General Information

Submit Your Articles to the Journal or Newsletter

Guidelines for Contributors

The Wild West History Association (WWHA) is dedicated to facilitating and encouraging research, study, writing, presentation, and preservation of the history of the Wild West, providing publications and forums for the enlightenment and enjoyment of its members, and to recognizing and honoring those individuals and institutions which make significant contributions to the knowledge and preservation of its history and lore.

To achieve and further these aims, WWHA actively supports and seeks to publish research into all aspects of the history of the people, events, and places that made the American West "wild" in the last half of the nineteenth century: the lawmen, outlaws, gunfighters, rustlers, vigilantes, feuds, shady ladies, saloons, cowtowns, and mining camps.

WWHA has two publications, THE JOURNAL, published six times a year, plus a newsletter called THE SADDLEBAG. Articles on all aspects of the history of the Wild West are welcome. All submissions should be sent in the first instance to Roy B. Young, editor of the JOURNAL. They will then be reviewed and assessed by the appropriate member(s) of the WWHA editorial board.

Editor, WWHA JOURNAL

Editorial Board, WHHA:

Letters of inquiry are welcome; advice and assistance always available. If you are writing or have completed an article on any aspect of western history and wish to submit it to WWHA for consideration, please read the guidelines which follow.

Getting It Right

Have you done some original research on frontier history that begs for a wider audience? Have you discovered facts, photographs, fresh insights into the lives and times of such famous figures as Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, Butch and Sundance or Wild Bill, or alternatively, unpublished details about some little-known but significant event in the colorful pageant of the American West? If so, the Wild West History Association wants to publish your findings.

Before you start writing, however, there are a few things you need to know.

First and foremost, you must write clearly. Tell your story simply and without adornment. Keep your sentences relatively short and to the point, avoid using words whose meaning you are unsure of, and, unless you are quoting someone's actual words, avoid slang or profanity.

Critical or personal attacks of a hostile nature on another article or person will not be countenanced. Submissions must always be based on documented fact. Conjecture or supposition must be clearly stated as such. Always remember, when considering what to write and how to write it, that you are addressing a sophisticated readership who may already know a great deal about the subject you are addressing. You will need to convince them of the originality and comprehensiveness of your research and the validity of your conclusions by citing your sources either in the body text or in the form of footnotes.

To ensure that your work is presented properly and readably, WWHA's editorial board is and will be there to assist you, to help make your contribution as accurate, as literate and as accessible as possible. If you are contemplating writing an article or have a work in progress, but are uncertain of how to proceed or whether it would be suitable for publication, the editor will be happy to advise you or to refer your question to an appropriate member of the board. Our aim is and will be always to enhance and clarify your work; indeed, like no other publication of its kind, the WWHA JOURNAL guarantees you will always be given a final opportunity to review the edited piece before it goes to press.

Frederick Nolan, Chairman of the Editorial Board.

Preparing and Submitting Your Manuscript

Length:

Articles for the WWHA JOURNAL may and should be of whatever length the author considers valid for proper and thorough treatment of the subject, although for obvious reasons it is not possible to publish book-length manuscripts in magazine format. Ideally, authors should aim to cover their topic as comprehensively as possible; if the work is important enough, it can be published in two, three or more parts, serial-fashion. In all instances, the judgments of the editor and the editorial board will be final.

Format:

Manuscripts should preferably be first submitted by e-mail. If, however, you wish to submit a printed manuscript, it should be accompanied by an IBM-compatible floppy or compact disk (preferably in Microsoft Word) with the name of the word-processing program indicated.

All text (even in e-mails) should be double-spaced, including quotations set off as extracts, notes, and photo captions.

Illustrations or graphics should be submitted separately and not embedded in the text. Double-spaced, numbered captions, which should include credit lines, should be provided either as a document or in the case of hard copies, affixed to the back of each. Suggested placement for each illustration should be indicated by a bracketed statement line in the body text, although of course these may be changed due to formatting requirements.

Manuscript preparation:

In preparing your manuscript:

• Always use the same system--both hardware and software--from start to finish.
• Name files sequentially thus: 01[title].front-matter, 02[title].chapter1, and so on. If possible, provide a list of file names with your disk(s).
• Notes should be presented at the end of the body text (double-spaced), Do not place them at the bottoms of pages.
• Set off direct quotations of more than eight to ten typed lines from the text by indenting from each margin, using no opening or closing quotation marks. Shorter quotations should be run into the text, with quotation marks used.
• Use a standard 12-point serif font, preferably Courier, Courier New, or Times New Roman.
• Number all manuscript pages consecutively with arabic numerals.
• If submitting in a printed manuscript, use good-quality medium-weight (80-100gsm) 8½-by-11-inch (A4) white paper.
• In printing out, use a 300 dpi or better ink-jet or laser printer.

Permissions:

You must secure and provide WWHA with copies of written permission for the use of any illustrations owned or copyrighted by others. Written permission should also be secured for any quotations you make from published works that do not fall under the doctrine of "fair use," (a rough rule of thumb would be anything exceeding 500 words). More detailed information may be found in the Copyright Act of 1976.

In all matters of punctuation, style, and the preparation of materials for submission, consult The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition.