Contributor Guidelines for The Sign Language Translator and Interpreter (SLTI)

Papers submitted for publication in The Sign Language Translator and Interpreter (SLTI) have to be passed by two referees. In the first instance, you will need to send a copy of your paper to the Editor, complete with a 150-200 word abstract, in electronic form. The guidelines below assume that your paper has been accepted.

1. General Style

SLTI puts equal emphasis on rigour and accessibility. Contributors are invited to consider the following general guidelines which will help make their material more accessible to a wider readership:

(i) avoid unnecessary jargon and explain any technical terms you use;

(ii) use concrete examples of authentic interpreting and/or subtitles to ensure that an otherwise abstract or dry argument is brought to life and grounded in the real world;

(iii) do not assume that all readers are familiar with your signed language (e.g., BSL or ASL). Explain examples of signs; for example, the sign for HEARING in Auslan can be glossed as "ASL 'D' handshape moving from ear to chin"; or insert pictorial/photographic representation.

Our language of publication is English only. Papers can generally range between 6000 and 10000 words in length as a rough guideline, inclusive of notes and references.

2. Spelling & Other Conventions

(i) Use -ize rather than -ise generally, except for standard spellings such as advertise and televise.

(ii) With the exception of –ize, use British spelling wherever possible, for example humour rather than humor.

(iii) Try to avoid sexist language. Replace he and he or she with they or a repetition of the noun where possible, otherwise use he or she and him or her.

(iv) Use italics for lexical items and titles of publications and boldface for technical terms.

(v) Use a single rather than double space after full stops, commas and semicolons.

(vi) Justify your text to the left and do not use the hyphenation facility.

(vii) Send a separate list of any characters in your file which are not found on a standard English keyboard.

3. Quotations

(i) Author, date of publication and page number should be provided for all quotations.

(ii) Quotations shorter than forty words should be incorporated into the text. Use double quotes, with single quotes within where necessary. Place punctuation outside quotation marks, for example:

As stated by Metzger (1995:28), "texts often depend on prior textual experiences in order to evoke significant meanings (intertextuality)", thus ....

(iii) Quotations longer than forty words should be taken out of the text and indented, with an extra space above and one below the quotation. Do not use quotation marks with indented quotations.

(iv) Quotations from foreign sources should be translated into English. Please indicate whether the translation is your own or another author’s; if the latter please provide a full reference, including page number(s).

4. References

(i) List entries in the bibliography first by author and then by date. Where there are two or more works by the same author in the same year, distinguish them as 1992a, 1992b, etc.

(ii) Titles of works in less common languages should be glossed in English.

(iii) References to multi-author texts should be in the form of first author’s last name plus ‘et al’ in the body of the text but all names should be spelled out in the bibliography:

Marschark, Marc, Patricia Sapere, Carol Convertino, Rosemarie Seewagen and Heather Maltzen (2004) ‘Comprehension of sign language interpreting: Deciphering a complex task situation’, Sign Language Studies 4(4): 345-68.

(iv) If you refer to more than one publication in the body of the text, separate the references by commas thus:

Several authors have discussed the challenges of educational interpreting (Harrington 2000, 2005, Winston 2004, 2005) and have noted that ....

(v) The following sample bibliography includes examples of various entries: books, journal articles, edited volumes, translated works, etc. Please try to include first names rather than initials of authors wherever possible, and make sure page numbers are provided for all articles, whether in journals or edited volumes.

Book
Hatim, Basil and Ian Mason (1990) Discourse and the Translator, London: Longman.
Roy, Cynthia (2000) Interpreting as a Discourse Process, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Edited book
Harrington, Frank J. and Graham H. Turner (eds) (2001) Interpreting Interpreting: Studies and Reflections on Sign Language Interpreting, Gloucestershire: Douglas McLean.
Winston, Elizabeth A. (ed) (2004) Educational Interpreting: How It Can Succeed, Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
Book chapter
Angelleli, Claudia (2003) ‘The Visible Co-participant: The Interpreter’s Role in Doctor-patient Encounters’, in Melanie Metzger (ed.) From Topic Boundaries to Omission: New Research on Interpretation, Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press, 3-26.
Dean, Robyn K. and Robert Q. Pollard (2005) ‘Consumers and Service Effectiveness in Interpreting Work: A Practice Profession Perspective’, in Marc Marschark, Rico Peterson and Elizabeth Winston (eds) Sign Language Interpreting and Interpreter Education: Directions for Research and Practice, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 259-82.

Journal article

Lane, Chris, Katherine McKenzie-Bridle and Lucille Curtis (1999) ‘The Right to Interpreting and Translation Services in New Zealand Courts’, Forensic Linguistics 6(1): 115-36.
Leneham, Marcel (2005) ‘The Sign Language Interpreter as Translator: Challenging Traditional Definitions of Translation and Interpreting’, Deaf Worlds 21(1): 79-101.

5. Illustrations

Illustrations, excluding tables, should be submitted on separate sheets, with an indication of where they should appear in the text. Number all illustrations consecutively, using Arabic numerals. In the body of the text, refer to illustrations by their number (for example: Figure 1; Table 2); do not use expressions such as ‘the following table’.

The quality of the finished product will depend on the quality of the material you provide. Please ensure that any camera-ready copy or artwork you send us is of sufficiently high quality for the details to remain legible if the illustration is reduced. You will need to provide permission for all illustrations in copyright (see 6 below).

6. Permissions

You will need to obtain permission for quotations from works in copyright, and for illustrations such as photographs and maps. All permissions must be cleared before your article is passed for print.

You do not usually have to obtain permission for quotations under 400 words in length in one extract or under 800 words in a series of extracts from the same work (provided none exceeds 250 words). You need permission for one or more lines of poetry.

If you use a (video) recording of any signed or spoken material in your article, you must make sure you obtain the written permission of all signers/speakers and interlocutors to quote any length of their conversation, speech, lecture or informal talk. Surreptitious recording is illegal and no signed or spoken data can therefore be published without written permission from the signers/speakers concerned. This condition also applies to the recording of interpreting sessions, where the permission of both the signers/speakers and the interpreters has to be obtained.

All permissions should be obtained for a world (English language) market. All permissions correspondence should be delivered to the Editor with your final manuscript. Please make sure that all extracts are properly acknowledged in your typescript.

7. Accompanying Information

Please provide the following information with your paper:

an abstract of 150-200 words;
a set of 6-12 keywords;
your address for correspondence (plus fax number and email address if available);
your affiliation;
in the case of two or more authors, an indication of which author will be responsible for proofreading;
in the case of long titles, a suggested running head.

All queries should be addressed to: Lorraine Leeson, Centre for Deaf Studies, University of Dublin, Trinity College, First floor, 40 Lower Drumcondra Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9, Ireland (leesonl at gmail.com), or Mona Baker, St. Jerome Publishing, 2 Maple Road West, Brooklands, Manchester M23 9HH, UK (mona at monabaker.com).