Guide in Downloadable Format

The UK Association for the History of Nursing’s Bulletin is a peer-reviewed, online journal published by the UK Association for the History of Nursing. UKAHN encourages original contributions relating to nursing history from academic and non-academic, experienced and new writers, based in the UK and internationally. Material submitted to the Bulletin should fall into one of the following sections and should adhere to the stated word limit:

    • Research Articles – 8,000 words (including references)
    • Reports on work in progress – 2500 words (including references)
    • Then and Now – literature reviews, reminiscences etc 3,000 words (including references)
    • Short Biographies – 1000 words (including references) Longer biographies can be submitted as research articles.
    • Book reviews –1000 words
    • Personal interest (such as nursing memorials, badges, etc) – 1000 words
    • Reports on events – 750 words
    • Calls for abstracts – 200 words

Material is only accepted on the basis that it has not been previously published, is not being offered elsewhere and that it is the original work of the contributor. The editorial team reserve the right to make minor amendments to contributions: material requiring major changes may be returned to the author for resubmission.

Authors are not required to assign copyright in their contributions to the UK Association for the History of Nursing, but instead are granting UKAHN an exclusive license to publish. Requests to re-publish material previously published in the Bulletin will normally be granted if full acknowledgements are made. Authors should discuss this the Editor if relevant before submission. Illustrations are welcome, but it is the contributors’ responsibility to obtain permission to reproduce material, including any illustrations or graphics, if necessary, and to ensure that the proper acknowledgements are made in their articles.

Submissions

Peer-review Process
Submitted articles are first considered for publication by UKAHN’s editorial team. All articles approved by the editorial team are then sent for peer-review by two external reviewers. The peer-review process is anonymous, and any comments by the reviewers are shared (also anonymously) with the author. Authors will be kept informed of the progress of their articles and may be asked to make revisions based on the reviewers’ comments prior to being accepted for publication. Once an article has been accepted, it will be copy-edited and may be returned to the author for final amendment or revision.

In order to ensure publication of your contribution proceeds smoothly, with the minimum of revision, please read and adhere to these guidelines. Submissions not correctly prepared may have to be returned to the author for correction, potentially delaying publication of your work.

Manuscript Preparation

  • Submit all articles electronically, using the ‘Submit an article’ link on the Bulletin webpage, as MS Word documents (doc or docx files).
  • Material should be submitted using the Arial font, with size 12 text.
  • Titles: left justified. Keep titles as short and descriptive as possible! No bold or italic is required—this is done at publishing stage. Do not use capital letters on subtitles.
  • All text should be double line spaced, including endnotes, and right-hand margin should left unjustified (ie, ragged right margin).
  • Paragraphs marked by a line space.
  • Sub-sections: left-justified, sub-titles preferred to roman numerals, and only capitalise the first word.
  • Please use English spelling and punctuation. (If you normally write in a language other than English, please have the text edited by a native English speaker before submission.)
  • Do not use automatic hyphenation.
  • Referencing style uses an in-text number/end note system based on MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association). See below for details.

Tables/Charts/Illustrations/Photographs

  • The Bulletin encourages contributors to include graphics or illustrations in their articles.
  • Charts, tables and illustrations (with the exception of photographs or other images) should be embedded in the text at an appropriate point, and accompanied by a caption containing all necessary information (see below).
  • For photographs or other images, please provide a caption positioned roughly where you would like the photo to appear in the article. The images themselves should be provided separately (as attachments to the submission email) in their original format and should be given file names which make it clear which image belongs to which caption (best way to do this is to call your images Image 1, Image 2 etc).
  • All captions should include a Figure Number (eg Fig. 1, sequential throughout article) and full acknowledgment of the source, including where appropriate details of the copyright holder.
  • It is the author’s responsibility to establish copyright status of any images used and to provide proof this has been done and any permissions to reproduce have been received. We are unable to do this for authors or to pay any reproduction fees. If proof of permission to use an image is not provided the editors will not accept it for publication.
  • Please ensure you refer to any images, charts, tables etc in the text of the article i.e. (see Fig. 1).
  • Both black and white and colour images are acceptable.

Text Conventions

Adhering to the following text conventions will speed the editing process significantly.

Quotations:

  • Maintain the spelling, punctuation and capitalisation of the original source.
  • Use single quotation marks throughout, except for quotations within quotations, which are indicated by double quotation marks.
  • Do not italicise quotations.
  • Punctuation follows closing quotation marks unless it is an exclamation mark or question mark included in the original quotation.
  • Use ellipses … to indicate omitted text; ensure these are [space] 3 dots [space].
  • Short quotations (under 50 words) should be placed in single quotation marks and included in the text.
  • Longer quotations (over 50 words) should be presented as a block of text, indented from the margins, without quotation marks and separated from the text of the article by a blank line above and below.

Spelling:

  • The Bulletin follows British rather than American usage: note especially the use of -ise, -our, and -tion endings.
  • Note also that words like ‘middle class’ and nineteenth century’ become ‘middle-class women’, and ‘nineteenth-century nurses’, with a hyphen, when used as adjectives.

