What to send

Your article submission 'package' should include the following:

• Article text in a Microsoft Word document
• Imagery, including any artwork or photos
• Your author biography
• Your author photograph
• Permission to Publish Form

Requirements for each item and how to submit your materials are listed below.

Article Text

Article text should be submitted in a Microsoft Word (.docx) document, or an otherwise compatible file type (.doc, .rtf, .txt). Handwritten articles will need to be digitally transcribed before submission.

DOLL NEWS recommends that authors refer to the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition, for information on proper punctuation, grammar, and mechanics (capitalization, abbreviations, etc.).

Photographs

All imagery must be submitted in a high-resolution .jpg or .jpeg file type at 300-600 dpi (or in pixels, at least 2400×3000). Photos embedded in Microsoft Word documents will not be accepted. Physical/non-digital photographs may be submitted by mail with special permissions but must be in focus, in a high-quality resolution, and clearly labeled.

Please make sure your image files or physical photos are clear, sharp, and in focus, with attractive texture-free backdrops; no patterns or wrinkled fabrics. Unless your photo is a scene, the best background to use is seamless paper, using a soft white light or moving the subject far enough from the backdrop to avoid harsh shadows.

Please rename your photo image files to match the caption numbers. (Example: Photo 1)

Ages

Use hyphens for ages expressed as adjectives before a noun or as substitutes for a noun. Don't use hyphens when you are simply stating the age of something. Examples: As a ten-year-old girl; she was ten years old.

Captions

Captions should be listed at the end of the article. Captions should be in complete sentences and should stand alone in explaining the photograph. For example: Photo 1. The Bye-Lo Baby was created by Grace Storey Putnam in 1922.

Rename your image files to match the caption numbers. Therefore the image file in the example caption above (Photo 1. The Bye-Lo Baby...) would be renamed to photo1.jpg

Dashes

Dashes used to set off text in a sentence are called em dashes. To get the em dash in Word, type the word-hypen-hyphen-word (for example, The newspaper—once published daily—folded in 2002). Word usually generates the em dash from your two hyphens. Commas, parentheses, and em dashes all serve the purpose of setting off information that is additional to, but not necessary in conveying, the core meaning of a sentence. The degree of interruption in the flow/meaning of the sentence generally dictates which form of punctuation is used: commas for the least interruptive; m dashes for the most abrupt breaks in thought.

Dates

Format should be Month Day, Year (May 10, 1951) with a comma after the year if the date is in the middle of a sentence; no commas if providing only the month and year (for example, May 1951). Never May 10th, 1951.

Internet Websites (used as a reference)

Authors are reminded that when information from an Intranet website is used in writing an article, specific text from Intranet web pages, as from any other reference source, must be paraphrased or used with quotation marks and the website given attribution in the text of the article. The Internet is not exempt from copyright, and using text directly from a webpage, without any indication that the author is not responsible for writing that text, is plagiarism.

Italics, proper usage

• Titles of books, magazines, journals, newspapers, plays, film, artworks, long poems, pamphlets, television shows, and other short works published separately and musical works.
• Words or phrases you use as words rather than for the meaning they convey
• Foreign words or phrases not already in common usage in the English language.
• Occasional use only: The kind of emphasis that a person would make while speaking.