Author Guidelines

Res Militaris journal in full open access, meaning unlimited use and reuse of articles, in addition to giving credit to the authors. All of our articles are published under a Creative Commons (CC BY) license.

Authors pay a one-time Article Processing Charge (APC) 250USD  to cover the costs of peer review administration and management, professional production of articles in PDF and other formats, and dissemination of published papers in various venues, in addition to other publishing functions. Please note that the option to process an advance payment remains but does not guarantee acceptance of manuscripts. There are no charges for rejected articles, no submission charges, and no surcharges based on the length of an article, figures or supplementary data. Some items (Editorials, Corrections, Addendums, Retractions, Comments, etc.) are published free of charge.

Editorial Instructions to Potential Contributors

Except for its guest-edited special issues, the journal does not normally call for papers on specific subjects, but applies a policy of rolling author-initiated submissions on any topic.

Authors are expected to submit original material, not previously published in any form, and to refrain from simultaneously offering their manuscripts for review to other journals.

1.   General Instructions

Manuscripts submitted to the journal should abide by the following guidelines:

1. Format and Copy-Editing Norms

Manuscript submissions should be sent in Word files attached to an e-mail addressed to: Editor@resmilitaris.net

and use the following format :

• Page size : Type face and size : Times New Roman, 12 pt.
• Article length should ideally be between 5,000 and 15,000 words, including abstract (300 words), keywords (max. 10), footnotes, bibliography and author’s/authors’ institutional affiliation(s).
• The main body of text should be double-spaced, with one-inch-wide margins on all
• For footnotes, consecutively numbered and single-spaced, type face Times New Roman, size 10 pt., are strongly recommended.
• Articles should not be formatted beyond a clear separation of paragraphs and coherent indication of intermediate titles and subtitles. Main intermediate titles shall use bold type size 15 ; intermediate subtitles use bold type size 13. Section titles are numbered only if clarity so requires.
• Bibliographic references should be placed at the end of the article, in alphabetical order. However, this only applies if they number more than 10: if such is not the case, they should appear in footnotes. They should conform to the models supplied by the following examples(please note the bold small caps used for each author’s surname):

Schelling, Thomas C., The Strategy of Conflict, New York, Oxford University Press, 1960.

Schelling, Thomas C. & Morton Halperin, Strategy and Arms Control, New York, Twentieth Century Fund, 1961.

Daalder, Ivo & Jan Lodal, “The Logic of Zero”, Foreign Affairs, vol.87, n°6, November/ December 2008, pp. 80-95.

Note : If the terminal bibliography option applies, references in the main text body as well as in footnotes are reduced to the author’s surname and year of publication. For instance :

Text body : (Schelling, 1960). Footnotes : Schelling, 1960 ; Schelling & Halperin, 1961.

• References to books, articles or information as yet unpublished or not intended for publication shall be included with the mention “forthcoming”, “unpublished data” or “personal communication”, as appropriate.
• The URL address of webpages must also be listed in the bibliography, including the date of consultation.
• Quotation norms :
  • Short quotations in the body of the text: italics between double inverted commas (“ ”), followed by author’s name, date of publication, as the case may be page number, between brackets : (Schelling, 1960, p.120 or pp.120-121). The same indication between brackets of author’s name and year of publication shall apply to a reference in passing without direct quotation.
  • Longer quotations (more than 3 lines) : start a new paragraph with wider margins (left 1.8 cm ; right 1.2 cm), quote without italics or inverted commas, followed by author’s name, date of publication, page number between brackets : (Schelling, 1960, p.75 or pp.75-76), or in a footnote without brackets.

Note: If there are references to several books or articles published the same year by the same author, (a), (b), (c), etc., should be added to the date without a space. Example: (Aron, 1976b).

• Quotations within quotations should use single inverted commas (‘ ’).
• If the quotation in the text body ends a sentence or part of it, the full stop or comma should come after the closing inverted comma. For example :

These authors called the reliance on nuclear weapons for deterrence purposes in the post-Cold War context “increasingly hazardous and decreasingly effective”.

• Tables, figures and illustrations (either Word or JPEG) should be placed in the text body (unless they prove unwieldy or are of general value, in which case their proper place is in an Appendix at the end of the text, above bibliographic references). The text must explicitly refer to the illustrations. Its title should come above the table or illustration, while credit or source, and (if necessary) legend come immediately below it.

B)        General Guidelines Relative to Contents

Articles should meet the following expectations:

Introduction : The subject dealt with in the article must be stated in the form of a research problem. A central hypothesis is formulated, together with the author’s chosen methodological options and theoretical perspective. A description of the source, type, range, and method of selection of the data examined is supplied, as is an outline or “road map” of the rest of the author’s contribution.

Conclusion : The article’s concluding remarks should at a minimum summarize the main points raised in the discussion, and answer the research question stated in the introduction. The study’s particular contribution, possible limitations as well as prospects for further studies can be briefly stated before widening the focus.

2.   Particular Copy-Editing Norms

A)   Book Reviews

Book reviews should be no less than 1,000 and (unless a longer contribution is justifiable) no more than 5,000 words in length. Reviews should consist of both a presentation cum analysis of contents and a critical appraisal of the book considered. Authors are free to separate or combine those two aspects.

B). Classics of Social Science in the Military Field

Contributions to the “Classics” section should ideally be no less than 8-10 pages and no more than 30 in length. They should cover the context of research and publication, the author’s background, the theses he or she develops, as well as the immediate reception and posterity of the book or seminal article considered.

C)  Junior Authors’ Research Notes

Research notes should range from 3,500 to 8,500 words in length. They consist of either the summary of a short (under- or post-graduate) thesis, or analysis of a particular issue studied in it.

N.B. In all three cases, the author’s institutional affiliation, format, type face and size (and for “Classics” presentations as well as for research notes, abstract, keywords, footnotes and bibliography) shall conform to the instructions detailed in part 1.A above.