Articlo
Format a manuscript

Institute for Balkan Studies SASA

Prepare your manuscript for Balcanica.

Review the checklist, choose your article type, and turn your draft into a cleaner submission package.

Checked 2026-07-30
Check readiness freePrepare this manuscript

Article types

Review
Letter

Readiness requirements

Review the key details below, or download the complete checklist with every stored source-backed requirement.

Abstract length

  • Provide an author-written abstract of no more than 300 words.
  • All articles should contain a concise abstract (no more than 300 words).
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  • The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions.
  • An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone.

Keywords

  • Include or confirm the keywords required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Reference style

  • Articlo formats your supplied references to the journal's stored style and checks that citations match the reference list; source validity is not verified.
  • Do not use numbering when putting bibliography units, only write the bibliography and format it as: 1.5 line spacing and special - hanging by 1.27 cm.
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  • Acknowledgements should be placed in a separate section at the end of the article - before bibliography.
  • References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary.
  • In the notes, the title will usually come first (as in the examples above); in a bibliography entry, the source should be listed under the owner or sponsor of the site.
  • References to volumes in major collections of inscriptions should follow abbreviations in Guide de l’Épigraphiste.
  • Balcanica does not require that you provide the full page range for articles in journals or collected monographs – only the page references relevant to the footnote are required.
  • Personal communication Personal communications, including email and text messages and direct messages sent through social media, are usually cited in the text or in a note only; they should not be included in a bibliography.
  • As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines: Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • IMPORTANT: All references in cyrillic have to be in English or in Latin Serbian at least as a translation in addition to those existing in the original languages.

Figure and table rules

  • Keep every figure and table numbered, captioned, and cited in the manuscript. Keep figures embedded; Articlo also extracts numbered source files for the package.
  • Group figures at the end of the manuscript.
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  • Group tables at the end of the manuscript.
  • Maximal width of tables should be 12 cm.
  • Figures should be submitted as separate, consecutively numbered, source files in.tiff,.jpg or.psd formats.
  • Provide a list of captions for all illustrations and photographs.
  • Tables should be numbered and identified by number and by title.
  • Tables should be submitted as editable text and not as images.
  • As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines: The text is 1.5-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • Do not place images in Word file, but only indicate the placement of each illustration [Fig. 1 - about here].

Blinded manuscript

  • Remove author names, affiliations, acknowledgements, and other direct identifiers from the blinded manuscript file.
  • As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines: Authors should remove all identifying features from the article text to ensure that Authors' identity is not revealed.

Title page and author information

  • ORCID numbers for all authors and co-authors should be added to the author data upon submission and will be published alongside the submitted paper, should it be accepted.
  • As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines: We require all corresponding authors to identify themselves using ORCID when submitting a manuscript to this journal.

Preprints and prior publication

  • Include or confirm the preprints and prior publication required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Other submission requirements

  • Articles should not exceed 10000 words including notes.
  • The text should be typed in Times New Roman 12-point font, with 1.5 line spacing and no paragraph spacing.
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  • The resolution of files should be at least 300 dpi and 600 dpi for line drawings.
  • Authors should cite their own works in a manner that does not make their identity explicit.
  • Texts should be grammatically correct and in good literary style.
  • Texts should be submitted in Microsoft Word or Rich Text format - RTF.
  • Dates should be written in the following format: 20 December 1916.
  • Greek text should be written only in a Unicode font.
  • Letter: Spiritus and accents should be integrated in the letter to which they belong.
  • Do not use tabs.
  • Use space key only to separate words.
  • New paragraphs should be indented.
  • Numbers from zero to ninety-nine, century numbers (e.g. nineteenth century), round numbers such as one hundred or one thousand, fractions and numbers that begin a sentence should be spelled out.
  • Use Arabic numerals for volume numbers.
  • Submission Preparation Checklist As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines: The submission file is in Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format.
  • As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines: The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
  • Remove personal information from MS Word files.
  • IMPORTANT: Monographs within a series – no need to note series.
  • Do not place images in Word file, but only indicate the placement of the photo.
  • Keep the formatting as simple as possible.

Authorship and originality

  • As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines: Any submission must be the original work of the author that has not been published previously, as a whole or in part, either in print or electronically, or is soon to be so published.

Manuscript structure

  • IMPORTANT: Footnotes should be typed in Times New Roman, 10-point font, single spaced, justified alignment.
  • Authors whose papers result from projects should specify the title and grant number of the project in a footnote connected to the paper title.
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  • Do not include them in the text of the article, as a footnote or otherwise.
  • Review: Review articles: Author’s email and academic institution, consisting of department, institution, city, and country should be written in a footnote after the authors name, with a * symbol.

Language and text style

  • Use italic type for: titles of books, poems, plays and periodicals.
  • Use italic type for: technical terms or phrases in languages other than English (but not for quotations or complete sentences).
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  • IMPORTANT: English book and article titles should be in full title caps (lower case only for conjunctions, prepositions and articles).
  • Authors should follow a standard list of abbreviations for authors and their works available in the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD).
  • Use italic type for: for the following abbreviations: (anno), cap., c. (circa), ibid., idem, passim, viz.
  • Do not italicize Latin words found in standard English dictionaries.

Author contributions

  • Cite the full source and acknowledge credit.
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What your package checks

Abstract: 300 words
Paper: 10,000 words

Source transparency

This preparation guide uses published journal-specific author requirements. Journal instructions can change, so authors should complete a final review before submission.

Open official guideline source