About BSPHS

The Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies is the official peer-reviewed journal of the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies.

BSPHS embraces a cross-disciplinary approach. We accept works of historical content and/or historical relevance belonging to disciplines outside the field of History such as Literary Studies, Historical Sociology, Historical Anthropology, Art History, etcetera. The main contents of the BSPHS are scholarly individual or coauthored articles, topical forum conversations, and book reviews. To experiment with the possibilities of digital academic publishing, we are also partnering with the Historias podcast (https://historiaspodcast.org/) to publish audio interviews with authors featured in the journal, and piloting a resource sharing initiative through Zotero (https://www.zotero.org/bsphs) where authors can publish curated collections of print and web resources.

Calls for Proposals

Please view our submission guidelines (at the bottom of this page) for information about submitting to BSPHS.

Questions and inquires can be sent to David A. Messenger, General Editor of BSPHS, at bulletineditor@asphs.net.

Submissions

Editors

General Editor
David A. Messenger, University of South Alabama

Book Review Editors
Rachael Ball, University of Alaska Anchorage
Marta Valentin Vicente, Kansas University

Production Editor
Foster Chamberlin, Bilkent University

Editorial Board Members
Miriam Shadis, Ohio University
Sean Perrone, Saint Anslem College, Early Modern Spain and Atlantic World
Karoline Cook, Royal Holloway University
Eugenia Afinoguénova, Marquette University, Cultural Studies, Museum, Tourism, and Visual Culture Studies
Marina Perez de Arcos, Oxford University, Modern Spain
Sasha Pack, University of Buffalo, Modern Spain

Guidelines

Editorial Board

Composition

The BSPHS Editorial Board will be composed of four to six active members appointed by the General Editor and approved by the ASPHS Executive Board to represent some of the diverse geographic and temporal sub-divisions of the Association. Board members will serve alternating three-year terms (with the possibility of renewal), such that there will be no more than two new members serving during any annual publishing cycle. Working closely with the General Editor, Review Editor, and Production Editor, Editorial Board members will help oversee the production of annual publications—which will include original articles, reviews, podcasts, and additional resources as needed—as well as the organization of themed or special issues.

Charge

Work with the editors to review and select themed or special issue proposals to put into production.
Work with the General Editor as content specialists to identify potential reviewers and shepard articles through the peer-review process.
Work with the Review Editor as content specialists to identify titles and reviewers.
Work with the Production Editor to review the final layout before publication.

Aims and Scope

BSPHS embraces a cross-disciplinary approach. By cross-disciplinarity we mean that we would accept works of historical content and/or historical relevance belonging to disciplines outside the field of History such as Literary Studies, Historical Sociology, Historical Anthropology, Art History, etcetera. The main contents of the BSPHS are scholarly individual or coauthored articles and book reviews. We also welcome discussion forums and bibliographical reviews.

Who Can Submit?

Anyone may submit an original article to be considered for publication in Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies provided he or she owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the article. We will give equal consideration to submissions by participants in the annual meetings, members of the Association, and the general public. However, the Editors will encourage all participants in the annual meetings, especially junior scholars, to submit revised versions of their papers to be considered for publication.

General Submission Rules

Submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: “publication” in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by submitting material to Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies.

Submissions in English are preferred; however the BSPHS will accept also articles and book reviews in Spanish and Portuguese.

If you have concerns about the submission terms for Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, please contact the editors.

Themed or Special Issue Guidelines

BSPHS invites members of the Association to propose and guest edit themed or special issues. As our recent issues on Gender (2017) Digital Humanities (2018), Iberia in Entangled and Transnational Contexts (2019), and New Directions in Iberian History (forthcoming, 2020) suggest, we are particularly interested in themes that cut across the Association’s temporal and geographic subdivisions. For consideration, themed or special issue proposals should include: the name(s) and affiliations of the guest editor(s); a title; a 500-word abstract describing the objectives, scope, and significance of the proposed theme; and a list of confirmed contributions (name, title, and abstract) and/or plan for soliciting contributions (i.e. the CFP, where it will be posted, deadlines, etc.).

When a proposed issue is put into production, guest editors will be responsible for the following:

Create a publication schedule in consultation with the General Editor.
Work with contributing authors to meet deadlines and complete revisions.
Work with the editorial team to solicit additional resources and/or highlight connections between the issue’s theme and materials published in the reviews, podcast, and/or additional resources sections.
Write the themed or special issue introduction.

