《神州交流》Chinese Cross Currents

MRI Guidelines

To facilitate the edition of the MRI publications ( MRI Studies series and 神州交流 Chinese Cross Currents ) the Institute wishes contributors to carefully observe these instructions. By complying with these simple directives, each individual author will ensure both the quality and the timely coming out of the Institute's publications. Therefore, all personal formatting has to be kept to a minimum as the editors of the publications have to remove most of this formatting before typesetting can begin. The Institute thanks all contributors in advance for his or her kind cooperation.

I. General Guidelines

1. Spelling

  1. MRI publications use British spelling. Note that we prefer the -ise, -isation ending to -ize, -ization (e.g. organise, organisation, localise, specialise, civilisation, democratisation, etc.).
  2. Check the spellings very carefully if any quotation is in Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, German, etc. Please pay special attention to accent marks. You assume full responsibility of the accuracy in any quotations in the text.
  3. In quotations, the spelling of the original should be kept, as well as in references in the text or in the notes.

2. Margins, space and numbering of pages

1.5 inch (2.5 cm) should be used for all margins and double space should be used throughout the text. The pages should be numbered consecutively, with the number centred at the bottom of the page.

3. Title, Headings and Subheadings

  1. The title of the article/paper and the headings/subheadings should be in boldface with words' initial capitalised (not all caps).

    e.g.
    This is the Title of the Paper
    This is the Heading of the Paper
    THIS IS NOT THE TITLE OF THE PAPER

  2. The title of the article/paper should be reasonably short. It can be either followed by an explanatory heading or a short paragraph of introduction.
  3. It is recommended to use subheadings (roughly one every 600 words), in boldface, lower case, flush with the left margin and not numbered. Further subheadings will appear in italics and not of boldface:
    Subheading, Subheading, Subheading; Subheading, Subheading, Subheading, etc.
  4. Never use tabulations at the beginning of paragraphs.

4. Underlining

No word, title, or sentence should be underlined.

5. Paragraphs

  1. Try to avoid long or very short paragraphs.
  2. When there is a long quotation from another source, indent the quotation from the left, and use single space.
  3. Do not miss lines between paragraphs except after a subheading.

6. Tables and Figures

  1. Refer to tables, figures and maps in the text as follows:
    Figure 1 not figure 1 ; Table 2 not table 2 ; Map 3 not map 3 .
  2. When they appear in parentheses, use: (Fig. 1) (Table 2) (Map 3)
  3. Titles of tables, in boldface, should be placed at the top of the table, flush with the left margin.
  4. Sources and notes should be placed below the table, flush with the left margin.
  5. Do not insert tables, figures, maps and text boxes within the text. They should be put at the end of the article or paper.

7. Italics

  1. Italics should be used with restraint. Italics are best reserved for

- titles of books, journals and newspapers;
- names of ships;
- subdivisions of subheadings;
- foreign words and phrases.

  1. When the original title of a magazine or book is italicised, its foreign translation should be in plain script.

e.g. Renmin ribao (People's daily)

  1. Note that the following are also italicised: op. cit., ibid., et al.
  2. In exceptional cases, words may be italicised for emphasis, but it is best to use this practice sparingly.

8. Chinese characters and their romanisation

  1. The author is responsible for identifying with accuracy and providing Chinese characters in his or her text.
  2. Papers to be published in the MRI Studies series should use traditional Chinese characters (Big 5 encoding) on first mention of those characters in the text.
  3. Articles, features, book reviews, etc. to be published in 神州交流 Chinese Cross Currents should use simplified Chinese characters (GB encoding) on first mention of those characters in the text. (When both Chinese and English versions of the text are given by the author, no Chinese character should appear in the English version of the text).
  4. All Chinese characters should be followed by their romanisation (according to the Pinyin system) in italics, without parentheses, except when a quoted text follows an other system. Please observe the Guidelines adopted by the Library of Congress (November 1998); cf.

http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/pinyin/romcover.html

  1. Exceptions to the Pinyin romanisation system are reserved for:

    - quotations and names which are better known in other forms of romanisation (e.g. Chiang Kai-shek and not Jiang Jieshi; Kuomintang and not Guomindang, but Beijing, Guangzhou, etc.);
    - names of Taiwanese, Hong Kong or Singapore people and places as they are commonly used in Taiwan, Hong Kong or other areas.

