Submissions

Author Guidelines

Our research team welcomes essays on contemporary poetry written by scholars and researchers at every career stage. Each contribution is evaluated by the editorial staff and subjected to double-blind peer review.  

The submission is free of charge.

Please consult the Requirements and Workflow before submission. To know how we evaluate submissions, you may consult the Criteria for Article Evaluation.

Before submission, make sure that your text thoroughly conforms to the Style guidelines below.

Polisemie's Code of Ethics adheres to the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Requirements for submission

1. Format

Papers should be sent in their final stage, compiled with the software Word and saved in *.docx format.

2. Length

Articles between 18.000 and 40.000 characters (including spaces and notes, but not the final bibliography and sitography) are particularly welcome. We will not be able to accept papers shorter than 18.000 characters, or papers that exceed significantly 40.000 characters.

3. Additional information

At the moment of submission, the author will be asked to provide:

• Biographical note (4-5 lines) in the language of the article and English translation.
• Keywords (separated by commas) in the language of the article and English translation.
• Abstract (5-10 lines maximum) in the language of the article and English translation. 
• A list of at least 5 possible peer reviewers, stating possible conflicts of interest. The editorial board may or may not choose to contact peer reviewers from the list provided by the author. 

NOTE: fill in this information with extreme care. Abstract and keywords in particular have a significant impact on the review process and on the dissemination of an article.

Style Guidelines

Go to Italian guidelines

1. Template

Authors are strongly recommended to use the journal template. DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE

If you wish to use styles in Word, together with the rules for the layout, the template is provided with a set of styles marked with the prefix “Pol -”.

2. Font

Times New Roman. New Athena Unicode for Greek characters.

3. Italics

Use italics for:

• foreign words, including common Latin expressions (ad hoc, statu quo etc.)
• exceptionally, to emphasize words or expressions.

4. Bold

Do not use bold anywhere in the text.

5. Footnotes

Footnotes (not endnotes) should be added automatically by Word.

The footnote markers should follow punctuation marks.

In footnotes, line breaks should be avoided.

Please use footnotes for bibliographic references only and avoid commentary footnotes wherever possible.

6. Citations

Citations within the text should be wrapped by French quotes (« »).

Quotes longer than three lines should be separated by the main text, without quotes, text size 11, indented 0,5 for prose and 1,5 for poetic texts. The paragraph should be separated from the main text by 12pt above and bottom.

Citations inside citations should be wrapped in English quotes (“ ”).

Omissions should be marked by dots inside square brackets […]:

Ex. 1

«This, amongst all, is the most frequent case»

«This […] is the most frequent case»

In in-line poetic citations, the end of the line should be marked with a vertical line: | (preceded and followed by a space).

The end of the stanza should be marked by two vertical lines: ||.

The omission of lines or words should be marked by dots inside square brackets: […]

Ex. 2

«Si sta come d’autunno | […] | le foglie».

Additions by the author should be put in square brackets and in italic

Ex. 3

«Italian literature [both ancient and modern] is […]»

7. Bibliographic citations

Monographs

Bibliographic references should correspond with the chosen edition and must include the following elements, separated by a comma:

1)

a. In a footnote:

Name Surname (if present, initial of the second name).  For multiple authors, names should be separated by a comma.

Ex. 4.1

John Gillingham, Richard I, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2002.

Thomas G. Wagner, Piers D. Mitchell, The illnesses of King Richard and King Philippe on the Third Crusade: An Understanding of arnaldia and leonardie, in «Crusades», 10 (2011), pp. 23-44.

b. If in the final bibliography:

Surname, Name (if present, initial of the second name).  For multiple authors, names should be separated by a semicolon. 

Ex. 4.2

Gillingham, John, Richard I, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2002.

Wagner, Thomas G.; Mitchell, Piers D., The illnesses of King Richard and King Philippe on the Third Crusade: An Understanding of arnaldia and leonardie, in «Crusades», 10 (2011), pp. 23-44.

2) Title, in italics. If the title includes text in italics, the latter should be non-italics.

3) Place of publication (in original language). When there is more than one place, separate them with a comma. (ex. 5)

4) Publisher. When there is more than one publishing house, separate them with a comma. When different places correspond to different publishing houses separate each couple with a semicolon (ex. 6).

5) Year. If you are not using the first edition, specify the number of the edition you are using in apex after the year. (ex. 7)

Ex. 5

Maurizio Perugi (ed.), Le canzoni di Arnaut Daniel, Milano, Napoli, Ricciardi, 1978. 

Ex. 6

Biographies des troubadours : textes provençaux des 13. et 14. siècles publiés avec une introduction et des notes par Jean Boutière et Alexander-Hermann Schutz, Toulouse, Privat; Paris, Didier, 1950.

Ex. 7

Mario Baratto, Realtà e stile nel Decameron, Vicenza, Neri Pozza, 1974².

6) If you are citing only one volume of a work composed of multiple volumes, specify the volume number in Roman numbers.

Ex. 8

Repertorium fontium historiae medii aevii primum ab Augusto Potthast digestum, Roma, Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo, 1984, V, pp. 169-171.

7.1) For collective works referenced in notes specify, after the title, name and surname of the editor, preceded by "ed. by" (in English papers), "éd." (in French papers) or "a cura di" (in Italian papers).  

Ex. 9

La simmetria, ed. by Evandro Agazzi, Bologna, il Mulino, 1973.

