How to Submit

SISP’s open access series — When ready for peer review, share your manuscript via Dropbox (or another file-transfer system) with scholarlypress @ si.edu. Scroll down to see “Required Materials.” For instructions on preparing your manuscript, refer to the SISP Manuscript Preparation Guide.

Manuscript Size
Effective October 1, 2023, for all new submissions:

• Maximum pages (2.0/double-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12 pt Times New Roman [incl. regular text, captions, tables, notes, references, appendixes and other backmatter]) = 500

• Maximum figure/art/image files (refers to number of files; multi-component figures already composed in a single file will count as 1) = 150

Who Is Eligible

SISP is an internal publishing program with eligibility limited to research conducted by Smithsonian researchers and about Smithsonian collections. To be eligible for consideration, a manuscript must be based on research conducted at or with the Smithsonian Institution as part of employment or other affiliation as specified below.

• Current Smithsonian employees
• Former Smithsonian employees with official Emeritus designation
  • Designation letter must accompany submission.
• Fellows and Research Associates
  • Appointments must be registered/awarded through Office of Fellowships.
  • Letter of endorsement from supervisor of appointment/fellowship must accompany submission.
  • Fellow may submit a complete manuscript no more than 5 (five) years after end of fellowship, and manuscript must be a result of the research for which the applicable fellowship was awarded.
• Visiting Scholars/Scientists (current and former) may submit only as co-author with current SI-employed scholar(s).

Criteria for Submission

• Text and figure selection complete prior to peer review.
• Authored by at least one eligible scholar. (See “Who Is Eligible”)
• Scholarly content based on sound research.
• Directly related to Smithsonian research and/or collections.
  • Smithsonian Employee: research conducted by Smithsonian employee as part of official duties.
  • Smithsonian Emeritus: research conducted as part of official duties as Smithsonian employee and continued or finalized after retirement and Emeritus designation.
  • Smithsonian Fellow or Research Associate: preponderance of content must be from research conducted under academic appointment at Smithsonian.
• Research must be original (i.e., not previously published).
• For proceedings, symposium must be officially sponsored by Smithsonian and volume must include SI researchers as editors and contributors.

Required Materials for a Proposal (optional)

• SISP New Submission Form
• Table of contents (include major headings and estimated page counts for each section/chapter)
• Abstracts (if edited collection) or sample text (prefer preface/introduction + up to 20 pages of first chapter/paper)
• If applicable, letter of endorsement from appointment/fellowship supervisor. (See “Who is Eligible”)

Required Materials for Manuscript Submission

1) Initial Submission, for Peer Review

Important as you prep for initial submission:

• Submit your manuscript only when ready to be peer reviewed (i.e., when text and figure selections are final). Peer reviewers read for substantive content and should not be relied upon to help finalize organization, figure selection, or other developmental aspects of a manuscript.
• Authorship and order of authors cannot be changed after initial submission to SISP.
• If you haven’t already, you should request permission for all third-party materials.
• Figures can be at low resolution. SISP will request high-resolution files at revised submission.
• Major content changes, including rewrites, will not be accepted after initial submission (exception: changes requested by SISP or its Editorial Board during peer review and production).
• Any substantive content that must be added after peer review is subject to SISP’s peer review process, with the original submission placed on hold until a decision is made on the new content.

 Prepare Your Authored Monograph   

1. SISP New Submission Form – If you submitted a proposal, send an updated form.
2. Text – all in a single MS Word document (FM + main text + BM). Sections should be in order shown on table on contents. (See “Order of Sections” above.) An in-text callout for each figure and table should appear in the text.
3. Figures – prepare in one of the following ways:  Embedded in text – Copy-n-paste each figure into the MS Word document that contains the complete text – place each at end of paragraph that contains its first (or only) in-text callout. Pasted figures become low resolution when dropped into MS Word, which is OK for peer review. Size the figures for visual reference only. Each caption (with credit line, if applicable) should appear beneath its figure.  Separate from text – Create a single PDF with all figures in sequential order. Ideally, filenames will be included. Recommend 4 per page (visual ref only, not for quality or sizing).
4. Tables – prepare in one of the following ways:  Embedded in text – Copy-n-paste each table into the MS Word document that contains the complete text – place each at end of paragraph that contains its first (or only) in-text callout. Each table should include table number, table title, and table footnotes (if applicable).  Separate from text – Combine all tables in a MS Word doc (or each table in a separate doc).
5. Fellows/Research Associates: Include recommendation letter from appointment supervisor. Letter should include recommendation for SISP to consider the manuscript and also confirm appointment dates and research topic(s).

 Prepare Your Edited Collection

1. SISP New Submission Form – If you submitted a proposal, send an updated form.
2. Separate MS Word docs: (i) Frontmatter – title page, table of contents, preface, introduction, etc. (ii) Each paper/chapter with acknowledgments, references, and figure captions at end of doc. (iii) Backmatter, if any (e.g., combined references section for entire volume).
3. Figures – may be embedded in each paper or combined in a separate PDF (with filenames).
4. Tables – may be embedded in each paper or combined in a separate MS Word file.

 2) Revised Submission, Post–Peer Review

1. Text:  Authored monograph – all in a single MS Word doc (FM + main text + BM). In-text callouts and captions should remain in place in the text. Revisions should be tracked (with Track Changes feature turned on) for final evaluation.  Edited collection – separate MS Word docs for (i) volume’s FM, (ii) each paper/chapter, and (iii) common BM, if applicable.
2. Figures – provide a high-resolution TIF for each figure that meets specification requirements in SISP’s Digital Art Preparation Guide.
   • If embedded in text for initial submission, remove figures from the text.
   • Leave in-text callouts and captions (with credit lines, if applicable) in place in the text.
3. Tables – provide same as initial submission, either embedded in text or as a separate MS Word doc(s). Revisions to tables should be done with Track Changes turned on.

At this stage, if not already done, you must also submit:

• Permissions documentation, license to reproduce content owned by third parties.
• Copyright Assignment signed by each author/volume editor who is not an SI employee.

• • Authored monograph: Publishing agreement – Open access monograph
  • Edited collection: Publishing agreement – Open access chapter in monograph

3) Final Submission, After Acceptance (if necessary)

SISP will provide instructions to finalize your text and request any replacement files (e.g., if figure file specs are not met). SISP will also request any materials still missing.

For more information, email SISP.