Take account of the word count stipulated by your editor. The chapter should not exceed the agreed length. Figures and tables should be included in the word count with each figure counting as 500 words and each table as 300 words.

If you think you may miss this, then please contact your editor as soon as possible to discuss the implications. 
Please also be aware that this deadline refers to delivery of the whole chapter and that it won’t be possible to make more than very minor changes to the files once you have delivered them. We need to receive all the chapters at one time so be aware that if you are late in delivering your material you will be delaying the whole book.

Please check with your editor which referencing style you should use.

If your editor has provided you with a list of spelling conventions and/or other style instructions please adhere to it. It will improve the readability of the book if it looks like a coherent whole. 

If you are unsure about these points please check with your editor.

This is a contractual agreement between you and the book’s editor. Please ensure that you sign the agreement and return it to your editor promptly. 

Today readers and researchers discover books through a myriad of online search engines, websites, databases and indexes.
Please consider the key terms that you think interested readers will use in literature searches and incorporate them into the chapter title, abstract and key words in an appropriate way.  This will help researchers find your work and increase readership and citations.


Researchers using online databases often first discover a chapter of a book before discovering the book itself.  The chapter title should make sense in isolation.  For example, it is better to have ‘Introduction to Small Business Economics’ than merely ‘Introduction’ as the book’s first chapter.  

A good chapter title is concise and gives a clear indication of what the chapter is about.


It is vital that your chapter title, abstract and keywords include the key terms that your readers will use in literature searches. This will help researchers find your work and increase readership and citations.

We require an abstract of up to 150 words and a list of up to 6 key words/terms for your chapter(s). This is a requirement for the chapter to be indexed by Google Scholar. This information is included in the book’s metadata and has an important impact on the visibility of individual chapters in online searches as well as the discoverability of the book as a whole. Readers and researchers using websites, search engines and online databases often first discover a chapter of a book before discovering the book itself. It is therefore important that each chapter title is understandable in isolation. A good chapter title is concise and gives a clear indication of what the chapter is about.

For your chapter(s) please supply a chapter specific abstract, keywords and the chapter author(s) ORCID number(s) at the head of the chapter file, following this format:

Chapter number (if known)

Chapter Title

Author names in full on the same line, separated by commas, do not include affiliations followed by Author ORCID i.d. Number

E.g.  John Smith 0000-0000-0000-0000, Jane Doe 0000-0000-0000-0000 and Bob Ace 0000-0000-0000-0000

Abstract: This is the abstract for Chapter X in this Made Up Book. It should feature no more than 150 words explaining the chapter, for readers, potential readers, librarians and other bookbuyers as well as for metadata purposes. The abstract should relate to this specific chapter and its content, scope and themes. Abstracts over length will be edited down by our copyeditors.

Keywords: Capital Letters; Semi-colon Separating Each Word/Phrase; Maximum of Six Words or Terms

Maths should be prepared using Word's Equation Editor software in your manuscript Word files. Using Word's Equation Editor software, the tools are already in the Word toolbar.

Distinguish carefully between superior and subscript characters and use italic type for any characters to be set in italic. Equations should be numbered consecutively within chapters. Please send a PDF of your chapter with maths so this shows clearly how the maths should look.

More Information

Figures, graphs, maps and photographs that you submit to us should adhere to the following criteria. This ensures that the images that we publish in our books are legible, professional and of high quality. 

1. Please provide figures in their original format, e.g. tiff, jpeg, png, excel, ppt, high resolution pdf. Please do not paste these into the chapter files as embedding them in word immediately reduces their quality.
   
   
2. We print all of our figures in greyscale, so please do ensure they work in greyscale and are sharp, clear and legible.
    
3. Their location in the chapters must be clearly indicated. All figures must be numbered consecutively within chapters, e.g. Figure 1.1 and given a title/caption. Please also ensure you acknowledge the source and make any necessary acknowledgments.
   
   
4. Photographs must not include recognisable faces of any person/persons unless prior permission has been obtained due to GDPR legislation.
   
   
5. To allow screen reading software used by readers with visual impairments to interpret figures or photos, please provide a short description of each of your figures or photos that we can embed behind them in the ebook version as Alt Text. Please provide the alt text for all figures (and tables where necessary) in a single separate Word file, clearly indicating the figure number and caption. A template form for providing this information is available here. Guidelines on providing Alt Text are available in the Accessibility section of the Author Hub here. 
   
   
6. Please do not include AI generated images in your manuscript. If this is necessary, please discuss this with your commissioning editor.
   
   
7. Please refer to the Elgar copyright policy to make sure you have sought permission for reusing figures where necessary.

Tables and boxes

We are committed to publishing accessible content compatible with screen reading software to allow equal access to content for those with visual or reading impairments. These accessibility requirements mean we have changed our advice on Tables recently. To find out why and for advice on other accessibility features please click here.

Much like figures and photographs, tables and boxes must adhere to our criteria to ensure they are legible, professional and of high quality in the finished book. We may have no option but to remove tables and boxes from your chapter that do not adhere to our criteria outlined below. If, after you have read the guidance below, you are still in doubt contact your commissioning editor for further assistance.

1. They must be set within the text where you want them to appear. Create tables using the Word ‘Insert>Table’ tool in your manuscript file.
2. Do not include merged, split, or empty cells in tables.
3. Keep it simple. Do not include large/overly long cells in tables (see examples further down this section). These are cells that run over one page and they make it impossible for screen readers to read out accurately. If these features are essential and/or your table is complex, you will need to provide a brief summary of the table which we can use as Alt Text.

