Author Guidelines
Journal of International Buddhist Studies (JIBS) is published in June and December by Buddhist Research Institute of Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University. The Journal features articles and research notes/articles in the fields of Buddhist Studies and integration of Buddhism with humans and society. Its aim is to encourage and disseminate scholarly contributions by the University's faculty members and researchers. Well researched, innovative works by other scholars are welcome. A review committee consisting of academic exports in the relevant fields will screen all manuscripts, and the editorial board reserves the right to recommend revision / alteration, if necessary, before their final acceptance for publication The Journal of International Buddhist Studies (JIBS) publishes material in the following three categories:
1.Research Articles (3,000–7,500 words)
2.Academic Articles (4,000-7,500 words)
3.Book Reviews (1,200-1,500)
Research & Academic Articles
Research and Academic Articles will present original research in any of the areas under the journal's list of Subject Classifications. Contributors are welcome to contact the editors beforehand to discuss proposals or for guidance regarding the sorts of topics which are suitable for publication in the journal. Research articles will be subject to double blind peer review by appropriate members of the editorial board or external evaluators selected at the editors' discretion. Papers should generally be no longer than 7,500 words (inclusive of footnotes, bibliography and notes on contributors), unless permission for a longer submission has been granted in advance by the editors.
Book Reviews
As appropriate, the journal will publish reviews of various materials addressing issues which are included under the journal's Subject Classifications. Typical length 1,200–1,500. Longer reviews of over 5,000 may be published as Review Essays at the discretion of the book review editor and the general editors. Publishers or others wishing to have books, audio tapes, videotapes, software or other publications in any media reviewed should send copies for consideration to the book review editor.
Submission Guidelines
All submissions should be preceded by a header on a separate page containing the title of the manuscript, the name(s) of the author(s), any affiliations, mail and email addresses, and telephone numbers. The header should be formatted as in the following example:
a) Title: Title of Submission
b) Author(s): A.N. Author
c) Word length: 6,500 words
d) Date of submission: 1 November 1994
e) Address:
Name of Institution
Name of Department
Full Postal Address
Email Address
Telephone Number
Please include an abstract of no more than 300 words after the header, as well several keywords. Authors should anonymize the body of their manuscript, removing references to themselves in the text as well as document metadata. If it is unclear what is entailed, please consult the journal editors. If you have used a special diacritic font please give the name (e.g., Indic Transliterator, CS Bitstream Charter, etc). For transliteration issues, see the JIBS Style Guide, below.
Note: authors of accepted manuscripts assign to the Journal of International Buddhist Studies the right to publish the text both electronically and in any other format and to make it available permanently in an electronic archive.
Guidelines for "special focus" sections
We welcome proposals for special themed sections (akin to special issues) that address the journal's scope and focus. Special focus sections appear within the general volume of the year in which they are published but are grouped under their own heading and usually include a substantive introduction by the guest editor(s). All submissions with be peer reviewed individually in the normal way, and the Editors reserve the right to reject some articles and accept others. Proposals for special sections should be made to the managing editor (brimcu@gmail.com) by email and should include as attachments:
- A proposal by the guest editor(s) outlining the significance of the themes and issues covered and demonstrating the intellectual coherence of the various contributions in relation to those themes and issues (700-1,000 words).
- A complete set of the proposed articles, including abstracts and keywords. Contributions should conform to the journal's house style, as detailed in the Style Guide below. When the proposal is provisionally accepted, the next step is for all essays, including the introductory essay, to be submitted for blind review. These should be made directly to the editors using the online submission system. The introductory essay should not only de-identify the author of the essay itself, but identities of all the contributors should be hidden by using designations such as ‘Author 1’, ‘Author 2’, etc. At this stage, the guest editor should also provide the managing editor by email with a list of two recommended referees for each submission. As guest-editor(s), it is understood that you will:
- Solicit and vet articles for relevance for consideration in the special focus section.
- Recommend two referees per article to meet the standards of the journal's double-blind peer review process. The Editors reserve the right to choose alternative reviewers.
- Undertake the majority of contributor liaison, including advising authors of review outcomes and necessary revisions.
- Check revised articles to ensure quality and that authors have addressed referee concerns.
- Edit articles to ensure that they generally comply with the house style. Final copy-editing and proofing of the issue will be undertaken by members of the editorial team, but it is the responsibility of the guest editor to ensure the overall quality and consistent formatting of articles.
- Provide a substantial introduction for the special issue (at least 2,000–3,000 words, ranging up to a maximum of 7.500 words).
After publication of the special focus section, the names of guest editors will appear on the home page of the current issue as well as in the journal archive.
