Hortulus is a born-digital journal providing a forum for graduate-level, multidisciplinary scholarship on the Middle Ages. Although Hortulus follows convention in defining the European Middle Ages as taking place roughly between 400 and 1500, relevant submissions outside traditional geographical and temporal boundaries are welcome. Hortulus only accepts submissions in English. All foreign language citations should include the original text and a translation in English.

SCHOLARSHIP

Hortulus seeks papers that display accomplished writing and expound original insights. We welcome articles presented at conferences provided that they have been extended, revised, and finalized for publication. Preliminary essays, notes of ongoing research, or previously published work (including articles published in conference proceedings) will not be considered. Translations or editions of texts may be submitted if they fall into the context of a broader article. All submissions are screened for plagiarism. We have had to turn away a number of submissions due to plagiarism. When in doubt, cite your source. All submitted work should be prepared for publication, and all submitters should be prepared for a revisions requests by our editors.

Evaluation Process

Hortulus uses a double-blind review process to select articles for publication. All self-identifying comments in the body of the paper are removed, and the submissions are sent as anonymous documents to two readers for evaluation. On occasion a third reader will evaluate a submission that receives mixed reviews. Letters of acceptance or rejection will be sent by e-mail after the comments of the readers have been collated. Acceptance is contingent on suggested revisions. Refusal to revise a submission based on the editor’s discretion will result in a withdrawal of acceptance.

Article Preparation

Articles must be sent as single-sided Word documents, double spaced, on 8-1/2 x 11-inch pages with 1-inch margins all around, in 12-point Times New Roman font. The first lines of paragraphs should be indented 1/2 inch. Titles, foreign words, etc., should be italicized. Pages should be numbered on the upper right. The first page must contain all pertinent identifying information about the author, including:

1. name
2. e-mail address
3. physical address and phone number
4. university and department affiliation
5. status (i.e., M.A. student, Ph.D. student)
6. title of the article
7. number of pages

No other pages may contain any identifying information except the title of the article. The second page must contain the title, the number of pages, and an abstract of no more than 250 words. Articles vary in length but tend to be between 6,000 and 12,000 words (i.e. between 12-25 pages) though articles less than 2,000 words will not be considered. All notes must be endnotes, and a bibliography must be included. Contributors must follow the Hortulus styleguide which can be downloaded here. Hortulus follows the citation style of Speculum. All foreign language quotations (including the immediate text the author is addressing and Latin) must be translated. The author is responsible for ensuring the accuracy of quotations and research. If an article is accepted for publication, the author is responsible for securing rights to all required images and for including links (JStor, WorldCat, etc.) to all sources mentioned in the bibliography (instructions will be made available).

BOOK REVIEWS

Hortulus will consider book reviews of several kinds:

1. Reviews of new material pertinent to medieval scholarship, whether the book is, in fact, a text of medieval scholarship or not;
2. Reviews of older material that should be reintroduced into current scholarship or that should be reconsidered; and
3. Reviews of nonscholarly or popular texts that would be of interest to the medieval scholarly community. All book reviews should follow the format required for submitted articles.

Book reviews should be between 1,000-2,000 words in length and address the following questions:

1. Where does the text fit within current scholarship?
2. What is the author arguing?
3. What is actually addressed in the contents of the book? [i.e. What are the chapters? What does each chapter discuss? Does it fit with the book’s description?]
4. Who should the readership of the book be? [i.e. Will it be useful to novices? Experts? For teaching? Only people who work on history? Archaeologists? etc.]

GENERAL INTEREST

Hortulus will consider general interest columns to be published in a dedicated section on the website on a rolling submission basis. These columns will be edited but not peer-reviewed. As with article submissions, the author is responsible for securing rights to all images if images were not taken by the author by him or herself. Examples of such columns could include: reflections on a museum exhibit, a discussion on a medieval focused television programme, teaching medieval studies in the classroom, a recent play related to medieval studies, a recent conference, or other related topic. If you are interested in submitting a column for this section please send us an email with your idea or already written piece and we will be happy to discuss your submission.

Submissions Instructions

Submissions should follow the guidelines listed under Article Preparation above and may be sent electronically as Word attachments to hortulus@hortulus-journal.com. All correspondence, including acceptance or refusal letters, will occur electronically. Please address all correspondence to Editor, Hortulus.

Copyright

The author retains copyright to his or her work, but in submitting material, the author grants Hortulus unlimited right to reproduce and/or publish the material in whole or part and that such works which are published by Hortulus will be published under the following Creative Commons License:

All works published by Hortulus are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.