Each author/team of authors must upload his/her/their submissions as an MS Word document to the Dialectic submission website at https://mpub.janewaysharedhosting.com/dialectic/submissions/. All submissions for possible publication in a given issue of Dialectic MUST be received during the submission window for that issue (for example, submissions for possible publication in Volume III, Issue 02—the “seventh issue”—of Dialectic must be received between 11:59 pm CST, February 10, 2022 and 11:59 pm CST on April 22, 2022). Please DO NOT attempt to attach submissions as parts of e-mails sent to any members of Dialectic’s Editorial Board, Advisory Team, its Producer, or any members of the national steering committee of the AIGA Design Educators Community. All submissions must be structured and articulated according to the following instructions:

Before you read further, please note and UNDERSTAND the content in the following paragraph

Required Grammatical and Stylistic Format for Manuscripts

All submitted manuscripts, regardless of their category (please reference the section of this website titled “WHAT WE PUBLISH”) should conform to the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition (https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html), published by the University of Chicago Press. All submitted manuscripts should be written in English (complete with American spellings, i.e.: “neighbor,” “recognize,” “maneuver,” meager,” “theater,” and “defense,” etc., rather than “neighbour,” “recognise,” “manoeuvre,” “meagre,” “theatre,” and “defence,” etc.). Pages should be numbered consecutively.

Many institutions of higher learning around the world make the online version of the Chicago Manual of Style FREELY available to their administrators, faculty members, staff personnel, researchers and students.

MANUSCRIPTS THAT ARE NOT WRITTEN ACCORDING TO THE GUIDELINES SPECIFIED IN THE 16TH EDITION OF THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE MAY BE AUTOMATICALLY REJECTED BY DIALECTIC’S EDITORIAL BOARD AND PRODUCER.

Manuscripts that are, from a grammatical and syntactic standpoint, poorly written are also likely to be rejected by Dialectic’s Editorial Board, Advisory Board and/or Producer during the desk review process. Authors are encouraged to seek and heed the counsel of readers or editors who can provide them with grammatical and syntactic assistance PRIOR to submitting their work to Dialectic’s Editorial and Advisory Boards and its Producer for initial review.

Download an example of three formatted manuscript pages (PDF)

Download Dialectic’s categorized citation formatting instructions (PDF)

A Complete Submission to Dialectic Must Include:

1. A double-spaced, typed manuscript created ONLY in MS Word set flush-left, ragged-right in 11 pt. Calibri, Corbel or Times New Roman that adheres to the word count restrictions specified in the section of this website titled “WHAT WE PUBLISH;” images, tables, diagrams, maps, etc. must be embedded as “for-position-only” entities (i.e. ~120 to 200 dpi) in the body of the manuscript so that they appear reasonably proximal to the language that refers to them. Each image, table, diagram, map, etc. must ALSO be submitted as individual files at 300 dpi as per the instructions articulated in issue 5 below. The type of piece (again, from the section of this website titled “Categorical descriptions of the refereed types of pieces Dialectic will publish”) must appear at top of the first page of each manuscript, followed by the title of the piece and the names of the authors. An abstract that briefly describes the content of the piece that contains between 150 and 450 words must appear underneath the name or names of its author(s). The end of the manuscript should be followed with an alphabetized listing of whatever references have been cited in the piece, and these references MUST be configured according to Dialectic’s categorized citation formatting instructions (these may be downloaded from a link that appears immediately above this paragraph). This manuscript should be submitted as a separate document under a file titled like this: “Author or Authors’ Name(s)_first four words of manuscript title”. Each manuscript should be submitted according to the categorical description it fulfills from the list above when the author(s) navigates his/her web browser to https://mpub.janewaysharedhosting.com/dialectic/submissions/ to upload his/her/their paper/piece.
2. One cover letter including, for each author named: his/her current affiliations and email address(es), (additionally, up to three references to previous publications may be listed—these are optional and are NOT required). This cover letter should be submitted as a separate document under a file titled like this: “Author or Authors’ Name(s)_cover letter”.
3. For each author: a brief, biographical statement of no more than 125 words that includes his/her/their e-mail address(es); please bear in mind that bios will be appear in the “Contributors” section of Dialectic if his/her/their submission is published. This biographical statement should be submitted as a separate document under a file titled like this: “Author or Authors’ Name(s)_bio”.
4. A separate page or pages saved as one document that provides sequentially numbered captions for the images, tables, diagrams, maps, etc. used to support/“illustrate” the prose that constitutes the submission. Each caption must be comprised of between 15 and 100 words that describes the image, table, diagram, map, etc. All photographs and illustrations must include a rights-holder credit line. This list of captions should be submitted as a separate document under a file titled like this: “Author or Authors’ Name(s)_captions”.
5. All images, tables, diagrams, maps, etc. must be submitted as individual files (formatted ONLY as .tiff or .eps at 300 dpi). All of these should be sized to approximately 4” x 4”. Each one of these should be submitted as a separate document under files titled like these: “Author or Authors’ Name(s)_image01”; “Author or Authors’ Name(s)_table01”; “Author or Authors’ Name(s)_diagram01”; “Author or Authors’ Name(s)_map01”. The numbers used in these file titles should correspond with the numbers used in the sequentially numbered captions document described in issue 4 above.

NOTE: All authors will be required to obtain and provide express, written permissions to reprint any images, tables, diagrams, maps, etc. for which they do not hold rights. Authors should NOT submit images, tables, diagrams, maps, etc. if they are unsure they will be able to obtain permission to reprint if and when publication occurs.

Footnotes

Footnotes should be numbered consecutively, and references to them indicated by corresponding numbers in the text. Style should conform to Chicago Manual Style, 16th edition footnote style. Quotations from foreign language sources should be translated into English in the text; their original manifestation, if necessary, may appear in footnotes. Internet sources must be cited as the following example: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/xxx (accessed January 27, 2020).

Illustrations, Graphics, and Photos

Any images, tables, diagrams, maps, etc. that accompany a submission to Dialectic should be identified with the figure number corresponding to its position within the prose it accompanies/supports, as well as a caption or description and appropriate credit(s) information. All visuals should be supplied digitally according to the parameters specified in item 5 above. The following general guidelines assume that the overall size of a given image, table, diagram, map, etc. is sufficient for end-use/final reproduction. When in doubt: the larger, the better, although please be aware that nothing larger than a physical size of 8.5” x 11” will be accepted. Dialectic will not accept any types of art, illustrations, or photos obtained via simple “copy-and-paste” lifts from websites, as these are too often rendered at too small a resolution for legible print reproduction. Additionally, no whiteboard presentations will be accepted in lieu of other types of imagery that could effectively communicate this information as a diagram, map or table created in a graphics application software program. Please do not submit screen captures unless they can be clearly rendered at 8.5” x 11” at a resolution of 300 dpi. All line art should be scanned at a minimum of 1200 dpi in bitmap mode and saved as .eps files. Grayscale imagery (meaning there is no RGB or CMYK color present, but that the gradations between black and white are complex) must be rendered as halftones at a resolution of 300 dpi and saved in grayscale mode as .tiff files. Photographs can be submitted both as grayscale imagery or as full spectrum visuals; if they are the latter, they must be rendered in CMYK mode at 300 dpi and saved as .tiff files. AGAIN: All authors are responsible for obtaining permission, whenever necessary and as required, for the reproduction of all images, tables, diagrams, maps, etc. for which they do not hold the rights.

Editorial Correspondence

For Dialectic Issues 05—09, please contact Dialectic’s Producer (serious inquiries only, please)