Call for Content

British Naval History – a Call for Papers

BritishNavalHistory.com (BNH) invites proposals for short academic essays presenting new knowledge based on original research and analysis, or a well-reasoned argument on an issue of prior or current debate, for publication on the BNH website. The aims of te new website include a desire that historians will find the BNH site a congenial place to discuss, and even debate, key issues in the history and historiography of navies across the globe and of all periods.

In pursuit of that goal BNH will publish online short to medium-length essays which advance specific arguments offering insights into and promoting discussion about the broad field of naval and maritime history. It is also intended that BNH will publish electronically longer works such as monographs, theses, collections of essays, conference transactions and books.

We invite submissions from historians and academics, established in their fields or with expertise or knowledge in specialist areas, and especially welcome material from early-career researchers. Material may be about any aspect of naval or maritime history, including interdisciplinary practice; the breadth of interest will include, for example, marine art and nautical archaeology, and mercantile shipping affairs especially where they touch on military maritime history.

Requirements

Proposals for publication should be submitted to: submissions@globalmaritimehistory.com. The proposal should include a note about the the area of naval or maritime history addressed, an abstract of approximately 150 words giving a proposed title, the main argument being addressed or specific area of new knowledge being put forward; the submission should include a short biography of the author including key publishing bibliography if relevant. If the proposed essay is in response to, or interacts with content currently on the BNH site, this should be clearly identified.

Please also indicate whether the proposed essay is the result of the author’s research into and original analysis of primary and / or secondary material, or comprises analysis of the related historiography of a topic, in which case please indicate the main publication so addressed.

Proposals will be evaluated on these bases:

• originality;
• the presence of new information supported by evidence or a new perspective on established knowledge;
• an important and focused primary argument;
• the potential for the proposed essay to contribute to an existing or future academic conversation;
• and the fit of the proposed topic within BNH’s broad scope of enquiry.

The BNH editors will not consider the academic qualifications of the author or co-authors in assessing their proposal, but to be published the submitted final text should meet an acceptable academic standard of research, use of source material, analysis, relevant referencing and quality of writing. Light editing – and in some cases peer review feedback of technical content – may be applied; the author(s) will see final versions of their text for approval prior to publication.

The published short essays will be made available on BNH to read online, or to download at no charge under a Creative Commons non-commercial licence. Copyright will remain with the author who may apply to have their material withdrawn from the site at any time. The PDF of each essay published on the website will include a watermark for BNH, the author, and the licence.

BNH also intends to publish electronically longer works such as monographs, theses, collections of essays, conference transactions and books. In some cases this will be under the imprint of Toothed Dolphin Press and may be made available by pre-publication subscription. Such longer material – that in excess of 4000 words up to full book length – will be available to download at relatively low charges to readers offering wide distribution of the author’s work, the ensuing fees going to the author with a small deduction towards the website’s administration costs. If you are interested in this potential form of publishing longer works, please contact us separately at submissions@globalmaritimehistory.com.

Please visit the BNH website at www.globalmaritimehistory.com to read our essays (in various categories under the general heading ‘Articles’) and blogs. More essays areon the stocks and the site will be a vibrant place for anyone interested in naval history to visit frequently and offer contributions.

Justin Reay, Director and Executive Editor, BritishNavalHistory.com

Samuel McLean, Social Media Editor, BritishNavalHistory.com

BNH call for papers v2 September 2013