As you write your book or chapter 

It is vital that your book and chapter titles, abstracts 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.

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. 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.

We also make sure that the preliminary pages and Introduction of your book are made free to access from the point of publication on our Elgaronline platform to all readers.

We require an abstract of up to 150 words and a list of up to 6 key words/terms for all chapters within the book. This is a requirement for the chapter to be indexed by Google Scholar, SCOPUS and Clarivate. 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.

For each chapter (including any Introduction and Conclusion) please supply the author names, ORCID numbers, chapter specific abstract and keywords at the head of the chapter file, following this format:

Chapter number 

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.

Marketing - you are the very best advocate for your work, so please do bear in mind while you are writing ways we can work collaboratively to maximise your book's success.

Scholarly books must contain references to sources, and so you must ensure that all published works referred to in the text (including your own) are cited correctly according to a consistent, recognized citation style.

Please do not use reference management software in your Word document (e.g. Zotero, EndNote or other referencing system).

Please be aware that indexes such as the WoS have rejected projects on the basis of unusually high levels of citations to a single source, such as the editor. 

References, citations and notes for law books (for other subject areas, please see below)

It is customary to use footnote citations in law, so a recognized footnote citation style should be used.

• Please use a consistent style throughout your book. If your book is edited, please ensure your contributors know which style they should use.
• We recommend using a reference style that you/your contributors will be familiar with such as OSCOLA or Bluebook. Please inform us on submission which style you have applied.
• Please use the footnote function in Word to insert footnotes.
• Arabic numbers must be used for note numbering. Notes belonging to any figures and tables in the text should be set separately, using subscript, not as part of the general notes.
• Any notes that are not direct citations should also be inserted as footnotes.

References, citations and notes for books in all subject areas except law

References to other publications should be organized using a simple reference system in the text, quoting the author’s name, original year of publication, year of publication of edition consulted (where applicable), and page number (e.g., Smith [1776] 1976, p. 81). The full citation should then be included in a bibliography or reference list. In-text references should use et al. if there are three or more authors/editors. If there is more than one reference with the same first author and date of publication, label each one a, b, c and so on.

• Please use a consistent style throughout your book. If your book is edited, please ensure your contributors know which style they should use 
• We recommend using a style that is already familiar to you/your contributors such as Harvard or APA. Please inform us on submission which style you have applied
• If your book is authored, the bibliography or reference list should appear at the end of your book. This is because your book's Google Scholar preview PDF now includes your book's front matter, first chapter and list of references for the book as a whole. Google Scholar is commonly used by researchers and so we are keen for your book to meet their requirements and be as visible and user friendly as possible
• If your book is edited you have the choice of either compiling one end-of-book bibliography/ reference list or individual reference lists at the end of each chapter as supplied by the contributor
• Any other notes should be inserted as endnotes
• Arabic numbers must be used for note numbering. Notes belonging to any figures and tables in the text should be set separately, using subscript, not as part of the general notes

We edit and proofread manuscript files onscreen. Therefore please keep the documents as clear and simple as possible and do not format the files yourself.

Please supply Microsoft Word files for your book. 

Ensure all heading levels – chapter titles, main and subheadings – are clear. Indicate the sub-heading hierarchy by inserting <a>, <b>, <c>, etc., in square brackets [].

Avoid more than three levels of sub-headings in any chapter. 

When submitting any lists, tables of contents, contributor information or references, please ensure that these are not formatted as ‘bookmark defined’ or linked files.

If the amount of maths in your chapter or book means that you are considering using LaTex please contact your commissioning editor so that we can discuss how to proceed with this.

If you do use LaTex for your chapter we require a PDF version of the chapter to be submitted to us as well as the LaTex driver files, fonts and style files and images so that the data can be checked. Please export the style/font/image files in LaTex and the necessary files will then be saved to a separate folder. (tex.zip; eps.zip; lp.zip; sty.tex).

The main points of style to which we prefer our books to conform are outlined here but we are happy to accept any reasonable consistent style. We would stress the three ‘c’s as criteria in all cases of doubt: common usage, consistency and, above all, clarity. Remember that direct quotations should not be changed to conform to our house style but should appear as in the original publication. 

Please note: unless you include instructions with your submission we will edit for consistency within chapters, rather than between chapters.

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS should be written out in full for the first time of use within each chapter, with the abbreviation/acronym in brackets, and the acronym thereafter. If you wish to include a List of Acronyms or Abbreviations in your preliminary pages you will need to submit this with the final manuscript on submission. Acronyms and abbreviations consisting of capital initial letters should be expressed without full stops – GNP, USA.

The list should be the last page of your preliminary pages 

Prepare as a simple list

Do not prepare the list as a table; even if you remove the borders from the table this will still be problematic

Add your abbreviation then single tab (not double) and key in the explanation as shown below:

FULL STOPS are not needed after headings (including table headings), subheadings, figure captions, figure numbers, table numbers or section numbers.

EMOJIS We would discourage the use of emoji’s within your book. Please contact your commissioning editor if you think emoji use is important to the argument of your book. Although these icons may be a convenient way to display information, it compromises people's ability to understand when read from a screen reader and breaches copyright.  Please refer to our Accessibility section

ITALICS should be used sparingly for emphasis. Italic type should be used for the titles of films and television programmes and also ships (for example, HMS Ark Royal). Song and poem titles, however, should appear in Roman type, within quotation marks.

LISTS should use numbers (1, 2, 3 and so on) for major lists and letters (a, b, c) for lists within major lists.