7.1) For collective works referenced in the final bibliography specify, before the title, name and surname of the editor, followed by "(ed)" (in English papers), "(éd.)" (in French papers) or "(a cura di)" (in Italian papers).  

Ex. 9

Evandro Agazzi (ed.), La simmetria, Bologna, il Mulino, 1973.

Evandro Agazzi (éd.), La simmetria, Bologna, il Mulino, 1973.

Evandro Agazzi (a cura di), La simmetria, Bologna, il Mulino, 1973.

8) For conference proceedings state the place and date of the conference.

Ex. 10

Alessandro Barbero, Chiesa e società feudale nelle letterature d’Oc e d’Oïl, in Chiesa e mondo feudale nei secoli X-XII, Atti della dodicesima Settimana internazionale di Studio (Mendola, 24-28 agosto 1992), Milano 1995, pp. 509-534.

9) For miscellaneous works without an editor list all authors and use et al. if needed (use AA. VV. in articles in Italian).

10) For translations, at the end of the bibliographic reference and between brackets, state Place (in original language) and Year of the original edition, preceded by “or. ed.” (in English papers), “éd. or.” (in French papers) or “ed. or.” (in Italian papers).

Ex. 11

Erich Auerbach, Mimesis, introduzione di Aurelio Roncaglia, Torino, Einaudi, 1956 (or. ed.  Bern 1946);

Aron J. Gurevich, Contadini e santi. Problemi della cultura popolare nel Medioevo, Torino, Einaudi, 1986 (ed. or. Moskva 1981);

George M. Trevelyan, La rivoluzione inglese del 1688-89, a cura di Cesare Pavese, introduzione di Leone Ginzburg, Torino, Einaudi, 1941 (ed. or. London 1938).

11) Page number, should be preceded by p. or pp. and should be complete (ex. pp. 350-356, and not pp. 350-6).

Articles

1) Name and Surname (if present, initial of the second name).  For multiple authors, names should be separated by a comma.

2) Title, in italic, followed by a comma. If the title includes text in italics, the latter should be non-italics.

3) Journal, in French quotes, preceded by “in” and followed by a comma.

4) Series, if applicable, followed by a comma.

5) Volume, in Arabic or Roman numbers, as stated in the frontispiece.

6) Year, followed by a comma.

7) Issue, if applicable, followed by a comma.

8) Pages (preceded by “pp.” in articles in Italian).

9) To specify the page of the quote, state the page number(s) preceded by “p.” or “pp.”.

Ex. 12

Geneviève Hasenohr, Du bon usage de la galette des Rois, in «Romania», CXIV (1996), 3-4, pp. 445-467.

Luce López-Baralt, Narrar después morir. La Cuarantena de Juan Goytisolo, in «Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica», 153 (1995), 1, pp. 59-124.

Giuseppe Papponetti, Un inedito commento di Barbato da Sulmona alla Iantandem del Petrarca, in «Studi petrarcheschi», n.s., X (1993), pp. 81-144, at pp. 141-142.

Citations after first (Monographs and Articles)

All works that have already been cited once in the article, should be referred to by the Surname of the author and an abbreviated form of the title (in italics). The abbreviation is arbitrary but should be consistent throughout the article.

Ex. 13

Lejeune, La chanson, pp. 410-412.

• If the citation refers to a work of the same author as the work referred to immediately above, use “Id.” or “Ead.”

• If the citation refers to a work that has been cited immediately above, use “ivi”, followed by a comma and the necessary information (ivi, p. 282; ivi, cap. IX, § 30)

• If the page referred to is also the same, use “ibid.” (in italics).

Quote from poetic texts

1. Title of the poem, if present, otherwise incipit; in italic; followed by a comma. Omit if you are quoting the whole poem. It should not be followed by dots.
2. Line number, preceded by “l.” or “ll.” (in English articles), “v.” or “vv.” (in Italian and French articles); followed by a comma. Omit if you are quoting the whole poem.
3. Page number, in the chosen edition, preceded by “p.” or “pp.”.

It is possible to assign an acronym to a frequently quoted poetical work. If the acronym stands for a title, it should be in italics.

First citation:

Ex. 14

Sono senza lavoro da anni, vv. 7-5, Luigi Di Ruscio, Poesie scelte: 1953-2010, a cura di Massimo Gezzi, prefazione di Massimo Raffaeli, Milano, Marcos y Marcos, 2019 (from now on PS), p. 35.

Citation after first:

Ex. 15

Sono senza lavoro da anni, vv. 7-5, PS, p. 35.

Online publications

In the notes, online content such as articles in blogs (without ISSN), videos, websites, and any other online publication (without ISBN), should be cited by:

1. Name and Surname of the author (if known).
2. Title, in italics.
3. Name of the website, in italics, preceded by “on” (in English papers).

Ex. 16

Italo Testa, Futuri a rovescio, on Le parole e le cose²

URLs should be included in the Sitography section only and not in the footnotes.

End Bibliography and Sitography

All works referenced in the article, and only these, should also be referenced in the “Bibliography” and “Sitography” section, at the end of the article.

1. The “Bibliography” section should list all books and articles published either in printed or online journals provided with an ISSN code.
2. The “Sitography” section will include online content such as articles in blogs (without ISSN), videos, websites, and any other online publication (without ISBN). In this section, the URL should be included in the reference: follow the layout of the Template (citation: size 12pt, above 6pt, bottom 0pt, keep with following; URL: size 10pt, above 0pt, bottom 6pt, no hyphenation)