  2. A translation, in parentheses and normal script, may follow the romanisation of the Chinese characters.

    e.g. 康熙 Kangxi
    天主实义 Tian zhu shi yi (The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven)

9. Capitalisation

  1. Capitals should be used sparingly. If in doubt, use lower case. No word should be entirely capitalised.
  2. All titles of English books, magazines and articles, as well as names of companies, institutions and ships should be capitalised.

e.g. "The Economic Legacy of Deng Xiaoping"; Chinese Cross Currents , South China Morning Post ; Ministry of Information Industry; China National Aviation Corporation, Sea Star II .

  1. Titles in Pinyin of Chinese books, magazines and articles, and names of companies and institutions should not be capitalised except for the first word and name of places.

e.g. Renmin ribao (People's Daily); State Assets Management Bureau ( Guojia zijin guanli ju ), etc.

10. Abbreviations and acronyms

  1. Avoid unnecessary abbreviations. A text full of acronyms and abbreviations is difficult to read. It is usually unnecessary to abbreviate a short term.
  2. As a general rule, terms in the text are spelled out and abbreviations are reserved for notes.
  3. Do ensure that all acronyms are spelt out when they first appear in the text. Acronyms can be used later on in the text after the full text is provided.
  4. When indicating page numbers in footnotes, "p. " and "pp. " are used.
  5. Omit the full stop after Dr, Mr, Mrs, St, and in abbreviations consisting entirely of capitals, e.g. OECD; PRC; CITIC, etc.

11. Numbers

  1. Never start a sentence with a figure; write the number in words instead.
  2. Use figures for numerals from 11 upwards, and for all numbers that include a decimal point.
  3. Round numbers can be expressed in words.

e.g. Approximately two hundred people survived.

  1. Ordinal numbers should be spelt out.
  2. e.g. He succeeded at the fifty-first attempt.
  3. Figures should be used for percentages, ratios, dates, degrees, dimensions, times of day, series of figures, weights and measures and such obvious cases as page references.
  4. In running text as in tables, we use "%", instead of "per cent". No space should be left between the number and "%".
  5. Commas should be used to indicate thousands, e.g. 10,000 not 10 000 or 10000. Commas should also be used in tables.
  6. For most commonly used currencies, use the abbreviation and a space before the amount.
    e.g. US$ 2 billion; NT$ 300 million; HK$ 500,000; ￡ 350, etc.

For the Chinese currency, use "yuan , fen" (in italics, no plural) after the amount.
e.g. The average worker earns 600 yuan a month.

For other less known currencies, spell out the currency after the amount.
e.g. He won 3,000 patacas in a casino in Macau, which he immediatly converted to Danish crowns.

  1. In non-scientific text, exact numbers of less than one hundred should be spelled out, and numbers of one hundred or more should be expressed in figures. However, very large round figures may be expressed in numbers and units of millions or billions.

e.g. The entire length of 4,066 feet is divided into twelve spans of paired parabolic ribs. At that time, the world's population was estimated as 2.3 billion.

12. Dashes

  1. "Em-dashes" (—) should not be used too frequently in the text. These are meant to provide a complement of information or to insert a kind of comment, and are similar to a parenthetical phrase (like this). There is no space before and after—, and (--) cannot replace (—).
  2. A regular hyphen (-) is used between years, page numbers, etc. E.g. 1949-1979, pp. 52-57.

13. Dates

  1. We prefer the form "March 1st 2003". When month and year alone are mentioned, we use "July 1995".
  2. Names of months may be abbreviated in tables as follows: Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr. (May, June, July), Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. It is not necessary to abbreviate them in running text.
  3. When referring to decades, use 1990s, not 1990's and not nineties.
  4. Spell out references to centuries:

    e.g. eighteenth century, twentieth-century China.

  5. Use 1990-93, not 1990-1993. A financial year may be referred to as 1991/92.
    Biographical dates should have all their digits: 康熙 Kangxi (1662-1723).
    In reference with the Common or Christian Era, some historical dates must be specified following the English common usage: Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD).

14. Quotations and inverted commas

  1. Use double quotation marks for a short quotation.

e.g. "At that time, the world's population was estimated as 2.3 billion."

  1. Regarding the inverted commas, we follow The Economist's Style Guide :

    Use single ones only for quotations within quotations. Thus:
    "When I say 'immediately', I mean some time before April," said the spokesman.