PARENTHESES (round brackets) should be used for simple interpolations, with square brackets used for editorial notes or interpolations in quotations (for example, [sic]).

PAROCHIALISMS such as ‘in this country’ or ‘this year’ should be replaced with the country name or specific year.

QUOTATIONS/EXTRACTS must be an exact reproduction of the original in both spelling and punctuation even if this conflicts with the style in the rest of the book. Use single quotes for extracts in the text of less than 50 words in length and double quotes for quotes within quotes. For extracts exceeding 50 words in length material should be indented from the left margin, with space above and below and quotation marks omitted. Any notes or editorial comment within the extract should appear in square brackets and any omissions should be indicated by an ellipsis. Ensure that opening quotation marks are distinguished from closing quotation marks.

SPELLING should be standardized in an authored book. It is helpful if you can supply a separate list of decisions made about spellings. Our house style is British English (e.g. colour) with -ize endings but if you have a preference to use US English (e.g. color) please inform us when you deliver your manuscript files. Where different contributors use different spelling conventions we edit for in-chapter consistency only. Formal names of institutions, for example, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development or World Trade Organization, should not be changed to fit your chosen style.

SYMBOLS and special characters, such as Greek letters, Chinese symbols, logical and mathematical signs etc., should be submitted as both pdf and Word files. Please check the pdf carefully, before submission, to ensure that the maths and/or characters are displayed as intended. The pdf file will be referred to in case of any issue with how these characters are displayed in the Word file.

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

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 updated our advice on Tables. To find out why, and for advice on other accessibility features, please click here.

Please see below our criteria for including tables in your book/chapter. If, after you have read the guidance below, you are still in doubt, contact your commissioning editor for further assistance.

1. All tables need to be created using the Word ‘Insert>Table’ tool in your manuscript file and be set within the text where you want them to appear.
2. Do not include more than one header row or merged, split, or empty cells anywhere in tables. If there’s no data insert ‘-’ or ‘N/A’ or something similar to denote this.
3. Each table must have a title, and be numbered consecutively within chapters as e.g. ‘Table 1.1’. The title should summarise the content of the table. A note 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.
4. We do not include any shading in tables. If you need to denote information in particular cells we advise using a special key and describing this in the table note e.g. all cells with ‘*’ or all cells with ‘(P)’ have specific information. As screenreaders do not always distinguish between bold, small caps, italic and roman please do not use these to highlight specific cells.

Merged, split and empty cell guidance

A merged cell in a table is when two or more adjacent cells (either horizontally, vertically, or both) are combined into a single larger cell. A split cell in a table is when a single cell is divided into two or more smaller cells (either horizontally or vertically). To avoid including empty cells in your tables, we recommend adding either a dash ‘-’, ‘n/a’, or other appropriate text into any empty cells.

To avoid merged and split cells in your tables, we recommend one of the following methods:

• Split the table into separate mini-tables to avoid split/merged cells
• Convert the table to a list, or several lists if appropriate
• Repeat information in merged cells in separate cells
• Removing any unnecessary merged cells in the top and bottom rows of a table that contain information that could be included in the heading or a note beneath it, e.g. a merged ‘total’ row at the bottom of a table that could sit as plain text beneath it.  Or Remove any unnecessary merged cells from the top and bottom rows of a table. For example, instead of a merged 'total' row at the bottom, place the total as plain text beneath the table or include any relevant information in the table heading

Effective table guidance

• Can your table be read out and understood? Is it easily navigable? 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. As this header row is read aloud every time, please do not insert multiple header rows in the table.
• Consider if a list is more suitable than a table
• 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
• Do not include emojis
• Consider smaller tables covering individual aspects of the topic, rather than condensing all the information into one big table. 
• 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. Tables can include footnotes, special characters, maths equations inserted using word Equation Editor and bullet points - the latter if formatted as proper bullet point lists using the Word ‘Format>Bullets and Numbering’ function
• 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 you have tables which are too complex then they will need to be changed to a figure, but if they are too complex to be a figure then the data will need to be displayed in a different format (smaller tables/main body text) instead or the table must be omitted.  
• Tables can only include figures if they have alt text provided. The figure must be in its own cell and not have any text in that cell with it. 
• Maths equations should not be displayed in a table, if the maths is part of a bigger table this is fine, but do not use a table to give layout to your standalone maths equations, they should be listed just in the text using equation editor. 
• Any tables which aren’t accessible and cannot be changed to be accessible will be changed to a figure and must have alt text supplied with them. 

To help you understand what a “good” table looks like, You can download examples of both well-designed and poorly designed tables here.

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 

These are only required for law practitioner titles and law textbooks, and not for research focused books.

If you wish to include legal tables please inform us when you submit your manuscript.  Please also check your contract to find out who is responsible for preparing the tables. If it is you, then please submit the list together with your final manuscript. You will be required to insert the correct page numbers once the manuscript has been typeset.

More Information

If you wish to use the Microsoft Word indexing and legal tabling software to create your legal tables we can accommodate this, please discuss this when setting up your files and use the following guidelines to ensure you are correctly inserting the legal table references so that our typesetting software can generate the tables.

Legal tables marking in Word

Notes for contributors to multi-authored books

Indexing Advice and FAQs

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.

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.

The publisher reserves the right to verify the use of Generative AI and to reject manuscripts that violate this policy.

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.
This policy does not refer to spell and grammar checking tools (such as Grammarly) which may be used without acknowledgement.