Author's Guide

I. Editorial Orientation

Full Context is an "international Objectivist publication." By "Objectivist," we mean "for Objectivists." We leave it entirely up our readers' intelligence and independent judgment to determine whether any of the ideas presented in Full Context represent statements of or applications of Objectivist principles, or more importantly, whether the ideas presented are true. (It should go without saying that submissions which, in the editor's opinion, contain obvious misunderstandings or misrepresentations of Objectivist ideas have not and will not appear in the pages of Full Context). Full Context is an open forum for the discussion of ideas influenced by Objectivism. As such, all that the editors demand is that submissions be well-reasoned, thought-provoking, original, literate, informed, and of interest to an Objectivist or libertarian reader.

Please contact the editors at editor@fullcontext.org concerning any issues not addressed below.

II. Submission Requirements

1) Contact Information. All submissions (including letters to the editor) should include the author's name, full address and telephone number(s). (If available, an email address should also be included.)

2) Content. Submissions should manifest a sound basic knowledge of the philosophy of Objectivism. Contrary to some other well-known Objectivist publications, we do not demand full agreement with Objectivism as a condition for publication. We encourage freethinking and intellectual independence. (Authors who express either explicit or implicit disagreement with one or more well-established Objectivist positions or with leading Objectivist thinkers will not be blacklisted, nor will their subscriptions be cancelled, nor will nasty rumours be circulated about their character.) Writers can expect, however, that controversial submissions will generate equally pointed feedback, which Full Context will publish in its "Letters" section.

3) Format.

A. In order of preference, contributions may be submitted as follows:

1. MIME-encoded (Base 64) binary attachments, in an acceptable file format, attached to email messages sent to editor@fullcontext.org.
2. DOS diskettes containing files in one of the accepted file formats, mailed to Full Context.
3. Typed manuscripts, in 12 to 14-point type, of at least NLQ dot-matrix quality, mailed to:
   Full Context, 40835 Brightside Ct. Sterling Heighs, MI 48310
4. Regular Email submissions, using _underscore_ for italics, and *asterisks*
   for bold.

B. Software and Operating System Exceptions:

• UNIX/MacOS users: please do not use special typographical symbols (such as "curly" quotes).
• AOL email users: please use only options 2, 3, or 4 in section 3(A).

C. Acceptable file formats:

• Rich Text Format (.rtf)
• WordPerfect 5.x-7.0 for DOS or Windows (.wpd)
• MS Word for Windows 2.x-98 (.doc)
• Lotus Ami Pro (.sam) or Word Pro (.lpw)
• MS Word 5.x for MacOS

D. Writers are encouraged to use italic text and parenthetical comments sparingly and judiciously.

E.  References should be included as endnotes in a section entitled "Notes" and comply with The Chicago Manual of Style (14th edition) protocols for formatting. For book reviews, authors should use parenthetical references to refer to pages in the book under review, and endnotes for all other notes.

4) Length.

Letters to the Editor: Letters should be limited in length to 600 words. Letters exceeding this limit will suffer a significantly lower probability of timely publication, due to space limitations in our current format.

Reviews: Reviews of books should be either 1200 or 2400 words in length. Reviews of films, cultural exhibitions, plays, etc. should be limited to 1200 words.

Essays: Maximum length of essays is 2400 words.

III. What we're always looking for...

• reviews of non-fiction books, esp. philosophy, politics, the arts, psychology, popular science
• reviews of recent novels, movies, plays, art exhibits, and other ongoing events of cultural interest
• short original commentaries on current events
• letters commenting on previously published articles, letters, and interviews

  Priority is given to shorter non-technical articles, however from time to time we publish lengthier, weightier feature articles. If you have an idea for an article, you should contact the editor to discuss your idea.

IV. Who we publish

We publish writings from professional academics, non-academic intellectuals, and students.

V. Authors' Rights

1. Copyrights to all articles published in Full Context are retained by their authors. The use of the copyright (c) symbol is therefore discouraged.

2. Short commentaries and letters to the editor may occasionally be edited for length, given space restrictions in Full Context. Beyond minor and obvious corrections in spelling, grammar and punctuation, we recognize the right of the author to approve all editorial changes to submissions before his/her piece is published in Full Context. Please send us your phone numbers and email address along with your submission in the event such consultation may be necessary.

3. As a condition of publication, we request that authors of articles, reviews, commentaries and other submissions (excluding letters to the editor) agree:

(i) to uphold our "exclusive" right of first publication--to not reprint or republish their articles, in print or on the WWW, for three (3) months after the article appears in Full Context.

(ii) that if such an article is reprinted or republished, that we be notified, and that the phrase "this article was originally published in Full Context, <Month>, <Year>" be included. For articles appearing in Volume 11 or later, we encourage the citation of the Full Context volume and issue numbers instead of the month and year information.

(iii) that for articles republished on the WWW, authors are asked to include a link to the Full Context home page at http://www.fullcontext.org.

(iv) that their reprinting/republishing rights do not extend to reproduction (either photocopying or scanning) of Full Context without express permission of the editors.

4. At this time, Full Context does not pay its contributors for signed articles.

5. Authors of signed articles (including reviews) over 1800 words in length may receive up to 20% off on any volume orders (5 or more copies) of the issue of Full Context in which their article appears.

(c) 2000 Full Context