Effective table guidance

• Can your table be read out and understood? Is it easily navigable? If so, your table may not need a summary
• Remember, screen readers read from left to right and then move down to the next row, just like regular reading order
• Screen readers speak one cell at a time and reference the associated header cells, so the reader doesn't lose context
• Consider if a list is more suitable than a table
• Create tables in MS Word using the ‘Insert > Table’ function rather than as a series of tab stops
• Use tables for data, not layout
• Avoid creating large, complex tables wherever possible
• Make sure all rules are visible to reveal any merged/empty cells
• Include one clear header row at the top of each table
• All tables must have a title and number so they can be navigated to
• No empty cells (empty cells can be avoided by adding ‘N/A’ or ‘–’ etc.)
• No merged cells
• Do not include emojis
• Do not include figures/images/screenshots
• No dense, long cells with lots of text
• Consider smaller tables covering individual aspects of the topic, rather than condensing all the information into one big table. This can also help with the issue of having multiple headings. Table headings can also be positioned outside of the tables as headings or captions.
• Use the first column heading as the heading of the table if it spans all the information in the table
• Bear in mind the width of your table and its overall size. lf you need to scroll across the screen to see the whole table, it is likely too big. There is a point at which the table is not useful to someone who cannot see it. In these cases a table summary will be required
• Tables can include footnotes, special characters, maths equations and bullet points - the latter if formatted as proper bullet point lists using the Word ‘Format>Bullets and Numbering’ function

4. They must be amendable and any text must be editable
• Screenshots or images of tables/boxes that cannot be edited or manipulated will not be accepted.

5. Number them consecutively within chapters and refer to within the text as Table 2.3, etc.
• This is our house style and we will amend your numbering to match this style.

6. They must have their own title
The title should summarise the content of the table. A note or caption can describe the table in more detail or reference any data that you consulted when creating the table if necessary. Include a source and any acknowledgements necessary.

7. Tables must not feature any shading.
We advise use of bold or italic to highlight different key areas in table text, and avoid highlighting the whole cell/row/column as this can look cluttered and be difficult to read.

Table summaries 

You will need to provide a table summary for any complex tables, clearly indicating table number, heading and caption that the summary belongs to. A simple template form for providing this information is available to download here. Table summaries will be embedded behind the table in the ebook edition as Alt Text.

Advice on writing table summaries:

• Describe the table as specifically as possible. Table summaries are designed to provide text explanations of images for users who are unable to see them
• Keep your description short (one or two sentences) as some screen readers cut off alt text at around 125 characters
• There is no need to include “table of” etc. in your summary

To help you understand what a “good” table looks like, You can download examples of both well-designed and poorly designed tables here, including information on which would require table summaries and which would not.

Please contact your book editor if you think emoji use is important to the argument of your chapter. We discourage the use of emoji’s as although these icons may be a convenient way to display information, they compromise people's ability to understand when read from a screen reader and breaches copyright law.  Please refer to our Accessibility section for more information

Live hyperlinks can be included in the ebook version of your book if the links are present in your submitted Word files. The easiest way to create a basic hyperlink in Word is to press ENTER or the SPACEBAR after you type the address of an existing webpage, such as www.e-elgar.co.uk. Word then automatically converts the address into a link. For more detailed information please click on the following link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-or-edit-a-hyperlink-5d8c0804-f998-4143-86b1-1199735e07bf

If you are concerned about link-rot (when links change, for various reasons and no longer point to the original or intended page/file) there are systems available which allow for future-proofing of your links. We would suggest you discuss the options with your librarian, who will know your institutional arrangements. 'Perma' is one such service and is free for academic use. Perma provides a new URL which you would use in the chapter to ensure that the record will be available regardless of the change to any web address/site.

For more information see: https://perma.cc/libraries. 

EEP has no affiliation with Perma.cc 

Deliver your files directly to your book editor, as the editor will wish to make their own checks and may wish to review the material before they collate the chapters and submit them to us.

Ensure that you have finished work on the chapter before you contemplate delivery of the material to your editor. 
Your book editor needs to deliver all the material to be included in the book to Elgar at the same time.  Once they have passed the files to us there will be no opportunity to make changes to the text other than to make minor copy-editing corrections.

If any of your material is under copyright to a third party (including your own work) you will need to provide documentation to your book editor confirming permissions has been granted to reuse the material. 

Please see our copyright guide in the Author Hub for more information on what material requires copyright permission.

All our edited books contain lists of contributors in a consistent format. 

Please check with your editor on the convention they have chosen, either:

• A brief affiliation only, or; 
• a short biographical paragraph, ideally a maximum of 80 words long.

Please check that your name appears exactly as you would like it to appear in the book and in exactly the same format in your chapter file.

1. The use of Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Claude to generate substantive content, such as the analysis of data or the development of written arguments, is not permitted.
2. If authors choose to use Assistive AI tools to assist in their research for a book, chapter, or article, they must disclose this in the manuscript and on submission. An author's final written text should be their own and reflect their own ideas, arguments, and conclusions, and for this reason AI and LLM Models may not be listed as an author.
3. The publisher reserves the right to verify the use of Generative AI and to reject manuscripts that violate this policy.
4. Use of AI should in no way invalidate the warranties the author provides in the publishing contract including ownership of copyright, originality and factual accuracy. It is worth bearing in mind that in highly specialised research areas Generative AI tools draw from a small number of published sources and there are real risks of unoriginality, plagiarism, copyright infringement and factual inaccuracy.
5. This policy does not refer to spell and grammar checking tools (such as Grammarly) which may be used without acknowledgement.