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Preparing Your Manuscript

Preparing Your Manuscript

As you work to prepare your final manuscript, please follow the guidelines. If the manuscript is not prepared as requested, it will be returned to you for the necessary work to be done. This could affect the publication schedule for your project.

Review the Guidelines for Manuscript Preparation while working on the text itself. 

If you are working on a volume in one of our conversations series—Literary Conversations, Conversations with Filmmakers, or Conversations with Comic Artists—please note there are special procedures to follow. Please refer to this page for more details.

Along with the manuscript, you will need to submit an Editorial Questionnaire and the checklist suitable to your project:

Please review the information below if your manuscript includes images or other copyrighted material.

Does your manuscript include visual elements like photos, musical examples, illustrations, or tables?

Review the Illustration Guidelines to ensure the visuals are acceptable. The guidelines provide instruction on image placement, technical specifications, and formatting.

Each illustration should be included on a consolidated Design List.

Before finalizing permissions, carefully review the permissions section of the Illustration Guidelines. You are welcome to use this sample request letter when seeking permission to use material.

Check with your editor or editorial assistant before finalizing any permissions that incur a fee.

Does your manuscript make use of song lyrics, poetry, or other copyrighted material?

Any quoted song lyric or poem must be analyzed in the text. You will need to supply a Permissions Grid that accounts for each copyrighted item. Please check with your editor or editorial assistant before pursuing permissions.

Does your manuscript contain chapters that were previously published?

Essays which have appeared in previous publications require reprint permissions unless the essays have been substantially revised from the original version.

We will need a copy of the permissions agreements, as well as a single file containing all reprint credit lines as required by the copyright holder.

If the text has been substantially revised, we will need a single file indicating where previous versions of the essay have appeared.

Does your manuscript make use of material from social media sites? 

Issues surrounding the use of social media are complicated and constantly evolving. Please use discretion and limit the use of social media to include only what is essential. Any content used must be analyzed in the text and an integral part of the scholarly argument. Review the Social Media Permissions guidelines for more information on this topic.

Does your manuscript utilize language that may be considered discriminatory or derogatory?

UPM’s policy regarding discriminatory or derogatory language is to avoid such language entirely, and text should be written with this in mind. If language is directly relevant to a scholarly argument, we will use an elided version. The unedited word may be included only for specific scholarly purposes when it appears in existing published works or historical sources. The inclusion of such language, whether elided or unedited, will require a statement printed on the copyright page. The author may provide a statement of their own, but it must be approved by UPM. If the author does not supply a statement, we will use the following: Any discriminatory or derogatory language or hate speech regarding race, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, class, national origin, age, or disability that has been retained or appears in elided form is in no way an endorsement of the use of such language outside a scholarly context.