Please read this page before submitting your article or book review to the Melbourne Historical Journal.

We strongly advise the use of the ‘Submission checklist’ below. We only accept manuscript submissions via the MHJ Open Journal System. All manuscripts must conform to the MHJ Style Guide.

If you’d like further information about submitting to MHJ please contact us.

Article Submission

The Melbourne Historical Journal puts out a call for papers in March each year. Submissions are due by the following June. Please note that the editorial policy of Melbourne Historical Journal is to publish work that constitutes an original piece of research. Thus we will only accept articles that are not under review or scheduled for publication by other journals, and that are substantially different from other published work.

Book Review Submission

The Melbourne Historical Journal accepts book reviews that are consistent with the scope of the journal. We are able to source review copies of books from publishers for our authors. We also accept exhibition and other kinds of reviews. Reviews are due in October each year. If you are interested in writing a review, please consult our book review guidelines and then contact us to express your interest.

Submission Checklist

  1. Your manuscript must conform the MHJ Style Guide.
  2. Register an account and submit your article at the MHJ submission system (http://journal.mhj.net.au/). On the registration screen, please ensure you register as an ‘Author’ (via the checkbox) so you are able to submit your article to the journal.
  3. Once you have a user account, you can make a ‘New Submission’ from the ‘User Home’ screen. There is a five-step process to follow.
    • Your selected Journal Section must be either ‘Articles’ or ‘Book Reviews’.
    • A biographical statement and full contact details must be included.
  4. When uploading your manuscript, all personal identification information must be removed from your manuscript, including in-text and file metadata (In Microsoft Word: Tools -> Protect Document -> Privacy).
  5. The manuscript must be double spaced throughout, including indented quotes and references.
  6. Manuscripts must conform to the following lengths:
    • Article manuscripts must be no more than 8,000 words including footnotes.
    • Book review manuscripts must be no more than 1,000 words.
  7. The article must be preceded by a brief abstract of no more than 100 words. This abstract must be provided both in the article and as part of the five-step submission process. For book reviews, the abstract must include biographical details about the reviewed book (title, author, year, publisher and place published).
  8. References must be supplied as footnotes, not endnotes. Book reviews must have no footnotes; all references must be cited in the text of the review.
  9. Include a bibliography of works cited.
  10. Over questions of spelling, authors must follow the most recent online edition of the Macquarie Dictionary.