REQUIREMENTS FOR THE TECHNICAL EDITING OF ARTICLES
General Info
The Balkans – Languages, History, Cultures accepts submissions that have undergone a double blind peer-review process. The final decision of whether to publish them shall be taken by the Editorial Board on the basis of the reviewers’ findings.
Articles should be submitted to the Editorial Board in DOC/DOCX (or RTF) and PDF formats via email: ic_balkani@abv.bg. The file name should contain the author’s name and surname (e.g. Balkani-Martina_Petrova.docx).
Article Language
The Balkans – Languages, History, Cultures is a multilingual periodical collection of scholarly articles. Texts written in a language other than English should be written at a professional academic level. Otherwise the text submitted shall not be considered by the Editorial Board.
Article Length
Articles should not exceed 36,000 characters (20 standard pages, 1,800 characters per page), including references, tables, figures, footnotes, and appendices.
Article Structure
Articles should be structured in the following way:
– Name SURNAME of the author (Times New Roman 12, bold, alignment left, single line space);
– Institution, country (Times New Roman 12, bold, alignment left, single line space);
– Blank line (line space 1.5);
– TITLE (max. 120 characters) (Times New Roman 12, bold, centered, all caps);
– Blank line (line space 1.5);
– Name SURNAME of the author (transcribed into Latin letters in case of Cyrillic script) (Times New Roman 12, alignment left, single line space);
– Institution, country (in English) (Times New Roman 12, alignment left, single line space);
– Blank line (line space 1.5);
– TITLE (translated into English) (Times New Roman 12, centered, all caps);
– Blank line (line space 1,5);
– Annotation (between 600 and 900 characters in Bulgarian / in the language of the publication and in English; Times New Roman 11, Italic, Justified, Indentation 1,2, single line space)
– Keywords: (up to 6 keywords in Bulgarian / in the language of the publication and in English; Times New Roman 11, Italic, Justified, Indentation 1,2, single line space, specific non-translatable verbs only transliterated into Latin).
– Blank line (line space 1.5);
– Body text (Times New Roman 12, Regular, Justified, Indentation 1,2, line space 1,5).
* Articles written in English should contain an abstract and keywords only in English, and the author(s)’s names should be written out only in Latin letters.
Fonts and Typographic Layout
The article text font should be Times New Roman. If other fonts have been used, they should necessarily be provided as separate files. Only Unicode fonts should be used. The font of Old Bulgarian texts should be CyrillicaBulgarian or CyrillicaBulgarian10U.
Paragraphs and footnotes should be structured automatically in Microsoft Word. Paragraphs should not be indented with tabs. Every new paragraph should have a first-line indentation.
Examples should be italicized. Word meanings should be enclosed in single quotation marks (e.g. Polish: mara ‘ghost, dream.’ If the examples are not in the paper language, they should be followed by a translation enclosed in double quotation marks (e.g. Τα χρώματα μπορούν να είναι φωτεινά και χαρούμενα ή σιωπηλά και χαλαρά. “Colours can be vivid and cheerful or muted and pale.”)
Heading and subheading titles should be written in bold. When citing in Cyrillic script, use double lower opening and upper closing quotation marks. When citing in Latin script, use double upper opening and closing quotation marks.
Graphics, charts, illustrations, tables, etc., should be numbered, entitled, and placed accordingly in the text. It is advisable to provide them in separate files in JPG format and with good printing quality.
In-text Citation
Sources within the article text should be cited in parentheses: e.g. (Mladenov 1979: 158).
In case of citing different researchers with the same surname, please point out the first letter of his/her name: e.g. (Mladenov, S. 1979: 158).
If there are more publications by the same researcher that have come out in the same year, please add a small letter index to the year: e.g. (Ivanov 1979a: 158), (Ivanov 1979b: 160).
* Citing should not be done in footnotes.
JOURNALS AND LITERATURE (Times New Roman 12, bold, all caps, Indentation 1,2) Titles in Times New Roman 12, Regular, Justified, Indentation 1,2, single line space. It is obligatory to form two blocks of titles according to the alphabet of the respective publication – in Cyrillic and Roman alphabets. In each block, titles should be sorted in alphabetical order, starting with the first letter of the author's surname, without numbering and with no blank lines between titles. Each bibliographic description in the Cyrillic alphabet is necessarily transliterated into Latin and is placed in square brackets ( [ ] ) after the original title.
Monograph citation template:
Culler 1983: Culler, J. On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism. London: Routledge.
Gramatikova 2011: Gramatikova, N. Non-Orthodox Islam in the Bulgarian Lands. Past and modernity. Sofia: IC Gutenberg. [Gramatikova 2011: Gramatikova, N. Neortodoksalniyat islyam in the Balgarskite country. The treasure was trembling. Sofiya: IK Gutenberg.]
Publication with more than one author citation template:
Goody, Tambiah 1973; Goody, J., S. J. Tambiah. Bridewealth and Dowry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Videnov, Baychev 1999: Videnov, M., B. Baychev. Veliko Tarnovo Language. V. Tarnovo: Abagar.
Article in a collection citation template:
Ariès 1985: Ariès, Ph. The Indissoluble Marriage. // Western Sexuality: Practice and Precept in Past and Present Times. Ed. by Ph. Ariès and A. Béjin. Oxford, UK, New York, USA: B. Blackwell, pp. 146–153.
Muharska 2001: Muharska, R. Rod and Tongue. // Theory across borders. Race. M. Kirova and K. Slavova. Sofia: Polis, pp. 105–120.
Magazine article citation template:
Gaudemet 1980: Gaudemet, J. Indispolubilité et consommation du mariage: L’apport d’Hincmar de Reims. Revue de droit canonique, vol. 30, pp. 28–40.
Rusinov 1980: Rusinov, R. Notes on the Language of Dimitar Miladinov. // Bulgarian language, no. 3, pp. 209–211.
Several publications by the same author from the same year citation template:
Barkan 1954a; Barkan 1954b.
Ivanov 1979a; Ivanov 1979b.
Online sources citation template:
Surname, Name. Paper Title. // Source, Publication Date. <Access Address> (The date the address was visited). Only the part in Cyrillic is transliterated.
Examples:
Kalchev, Daniel. The First Contact of a Bulgarian Library with the Internet. // The Bulgarian Internet, June 29, 2010. (06.06.2011) A 40-year History of the Internet. // Lubopiten.com, 4 Nov. 2009. (06.06.2011)
Weingand, Darlene. Introduction: Marketing of Library and Information Services. // Library Trends, Winter 1995, vol. 43, pp. 289–294. Available at (06/06/2011)
APPENDICES (Times New Roman 12, bold, centered, all caps). The appendix images should be in JPEG and PNG image formats. The list of appendixes should be followed by a brief summary of the author, including scientific degree, academic position, and correspondence email address.
IMPORTANT! Any text submitted for publication will go through a specialized review and a verification of originality. All periodicals of St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo are open access.