    For the relative placing of quotation marks and punctuation, follow Hart's rules. Thus, if an extract ends with a full stop or question-mark, put the punctuation before the closing inverted commas:
    His maxim was that "love follows laughter". In this spirit came his opening gambit: "What's the difference between a buffalo and a bison?"

    If a complete sentence in quotes comes at the end of a larger sentence, the final stop should be inside the inverted commas. Thus,
    The answer was, "You can't wash your hands in a buffalo." She replied, "Your jokes are execrable."

    If the quotation does not include any punctuation, the closing inverted commas should precede any punctuation marks that the sentence requires. Thus:
    She had already noticed that the "young man" looked about as young as the New Testament is new. Although he had been described as "fawnlike in his energy and playfulness", "a stripling with all the vigour and freshness of youth", and even as "every woman's dream toyboy", he struck his companion-to-be as the kind of old man warned of by her mother as "not safe in taxis". Where, now that she needed him, was "Mr Right"?

  2. Quotations which are five lines or longer when typeset (60 words is a reasonable guideline) should be indented from the left and right margins. No quotation marks should be used either at the beginning or at the end of an indented quotation.
  3. Spelling, punctuation, capitalisation and the use of italics in quotations should follow the original exactly. However, translations should be changed to conform to our style.

15. Photos, pictures, illustrations or tables

  1. If you want to include photos or pictures with your paper, please submit their black/white negatives. Photos and pictures printed by a laser printer will not be reproduced well.
  2. Tables should be drawn clearly with necessary explanations.
  3. Captions with full citation should be provided for all illustrations. If any illustration is created by the author of the paper, please indicate so.
  4. Suggestions for possible illustrations of the text are welcome. Personal illustration or photographs (prints or slides) can be mailed to the Editor. They will be returned after publication of the paper or article

16. Notes: Endnotes

  1. To simplify later typesetting, the insertion of notes should be done automatically by the word processor. Notes should appear at the end of the document (neither within the text nor at the bottom of the page).
  2. For later references to works already cited, use the short-title form and not op. cit. or loc. cit.
  3. For identical references immediately following the initial reference, use ibid. Note that these terms are italicised.
  4. Long notes should be avoided.

II. References

The general rules for the references to quotations are as follows:

1. Western works

Author, editor, or compiler, Title in italics. Place of publication, Publishing house, Volume number, Date of publication, page number(s).

e.g. Hosea B. Morse, The Chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China, 1635-1834 , Cambridge, MA, Vol. III, 1926, pp. 248-301.

Benjamin K.P. Leung ed., Perspectives on Hong Kong Society, Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1996.

2. East Asian works

Author, editor, or compiler's Name in Chinese characters, Name in romanisation, Title in Chinese characters (Title in romanisation), Place of publication, Publishing House, Volume, Date of publication, page number(s).

e.g. 徐光启 Xu Guangqi 造物主华象略说 (Zao wu zhu hua xiang lue shuo), in 天主教东传文献三编 (Tian zhu jiao dong chuan wen xian san bian), Taipei, Taiwan xuesheng shuju, 1972, pp. 279-80.

梁启超 Liang Qichao, 饮冰室合集 (Yin bing shi he ji), 文集 Wen ji, Shanghai, Vol. XV, 1936, pp. 3-4.

3. Article citations

Author, "Title of the Article in Quotation Marks", Title of the Journal in Italics , volume number, issue number if any, date, page numbers.

e.g. Francis W. Cleaves, "An Early Mongolian Loan Contract from Qara Qoto", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies , No. 18, 1955, pp. 1-49.

洗玉清 Xiang Yuqing, 清季海军回溯 "Qing ji hai jun hui su", 东方杂志 Dong fang za zhi , Vol. 38, No. 11, June 1941, pp. 29-33.

Donald Keene, "Literary and Intellectual Currents in Postwar Japan and Their International Implications", in Hugh Borton et al., Japan between East and West , Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood Press, 1976, pp. 101-14.

Chris K. H. Yeung, "Political parties", in Joseph Y. S. Cheng ed., The Other Hong Kong Report , Hong Kong, The Chinese University Press, 1997, pp. 49-70.

4. Archival citations

Author, Title of the Work in Name of the Archives. Call number and the actual page number(s).

e.g. 朱宗元 Zhu Zongyuan, 答客问 Da Ke wen in Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu. JapSin II, 75, fol. 1b.

The Editorial Committee of the Institute

reserves the right

to make the final decisions for the style.