Book Review Policy
Reviewers are generally chosen by the editor. Scholars who are interested in reviewing books that is listed on the book review page without a specified reviewer, or who wish to review a book not currently listed, should contact the book review editor. While the JIBS does accept unsolicited book reviews and is open to receiving curriculum vitae from potential reviewers, the decision to print reviews or to use particular reviewer’s rests Solely with the JIBS Reviews will communicate to specialists and non-specialists the scope of the book's content, assess its major points and contributions, and provide a reasoned judgment of its worth. In keeping with proper scholarly method, any critique should be directed at an author's work. Reviews that contain materials considered to be directed towards an author's character or that are considered to be potentially libelous will be rejected. The JIBS will be the final arbiter in all cases. When you have agreed to review a volume for us, please discuss a realistic submission date with the book review editor. The JIBS aim at publishing book reviews within three months of the time you have received the volume under review. We realize that this is not always possible, but it has proven to be a good rule of thumb. Occasionally, reviews may have to be reassigned or dropped. Reviews that do not meet the JIBS's professional standards or that fail to conform to conditions agreed upon by the reviewer and editor will be rejected. All such decisions are at the sole discretion of the JIBS. Reviews may be of any length; however, they will typically not be less than 1,000 words nor more than 5,000. Many reviewers find a length of 1,500 to 2,500 words about right. Reviews of more than 5,000 words will be considered review articles and screened by both the book review editor and the general editors of the JIBS. After your review has been copyedited, it will be returned to you for a final proofreading. Please be especially careful in proofreading any transliterations in your review. We ask that, before you submit a review to our editors, you ensure that Sanskrit and Japanese words are in the JIBS's transliteration format (see Journal Style Guide, below). Please do not submit drafts or incomplete articles or reviews. While minor changes are permitted during final proofreading, JIBS policy does not allow changes to an article after it has been published on the site. Headers should be set up as in the following example:
The Selfless Mind: Personality, Consciousness and Nirvaa.na in Early Buddhism. By Peter Harvey. London: Curzon Press, 1995, viii + 293 pages, ISBN 0-7007-0337-3 (paperback), £14.99; ISBN 0-7007-0338-1 (cloth).
Reviewed by Rupert Gethin
Lecturer in Indian Religions University of Bristol
rupert.gethin@bristol.ac.uk
References should be cited in the body of the review. Where you quote from the book you are reviewing, refer to an author's argument or a prolonged discussion, or note points of particular interest or controversy, please give page references in the format illustrated at the end of the General Guidelines below.
Avoid footnotes if at all possible. Please use italics for emphasis. Double space between paragraphs. Your review may be submitted in plain text, rich text format, html, or as an attachment. We prefer to receive attachments in Microsoft Word format, but other popular formats are acceptable. The review should be submitted to the book review editor. Publishers: you may wish to contact one of the JIBS's editors before sending us books for review. Books received unsolicited may not be reviewed and will not be returned to the sender.
Journal Style Guide
General guidelines
- Articles must be formatted in The Footnote / Bibliography Referencing System. Please download JIBS Reference Guide.
Foreign languages
All technical terms in Buddhist languages, excepting proper names, will be italicized. Decisions regarding the technical terms in Buddhist languages will be made by the book review editor in the case of book reviews and the general editors in the case of articles. Authors should direct queries about technical terms to the above individuals and not the JIBS copy editors.
Diacriticals
Sanskrit and Pali: with regard to Sanskrit and Pali terms, transliterations will follow the forms in the Sanskrit-English Dictionary by Monier-Williams, the Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary by Edgerton, and the Pali-English Dictionary by Rhys Davids and Stede. The form of transliteration used is as follows:
- Long vowels appear with a macron (e.g.: ā, ī, ō, ū)
- Consonantal diacritics are underlined; thus retroflex consonants are written as r t th d dh n m s
- visarga is written as h
- The palatal n that takes a diacritic is: ñ
- The two sibilant consonants are written as s and ś
- The guttural nasal is written .n
- The danda is written |
- The Wylie system of Tibetan transliteration requires no diacritical marks. Chinese can be Romanized by either the pinyin or Wade-Giles system. Japanese requires only macrons for romanization, which can be treated as indicated above for Sanskrit. Diacritical marks are used where applicable for all technical terms, group names (e.g. Sōka Gakkai) and other names. Foreign technical terms also appear in italics. For terms that have been accepted into English and other western languages (e.g. samsara, Pali), neither diacritical marks nor italics are used. For consistency, diacritical marks should appear in direct quotations even if they do not appear in the original. Submission Preparation Chicklist As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
