Editorial Policy of Journal for the History of Rhetoric

The Journal for the History of Rhetoric, the research publication of the American Society for the History of Rhetoric, welcomes contribution from scholars who take a historical approach to the history of rhetoric. JHR publishes on all historical aspects of rhetoric, in all historical periods, and with reference to all intellectual, national, and cultural communities. The scope of JHR includes, but is not strictly limited to, the following matters of historical research (listed alphabetically):

  • Argumentation
  • Public address
  • Relations of rhetoric with other disciplines or cultural institutions, processes, and events
  • Rhetorical criticism
  • Rhetorical discourse
  • Rhetorical instruction in writing and speaking
  • Rhetorical theory (from a historical perspective)
  • The rhetoric of social movements
  • The rhetoric of science

Evaluation & Requirements

The editorial criteria used to evaluate submissions are quality and significance of the research. Manuscripts submitted to JHR should be original, previously unpublished (in whole or part), and not under consideration for publication elsewhere

The language of publication is English. There are no fixed limits on maximum or minimum length of manuscripts for submission, though manuscripts of more than 25,000 words can rarely be accepted for publication. Submissions may represent any standard format for reporting historical research, including, among other possibilities, essays, bibliographies, critical editions, and translations.

Anonymous Manuscripts

Submissions are refereed anonymously. The author’s identity should not be revealed anywhere in the text of the manuscript (e.g., in first person references to previous research, in references to previous versions of the manuscript as a lecture or conference presentation, or in acknowledgements of assistance from colleagues). Submissions accepted for publication will be modified to account for omissions and other measures taken by authors to ensure their anonymity during manuscript review.

Citation & Style

Manuscripts should be double-spaced throughout and generally documented according to the style of Chicago 17th ed. Author-Date format. For manuscripts that have recourse to languages using non-Latin alphabets (e.g., Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Hebrew, Russian), special platform and font requirements related to electronic copies may be required. If you have any other requests please contact the journal’s Editor, Ned O’Gorman at jhrjournal@gmail.com. Examples for this format are as follows:

Citation in Text: 

(Grazer and Fishman 2015, 12)
(Satterfield 2016, 170)

Work Cited:

Grazer, Brian, and Charles Fishman. 2015. A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Satterfield, Susan. 2016. “Livy and the Pax Deum.” Classical Philology 111, no. 2 (April): 165–76.

Penn State University Press Alt Text Guide

Penn State University Press is committed to making its publications accessible to the widest audience possible. The inclusion of alternative text (or “alt text”) will allow those using assistive technology to access the images and other graphic elements (such as tables, charts, graphs, and maps) in the digital formats of articles. Authors are encouraged to submit alt text (and where necessary, extended descriptions) for all images and other graphic elements in their manuscripts.

General Guidelines for Composing Alt Text

Alt text should clearly and concisely describe the content and function of an image. Please limit the description to the most important elements of the image. In most cases a one- or two-sentence description, consisting of no more than 250 characters (not including spaces), should suffice. If more than 250 characters are needed to convey the content and function of an image, please provide an extended description in addition to the alt text.

Extended Description

For more complex images and graphic elements (such as graphs, charts, and maps), please provide an extended description with the necessary information. Any visible English text in an image must be transcribed in the extended description. Please note that images requiring an extended description must also have the shorter alt text. 

Formatting and Submitting Alt Text

Alt text should be submitted along with captions. The alt text for a figure should be set on a new line after the caption and should be preceded by <alt text>. An extended description, when necessary, should be treated in a similar manner, preceded by <extended description>. When drafting and formatting alt text, you should: 

  • capitalize acronyms so assistive technology reads them as separate letters and not words (e.g., US versus us);
  • avoid complex symbols, such as brackets, quotation marks, dashes, ellipses, and mathematical symbols, as assistive technology does not treat all of these symbols consistently;
  • write in complete sentences but avoid overly complex sentence structures.

For examples as well as additional information and resources, see here.

Authors wishing to submit manuscripts should go to the Editorial Manager online submission portal located at https://www.editorialmanager.com/jhrjournal and follow the site’s prompts.