Guidelines for contributors

The more care an author exerts in preparing a work, the less it will be subject to corrections and interventions from copy-editors and reviewers in Lebanon Support.

1.General

  1. Referencing guide

This guideline provides instruction to Lebanon Support’s collaborators on how to precisely acknowledge the work of cited writers and researchers in the publications using in-text citations and reference list. Contributors are required to adhere to this  guideline in order  to ensure coherency and consistency in our publications.

  1. Structure

Papers and articles can be submitted in Arabic, French or English. For the articles submitted in English, the style (British or American) can be chosen by the author but needs to be consistent throughout the paper.

Papers and articles should follow Chicago Style (Author-Date). For more information, see Chapter 15 of the Chicago Manual of Style, and sample citations here.

Papers and articles should be submitted as Microsoft Word documents.

A short biography (150 words maximum) with the affiliation of the author, his latest publications, and ongoing research (if applicable) should be included. Optionally, include contact details such as email address and social media handles, and ORCID ID if available.

  1. Format

Articles should not exceed 5 pages. Papers should not exceed 15 pages in length. Papers should be submitted using Times New Roman font, size 12 for the main body and size 10 for footnotes. Single spacing should be used for the whole document, and paragraphs should be separated by an extra space.

  1. Title and abstract

 

The title should be analytical and as short as possible. The abstract (no more than 150 words) should include the research problem investigated, the method used, the main findings and conclusions. The abstract should summarise and not introduce the paper. The paper should include 5 to 6 key words.

 

2. Editorial procedure:

  • All research articles and papers are subject to a double blind review.
  • Authors should be mindful that acceptance of an abstract proposal does not constitute a guarantee to publish the full paper. Hence, only accepted papers will be published by Lebanon Support. 
  • Lebanon Support does not publish previously published material, except if it’s a translated version.
  • Lebanon Support aims to inform potential contributors of its decision about their submission within 2 months of receiving it.
  • Decisions by the editor/s are final.
  • Once accepted, it can take up to 5 months for an article to be published, the author must agree to undertake any necessary revisions and to deliver a final copy to the editor by a mutually agreed date.
  • The editors reserve the right to edit the texts received. Substantial changes will be made in consultation with the author.
  • When applicable, articles accepted for publication will be sent to the author at proof stage. Authors are expected to correct page proofs, they must be returned to the editor within ten days of receipt.  No substantial in-depth changes can be made at proof stage; typographic errors must be corrected.

 

3. In-text citations:

The in-text citation includes the family name of the author, followed by the year of publication.

  • Author-date system

Dates should appear as day/month/year: 18 January 2019. If only the month is available, the format would be: January 2019.

  • Quotation marks

Quotations (using the exact wording) from other authors should be inserted between double quotation (“...”) marks, and should be accompanied by a reference (including the author’s name, year of publication, and page number). In case a quotation is used within a quotation, double quotation marks should be used for the general quotation, and single quotation marks for the quotation within the quotation. For example, “Lebanon Support's data revealed 'fragmented collaboration between CSO actors' in Lebanon’.”

  • Block quotes

In case a quotation's length exceeds 100 words( 6 to 8 lines), the quote should be indented 0.5 from the left margins and not enclosed in quotation marks. For example:

AbiYaghi, Yammine, and Jagarnathsingh underlined the importance of social media in advancing civil society organisation’s advocacy efforts:

In Lebanon, social media are often used by civil society actors such as NGOs, activists, journalists, but also by individuals as a means to spread news, denounce or raise awareness about issues, as well as express political opinions and organise collective actions.

  • Footnotes/endnotes (if relevant)

Punctuation should be placed inside quotation marks and footnotes should be placed on the outside of quotations or punctuation, as so: "The movement called for greater transparency."1

  • Acronyms, transliterations, etc

Words in a foreign language and transliterations must be in italics. Titles and headings must be in bold. Nothing should be underlined.

Acronyms should be spelled out the first time they are used in the paper, with the acronym between parethenses.

Formatting for numbers, currencies, percentages (symbol or spelled out) should be consistent throughout.

Authors are responsible for the consistency and accuracy of their transliterations. Transliterations should be kept simple. Names of people and places that appear in common written format will be spelled out in accordance with the common spelling.

  • Consecutive citations:

The first time a source is cited, give the complete information as in the above. However, for the second and the next consecutive reference to the same source (with the same page number) use: Ibid. If the reference is the same, but the page is not, add the page number: (Ibid. 44).

NB: When there is no author and the title of the resource is long, shorten the title, but ensure that the item can be identified with its corresponding entry in the reference list. The organisation stands in as the author in this case. Organisations may be identified by an abbreviation, if appropriate. For the reference list, the organisation’s full name should be given, with the abbreviation in parentheses.

 

4. References:

In terms of referencing, the paper should include footnotes, and not endnotes. Those should follow the guidelines detailed below.

A bibliography should be included at the end of the paper; it should also follow the same guidelines as for the footnotes.

Note: Please follow the punctuation format of the example below each section, punctuation inside quotation marks.

 

5. Bibliography

  1. General rules:

Create the bibliography page at the end of your paper on a new page. Label this page bibliography at the top middle of the page. The bibliography should include all sources cited within the work and may sometimes include other relevant sources that were not cited but provide further reading. Sources should be listed in the original language they were consulted in.

Capitalise the first and last words in titles and subtitles, and capitalize all other major words (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and some conjunctions).

List the sources in alphabetical order by the authors' last names. Ignore "A," "And," and "The" when alphabetizing by title if an author is not listed.

Do not indent the first line in the citation; however, you must indent any additional lines 1/2". One way to do this is with a hanging indent.

 

  1. Arabic bibliography:

For literature which includes both Arabic and English sources, list the Arabic sources first. Arabic bibliography should be sorted by alphabetical order.

 

  1. Author cited more than once

(i.e. Two Lebanon Support Publications, both published in 2018)

Two or more works by the same author in the same year must be differentiated by the addition of a, b, and so forth , and listed alphabetically by title. Text citations consist of author and year + letter as follows:

Lebanon Support. 2018a. Breaking the Political Glass Ceiling: Enhancing Women’s Political Participation in Lebanon. Beirut: Lebanon Support. https://civilsociety-centre.org/sites/default/files/resources/ls_breakingpoliticalglassceiling_en_0.pdf

Lebanon Support. 2018b. Women’s Political Participation: Exclusion and Reproduction of Social Roles Case Studies from Lebanon. Beirut: Lebanon Support. https://civilsociety-centre.org/sites/default/files/resources/ls-womenleadership-casestudy-en.pdf

 

Note: Co-authors of a publication are all listed alphabetically.