Foreign terms:

  • Italicise all words or phrases from foreign languages used in the text.

Numerals:

  • Numbers under 100 should be spelled out, unless they are being used statistically.
  • Numbers in the thousands take commas, e.g., 12,000.

Dates:

  • The Bulletin follows British rather than American usage: i.e., 19 July 2002 (note no comma).
  • Spell out 18th, 19th, 20th, etc. as eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, etc., as in twentieth century.

Capitalisation:

  • Capitalise sparingly; use lower case where possible; be consistent; e.g., ‘Queen Anne’, but ‘the queen’.

Formatting text:

  • Try to avoid use of underlining or italicising text where possible (except where convention insists upon it). If text needs to stand out the preference is for emboldened text.

Punctuation:

  • Use parentheses (brackets) sparingly. If an explanation is important, it usually needs to be part of the main text.
  • In a series, do not use a comma before ‘and’, as in ‘men, women and children’, unless it aids clarity.
  • Text after a colon, including the first word after the colon, should be in lower case (except where a word would normally be capitalised).

Footnotes:

  • Use the word system of footnotes to include additional, explanatory text, which you do not want to place in the main body.
  • Use explanatory foot notes sparingly. Detailed explanatory notes are discouraged unless essential to the understanding of the article— in these cases, consider putting the information in the article.

Referencing

In-Text Number and End Notes System (MHRA style).

The Bulletin uses a form of the MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association) referencing system. In this system references to text are indicated by sequential superscripted numbers in the appropriate place in the text, which lead to a series of end notes containing the relevant reference(s). Try not to interrupt your text with references and place them at the end of the relevant sentence or paragraph. This system should also be used for explanatory notes. End notes should be placed at the end of the article – there is no need to start a separate page – and should start with the title: End Notes. It is strongly recommended that you use the MS Word facility to compile your list of end notes to ensure accuracy of link between the in-text number and the end note text.

References Format

First references to any source should contain all required elements, whereas subsequent reference to a previously cited work comprises author’s surname and a shortened title. Ibid. (note use of italics and full stop) may be used when two notes to the same source follow each other directly. Do not use op. cit..

Single editor is identified by (ed.), multiple editors by (eds) NB – no stop after s in eds

The elements of a reference are: Author first name surname, Title of work (Place of publication: publisher, year).

NB Chapters in books, journal articles and newspapers articles should also include the page range in which page numbers should be elided eg 177-9 or 162-75; references for direct quotes should provide page number(s) for the quote.

Books

Single author: Andrew Abbott, The System of Professions: an essay on the division of expert labour (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988).

Short reference for subsequent notes: Abbot, System of Professions.

Multiple authors: Barbara Mortimer and Susan McGann (eds), New Directions in the History of Nursing: international perspectives (London: Routledge, 2005).

Short reference: Mortimer and McGann, New Directions.

Books (translated): Michel Foucault (trans Alan Sheridan), The Birth of the Clinic: an archaeology of medical perception (London: Vintage, 1991).

Short reference: Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic.

Edited Collections: Sandra Burman (ed.). Fit Work for Women (London: Croom Helm, 1979).

Short Reference: Burman, Fit Work for Women.

Chapter in Edited Book: Sally Alexander, ‘Women’s Work in 19th century London’, in The Rights and Wrongs of Women, ed. by Juliet Mitchell and Ann Oakley (London: Penguin, 1976), 59-111.

Short Reference: Alexander, ‘Women’s Work’.

Articles

Journal article: Jane Brooks, ‘Structured by Class, Bound by Gender: nursing and special probationer schemes, 1860-1939’, International History of Nursing Journal 6/2 (2001), 13-21.

Short reference: Brooks, ‘Structured by Class’.

Newspaper article: Anonymous, ‘The Health Exhibition’, The Times, 29 March 1884, 5.

Short reference: Anon., ‘The Health Exhibition’.

Newspaper article (accessed online): Anonymous, ‘The Health Exhibition’, The Times, 29 March 1884, 5. Available at www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk [Accessed 16 June 2019].

Short reference: Anon., ‘The Health Exhibition’.

Online sources

First name Last name, Page title [online], Website name, (Year published). Available at: URL [Accessed Day Month Year].

When no author is listed, use the following structure: Website name, (Year published), Page title [online]. Available at: URL [Accessed Day Month Year].

Please do not include long urls when referring to online sources. Keep the url as simple as possible.

Unpublished theses

Sue Hawkins, ‘Myth and Reality: uncovering and discovering the nurses of St George’s Hospital, London, 1850-1900’ (Unpublished PhD thesis, Kingston University, 2007).

Archive materia

Repository name, catalogue reference, brief description including date or date ranges if available.

For example:

Barts Health Archives SBHB/SA/20/1 St Bartholomew’s Hospital indemnity for Sarah Mansell’s employment by surgeon Percival Pott, 1757