Formatting Requirements

Manuscripts normally should not exceed 10,000 words of text (not including notes). Because this journal publishes electronically, page limit policies are not as strict as they are in the world of print publications. Editors may consider the publication of articles that include material authors might otherwise have to cut to get into a print journal. This said, authors should exercise some discretion with respect to length.

See Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for details. Although BSPHS editors can provide limited technical support, it is ultimately the responsibility of the author to produce an electronic version of the article as a high-quality file in Adobe PDF file, Microsoft Word (.DOC), or Rich Text Format (RTF).

It is understood that the current state of technology of Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) is such that there are no, and can be no, guarantees that documents in PDF will work perfectly with all possible hardware and software configurations that readers may have.

Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines

This document provides details on typesetting and layout requirements pertaining to your final manuscript submission. Authors are responsible for correctly formatting, preparing, and copyediting their manuscripts for publication. The editors reserve the right to reject submissions that fail to follow these guidelines.

Formatting Requirements

Submit your manuscript—including tables, figures, appendices, etc.—as a single file (Word, RTF, or PDF files are accepted). The page size is 8.5 x 11-inches. All margins (left, right, top and bottom) are 1.5 inches (3.8 cm), including on tables and figures. Use a single column layout with both left and right margins justified. Use 12 point Times New Roman font for the body and 10 point Times New Roman for footnotes. If the article is divided into sections, heading titles are distinguished from the main body text by a bold font. Do not use colored fonts, symbols, and/or notations in unusual fonts.

Single space all your text. Do not insert extra space between paragraphs of text with the exception of indented quotations, theorems, propositions, special remarks, etc. These should be set off from the surrounding text by additional space above and below. Paragraphs are indented .5 inches and indented quotes are indented .5 inches on both sides. Footnotes should be single spaced without additional space(s) between footnotes. Footnote numbers or symbols in the text must follow, rather than precede, punctuation at the end of the sentence. There should be no more than one footnote per sentence. Combine more than one into a single footnote. There is no bibliography so footnotes should be complete. Follow the current edition of The Chicago Manual of Style.

Do not include footers, headers, or page numbers. These will be added by the editors. If images are included, use high-resolution figures, preferably encoded as encapsulated PostScript (eps). Tables and figures should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text. Large tables or figures should be put on pages by themselves. Avoid the use of overly small type in tables. In no case should tables or figures be in a separate document or file. All tables and figures must fit within 1.5 inch margins on all sides (top, bottom, left and right) in both portrait and landscape view.

If you have any questions please contact the editors.

Book Review Submission Rules

BSPHS includes reviews of current scholarly books that address issues of the history of Spain, Portugal, or their influences in the wider world.

Reviews are not voluntarily submitted, but rather are commissioned by the Book Reviewer Editor of the Bulletin.

Unless otherwise specified, the review should be no longer than 800 words and the review can be in English, Spanish or Portuguese. Reviews should be submitted in electronic format and follow the specified submission style guidelines.

Please begin the review by including all the facts of publication. The header should be structured in the following manner: Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title of Work. Series if applicable. Place of publication: Publisher, Year. Pp. of introduction + pages of text. Illustrations if applicable. Close the review with your name and your institution or city of residence.

In the body of the text, use parentheses if page references are necessary. Please consult the 15th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style and a current Webster’s dictionary. Please use Times 12 font double-spaced throughout.

Publishers or authors interested in having a monograph reviewed in BSPHS should contact our book review managing editor: Edward Behrend-Martinez behrendmarte@appstate.edu All reviews are commissioned by the Bulletin, unsolicited reviews are not accepted.

Books submitted are not returned, and become the property of BSPHS.

Rights for Authors and Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies

As further described in our submission agreement (the Submission Agreement), in consideration for publication of the article, the authors assign to Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies all copyright in the article, subject to the expansive personal–use exceptions described below.

Attribution and Usage Policies

Reproduction, posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the article or any material therein, in any medium as permitted by a personal-use exemption or by written agreement of Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, requires credit to Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies as copyright holder (e.g., Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies © 2020).

General Terms and Conditions of Use

Users of the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies website and/or software agree not to misuse the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies service or software in any way.

The failure of Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties’ intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.

Note on Bulletin and Newsletter

In 2010, the Newsletter was established as a separate publication that focuses on news of the society, professional conferences and events of interest to Iberian historians, and activities of the membership. Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies was retained as the title of the journal.

Hard copies of back issues of the Bulletin are held in the ASPHS archive at the University of California, San Diego.