Guide For Authors: General Guidelines

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The French Review is the scholarly journal of the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF). Our journal uses a double-blind peer review system. Articles submitted to the French Review are first screened by the Editor in Chief, who determines whether the topic is suitable for our journal and meets our standards regarding length, anonymity, use of secondary sources, etc. Articles considered for publication are then sent to two evaluators who are recognized specialists in the relevant field. This process can take one to two months. In the case of a split decision, the author has two to three months to revise the article before it is sent to a third evaluator (and, if need be, to at least one of the initial evaluators). This second evaluation process can also take one to two months. In all cases, the evaluators’ comments and suggestions are forwarded to the author by the Editor in Chief. Articles are normally published within one year of acceptance.

1. AATF membership is a prerequisite for the submission and publication of articles and reviews.
2. We publish, with extremely rare and noteworthy exceptions, only material that has not appeared elsewhere (either in the original or in translation). As an extension of this rule, we do not normally publish book reviews of translated or reedited works.
3. Submissions to the French Review should be in the latest version of MLA style. The French Review style does include some exceptions to MLA style, which are listed in this guide for authors. Contributions may be in English or French, but contributors are very earnestly urged to use the language in which they can write more effectively. Whatever language is chosen for the article or review, quotes in French or English should be left in the original language: authors writing in English should not translate French quotes; conversely, authors writing in French should not translate English quotes.
4. For all articles and reviews, whether in French or English: all words in italics, including titles, should also be underlined. Quotes should be followed by the page number, in parentheses (add the author’s last name, where necessary). We do not use ibid. or op. cit. Ellipses: in both French and English, we indicate omitted material with three unspaced dots between brackets […]. Ellipses are to be avoided at the beginning and/or at the end of a quote. Reserve this symbol for omitted material within a quote.
5. All contributions must be double-spaced throughout, including endnotes, works cited, block quotations of prose or verse, and headings of book reviews. Use a one-inch margin for both top & bottom and left & right. Leave the right margin unjustified. Do not use the “Track Changes” function. Do not use section or page breaks. Use only one space after a period.
6. Articles and reviews written in French should be prepared in accordance with certain French typographical norms. For instance, endnote numbers and closing quotation marks precede punctuation. An illustration of these rules: “De brèves proses que j’en suis venu à écrire […] ressemblent aussi à des rêves”⁵. However, French Review style differs from French typographical practice by not inserting a space between a word and a subsequent semicolon, colon, question mark, or exclamation mark. In addition, English quotation marks are used, not French guillemets. Please note that these changes will reduce the word count of the article or review.
7. Capitalization of titles in French: only the first word in the title of a work is capitalized (of course, proper nouns are also capitalized). If there is a subtitle, there is no capitalization after the colon. Examples:
   Machines à écrire: littérature et technologies du XIXe au XXIe siècle.L’extrême gauche plurielle: entre démocratie radicale et révolution.La bonne ponctuation: clarté, efficacité et précision de l’écrit.Écrire l’écrivain: formes contemporaines de la vie d’auteur.Un long dimanche de fiançailles.For titles of periodicals and series, the capitalization resembles English usage: Cahiers du Cinéma.
   Accents are included on capital letters in French:Barillé, Élisabeth. À ses pieds. Gallimard, 2006.Brassard, Denise, et Évelyne Gagnon, éd. États de la présence: les lieux d’inscription de la subjectivité dans la poésie québécoise actuelle.XYZ, 2010.Dion, Robert, et Frances Fortier. Écrire l’écrivain: formes contemporaines de la vie d’auteur. PU de Montréal, 2010.
8. Authors of articles and reviews that have been accepted for publication must inform the Managing Editor, Michel Gueldry (managingeditorfr@frenchteachers.org), of any changes to their mailing and/or email address. Authors who fail to do so will not receive page proofs of their text and will thus have no opportunity to revise their text prior to publication.

Guide For Authors: Submitting Articles

9. Send your submitted article as a single file (including Notes and Références / Works Cited) by email attachment to: Carine Bourget, Editor in Chief (editorfr@frenchteachers.org). All files should be in Word .docx format (not .doc).
10. The French Review subscribes to a policy of “anonymous” submissions: Assistant Editors will not know the identity of the author whose article they are asked to evaluate. Therefore, the attached file of the article should not include the author’s name, university affiliation, or any other reference that would identify the author. The author’s email message should provide the title of the article, the author’s name, address, institution, telephone number, and email address.
11. The usual length for articles, including endnotes and works cited, is 5,000 to 7,000 words. All articles must be accompanied by an Abstract of 100 words, maximum, in the same language as the manuscript (the abstract should be in a separate file, also in Word .docx format).
    Most articles will fit into one of the following rubrics:

• État Présent
• Film
• Focus on the Classroom
• Interview
• Linguistics
• Literature
• Professional Issues
• Review-Essay
• Society and Culture

An online rubric is designed for texts that can be used in the classroom at all levels:

• Dossiers pédagogiques

12. Use endnotes, not footnotes. Reference numbers are typed in superscript, outside punctuation marks (use Arabic, not Roman, numerals). However, for articles written in French, endnote numbers (as well as closing quotation marks) precede punctuation. Do not use the automatic endnote function. The Notes should be in normal text, paragraphed and double-spaced, after the last page of the article. The Works Cited (use “Références” if the article is in French) will follow the Notes. The format of the Works Cited should follow MLA style. However, do not include the redundant “Print” or “Web” designations. In the Works Cited, a URL should be in the following format: <https://www.pole-emploi.fr/candidat> (all links should be active and clickable). The place of publication should not be included. Page numbering should be used throughout the article. In general, the use of subheadings should be avoided (especially “Introduction” and “Conclusion”). An author may occasionally wish to acknowledge special assistance, in the formulation of the article, to a colleague or an institution. This should be done sparingly and always as a final endnote to the article.
13. Authors of interviews should use “Q:” and “R:” (in boldface) to indicate questions and answers. They should also provide an introduction to the author and a list of Références / Works Cited. An interview should be a substantive conversation, which deepens our knowledge of the artist and/or his/her work, and which enhances our knowledge of literature or film in general (contemporary novel or cinema, changing trends in fiction/theater/poetry/film, art’s relationship to politics, culture, history, etc.).
14. Authors should never practice multiple submissions, that is, sending the same article to more than one journal at the same time. The French Review has an enviable record of furnishing a prompt answer on submissions. If, after devoting considerable time to a manuscript, the French Review’s editors and consultants learn that it has been accepted elsewhere (or, for that matter, that the author is guilty of plagiarism), we will not entertain a submission from that person again.

Guide For Authors: Reviews of Books, Films, and Teaching Materials

15. Reviewers should contact the appropriate Review Editor before writing a review (Editors). This is necessary in order to check if the work being considered for review meets our editorial guidelines, and if it has not already been assigned to another reviewer.
16. Maximum length of reviews: 500 words (absolute!). The review heading, as well as the reviewer’s name and university affiliation are not included in the word count. For double reviews, the maximum length is 700 words. The French Review does not publish triple reviews. Reviewers who wish to review three books or more in a single text are invited to submit a full-length Review-Essay. The body of the review must be in one single paragraph. There are no extracts (or indented block quotes) in a review, which means that no single quote can be longer than 40 words.
17. The review heading should be double-spaced, with a hanging indent (0.5”). The name(s) of the author(s) should be in small caps. For edited works in French, use the standardized abbreviation éd. to replace such phrases as “Édition établie et annotée par…” or “Sous la direction de…” For edited works in English, use ed. or eds. For names of publishers, omit words such as “Éditions,” “Éditeur,” or “Press.” For university presses, use the standardized abbreviations: UP / PU.
    Examples:

    Crouzet, Michel.Stendhal et l’Amérique: l’Amérique et la modernité. Fallois, 2008. ISBN 978-2-87706-642-6. Pp. 282.

    El Ouadili, Raja.La vierge dans la cité. Guy Saint-Jean, 2009. ISBN 978-2-89455-054-0. Pp. 218.

    Gafaïti, Hafid, Patricia M.E. Lorcin, and David G. Troyansky, eds. Transnational Spaces and Identities in the Francophone World. UP of Nebraska, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8032-4428-8. Pp. xxvi + 460.

    Gallouët, Catherine, David Diop, Michèle Bocquillon,et Gérard Lahouati, éd. L’Afrique du siècle des Lumières: savoirs et représentations. Voltaire Foundation, 2009. ISBN 978-0-7294-0959-9. Pp. 307.

    Gervais, Gaétan, et Jean-Pierre Pichette, éd. Dictionnaire des écrits de l’Ontario français 1613–1993. PU d’Ottawa, 2010. ISBN 978-2-7603-0757-5. Pp. xxxiv + 1097.

    Le Gras, Gwénaëlle. Michel Simon: l’art de la disgrâce. Scope, 2010. ISBN 978-2-912573-52-0. Pp. 128.

    Vessels, Joel E. Drawing France: French Comics and the Republic. UP of Mississippi, 2010. ISBN 978-1-60473-444-7. Pp. 305.

    For a film review, use the following format and list the main actors/actresses (up to four):

    Jeunet, Jean-Pierre, réal. Micmacs à tire-larigot. Int. Dany Boon, André Dussollier, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Yolande Moreau. Epithète, 2009.

18. The reviewer’s contact info and the review’s word count must appear at the top left corner of the first page of the review:
    • Name
    • email
    • word count

    This is the only part of the review that is single-spaced. Everything else should be double-spaced. Leave at least one blank line between this section and the review heading.

19. We do not publish reviews of books whose subject matter lies outside the field of French and Francophone Studies. We do not publish reviews of tourist guides, cookbooks, children’s books, or other publications unrelated to our field. We do not normally review books that are self-published or published by a vanity press. We normally review only works published in their original language, not translations (rare exceptions might be made, for example in the case of bilingual works). We do not normally publish reviews of second editions of a work unless there have been major revisions, but we make an exception for second and later editions of textbooks. We do publish reviews of revised textbooks because our readers have a professional interest in them.
20. Reviewers should take note of the following recommendations: a) A review should not begin with a repetition of the information (title, author, publisher) that is found in the review heading. b) Use quotes sparingly and for illustrative purposes, not for remplissage. Never begin a review with a quote. c) Avoid flattery: praising the author as, for instance, an “eminent scholar” is out of place in an analytical review. Conversely, avoid ad hominem attacks. The tone of the review should remain professional. d) The French Review does not encourage reviews that are simply a chapter-by-chapter description of the text. A review should provide a critical analysis of the work, and of its potential value to its target audience.

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