used, separated by a slash, e. g.:

A reference to this entry in the text would correspondingly appear as (Adorno 1949/1975: 7).

Guidelines for the most common types of sources:

a) monograph

Example:

Note that title and subtitle are separated by a colon. (If a second subtitle follows the first, they are separated by a full stop.)

If the place of publication is in the US, Canada, or Australia indicate the state after the city. If there are several places of publication, separate them with slashes (e. g.: New York, NY/London: Methuen). For books with more than two authors, reverse only the name of the first author. Example:

Additional information pertaining to the edition, the translator, the book series etc. should be placed between the title and the place of publication. Examples:

b) journal article

c) work in an anthology

Example:

If an anthology has more than one editor, ‘ed.’ is changed to ‘eds.’. If there are more than three editors, only name of the first one and add ‘et al., eds.’. If you cite more than one work from the same anthology, provide a separate entry for the anthology and cross-reference to it for the individual works. Example:

d) online source

journal:

Last Name, First Name (Year: online). “Title”. Journal Volume/Issue. URL. [date of access].

Example:

other source:

Examples:

e) thesis

f) film

Example:

If you wish to include additional information about a film, put it between the title and company, except for DVD details, which should be placed in square brackets at the end of the entry. Example:

g) television broadcast

Example:

If the broadcast you quote is not part of a serial, list the title of the programme instead of the title of the episode. If neither season/series number nor episode number are applicable, list the broadcast date (Day Month).

Similarly to film, DVD details should be placed in square brackets at the end of the entry. Example:

h) exhibition catalogue

Example:

If a type of source you used is not covered by these cases, try to provide as many details about it as possible.

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