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Style Guide | Garden and Landscape Studies

This document treats matters of style—the general principles we follow in grammar, usage, and other matters relating to texts—for Garden and Landscape publications produced by Dumbarton Oaks

Updated June 1, 2020

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Please use the following guidelines when preparing your manuscript for submission to the Garden and Landscape Studies program at Dumbarton Oaks. For guidance on stylistic matters not addressed below, please refer to The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition (hereafter Chicago).

Spelling and Grammar

  • Use American English spellings, as found in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary or its principal abridgment, Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. If there are multiple spellings of a word, use the first option listed in the dictionary.
  • Foreign words in common use should not be italicized. Any word appearing in the main section of the dictionary should not be italicized; any word appearing in the “Foreign Words and Phrases” section should be italicized. Foreign words should be italicized throughout the text (not simply in the first appearance).

Punctuation

  • Use the serial comma (e.g., Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru).
  • Use the en dash (–), not the hyphen (-), between consecutive numbers in the manuscript (e.g., 142–44, 1910–1911).

Names, Terms, and Numbers

  • Please consult with the volume editor for the spelling of standard names and terms used throughout the volume.
  • For the hyphenation of compound words, see chapter 7 of Chicago.
  • For capitalization of terms, see chapter 8 of Chicago. Dumbarton Oaks prefers a sparing use of capitals in manuscript submissions.
  • Spell out whole numbers one through one hundred, round numbers, or numbers beginning a sentence.
  • Spell out “percent” in the text and endnotes, but use the symbol (%) in tables.
  • Abbreviate or condense inclusive page and year numbers, as indicated in chapter 9 of Chicago.
  • Abbreviations should be used sparingly; for the abbreviation of terms, see chapter 10 of Chicago.

Quotations and Translations

  • Short quotations should be run in—that is, integrated into the text in the same type size as the text and enclosed in quotation marks—to the text. Quotations of more than one hundred words (as well as quotations consisting of multiple paragraphs, lists, and/or special formatting) should be set off from the text as a block quotation.
  • To indicate the omission of a word, phrase, line, or paragraph from a quoted passage, please use three ellipses points, as described in chapter 11 of Chicago. Ellipses should not be used (a) before the first word of a quotation, or (b) after the last word of the quotation, unless the sentence is deliberately incomplete.
  • Insertions may be made in quoted material to clarify an ambiguity, to provide a missing word, or to give the original word or phrase in a translation. Such insertions should be enclosed in brackets (not parentheses).
    sic (with italics) may be inserted in brackets following a misspelled or wrongly used word in the original quotation.
  • If it is necessary to emphasis a word or phrase in quoted material, the word or phrase may be italicized but an explanatory comment (i.e., “emphasis added”) should be added in parentheses after the quotation.
  • If it is necessary to provide a translation for a foreign language quotation, please place it after the original in parentheses.

Foreign Language Conventions

  • For capitalization and punctuation conventions in foreign languages, see chapter 11 of Chicago.

Illustrations and Captions

  • Illustrations should be submitted in accordance with our artwork submission guide.
  • All artwork must include a photo or drawing credit. If the art has been published elsewhere, the credit should include the figure and/or page number on which the work appears.
  • Composite figures (e.g., Figures 5a, 5b, 5c) should be used sparingly, and only if the same type of material is being presented. Different types of material (i.e., photographs of buildings, maps, sculpture) should not be presented as a single image.  Illustrations from different sources should ideally be redrawn using the same line width.
  • Illustrations should be referred to as “Figures” in the text. “Figure” should be capitalized and spelled out in the text and captions: “Figure 1 shows . . .”, (Figure 1), and (Figure 3a–c).
  • Each caption should include the figure number, identification (e.g., material, size, place of origin, present location) as appropriate, and illustration credit. Captions should be concise; lengthy explanations of images should be incorporated into the text.

Sample captions:

Figure 1 Title page of Charles Stevens and John Liebault, Maison rustique, or The Countrie Farme (London, 1600). Rare Book Collection, RBR O-1-4 EST, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.

Figure 1 Villa Lante, near Viterbo, Italy. Beatrix Jones Farrand Collection, Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.

Documentation

Endnotes (not footnotes) should be used in all submissions. The first reference to a particular source should be complete, while all subsequent references should use the author’s last name and a shortened form of the title. The abbreviation ibid. should be used sparingly, and only to refer to a single work cited in the note immediately preceding. Use the abbreviation cf. only when it means “compare” (otherwise, use “see”).

Please see chapter 14 of Chicago for the desired format for notes and bibliographies.

Bibliographic references should be listed alphabetically by author surname. If multiple works by a single author are included, they should be listed in chronological order beginning with the oldest work.

  • Please include the full first name (not the first initial) of all authors.
  • Do not include “Inc.,” “Publishers,”, or “and Company” in the publisher’s name.
  • English names should be used for all foreign cities (e.g., Rome, not Roma).
  • If the city of publication may be unknown to readers, the abbreviated state name should be in the citation. Consult chapter 10 of Chicago for state abbreviations; the traditional abbreviation should be used instead of the two-letter postal code (i.e., Mass. not MA). If the publisher’s name includes the state name, then the abbreviation is not necessary (e.g., University of Colorado Press, Boulder).
  • Sentence-style capitalization should be used for all foreign language titles.

Please verify all endnotes and bibliographic citations prior to submitting your manuscript. Submissions with incomplete documentation, with documentation in the incorrect format, or with a large number of errors in documentation will be returned to the author.