Editorial Policies and Copyright

1. Editorial Policies

The publication is overseen by an Editor-in-Chief (currently Robert Clark, one of the Founding Editors) who focuses on editorial and commercial strategy, and a Managing Editor (currently Cristina Sandru) who deals with all day-to-day matters. They are advised by an elected Policy Committee. They also report annually to shareholders on financial matters, and regularly consult with them via email circulars and personal correspondence.

• Editorial decisions concerning the Encyclopedia, including decisions concerning its content, format and distribution, are made by the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the Managing Editor and the Policy Committee, and the members of the Editorial Board.
• The Literary Encyclopedia is divided into Parts, Volumes and Chapters. Parts are usually defined by country and may be subdivided into Volumes devoted to historical periods. Volumes may include Chapters devoted to particularly prominent authors, major genres, or to special topics.
• Volumes are edited by small groups of scholars who between them have the necessary generic expertise. Depending on the size of the Volume, Volume Editors will either commission directly from individual contributors or appoint Chapter Editors to develop coverage of named Chapters on individual authors, or in some cases on specific genres.
• Whilst there is a hierarchy of status in this structure, all who work in an editorial capacity in one Part are encouraged to see themselves as a collective Editorial Team for the whole Part (e.g. all of French literature; all of English literature etc. form a Part). It is an aim of the publication to enhance co-operative working between scholars and thus create on-going communities which will take ownership of and responsibility for the publication.
• All articles published in the Encyclopedia carry a prominent indication of the volume number and title to which they belong, with the names of current and former editors. By clicking on the volume number, readers can see all articles and stubs included in that volume.
• Editors accomplish nearly all commissioning and publication through an online Editorial Desk devoted to the Volume (a particular Editorial Desk can also serve several volumes if this is deemed more practical). This way of working minimizes the time spent editing and publishing contributions.
• Contributions to the Encyclopedia are usually solicited by invitation from a member of the Editorial Board. However, qualified potential contributors may send to the Managing Editor or an appropriate member of the Editorial Board a proposal to write on an Encyclopedia topic. This proposal should be accompanied by a curriculum vitae.
  • By qualified, we mean those persons with accredited PhDs in Literature (or a related discipline) who have published refereed works on the topic of the proposed entry. By refereed works we mean either articles in respected, peer-reviewed journals or books which have been published by respected publishing houses and which have undergone the usual peer review process prior to publication.
  • In order to support and encourage early-career researchers and young scholars, the Encyclopedia will accept contributions from highly-recommended PhD students in the final years of their research, provided they pass the usual reviewing process. Prior to commissioning an article proposed by such a young scholar, editors are advised to solicit an additional writing sample to accompany their CV (part of a thesis chapter, a published article or conference paper etc.).
  • By Encyclopedia topic, we mean an author (literary writer or person of cultural authority in other fields of human endeavour – philosophers, historians, scientists, artists, major political figures etc.), written work by an above-described ‘author’, or contextual article on a variety of literary and cultural matters (for more details, see the relevant section under ‘Information for Authors’) (1) either already listed in the Encyclopedia as a stub (lacking an article) or (2) not yet listed, but that can be legitimately seen to belong in any of Encyclopedia’s volumes.

  The members of the Editorial Board reserve the right to compare the qualifications of any person submitting an unsolicited request with those of other potential authors who would be qualified to write the entry in question.

• All entries, whether solicited or approved, will be reviewed by one or more of the subject editors on our Editorial Board, or by one or more external referees (where we do not currently have specialist editorial supervision). Authors are expected to engage any constructive criticisms they receive during the editing process, prior to publication. Authors should note, however, that no matter whether they have been invited or approved by one of these subject editors, our goal of producing a high-quality reference work will occasionally mean that some submitted entries may not be accepted for publication.
• Readers of the Encyclopedia are encouraged to contact the Encyclopedia with comments, corrections, and other suggestions for improvements.
• Because the Literary Encyclopedia is designed to be a dynamic reference work, authors are responsible for maintaining and periodically updating their entries. Specifically, authors are expected to: 1. update their entries regularly, especially in response to important new research on the topic of the entry, and 2. revise their entries in light of any valid criticism they receive, whether it comes from the subject editors on our Editorial Board, other members of the profession, or interested readers. In connection with 1, authors should update the Recommended Readings and the Web Resources sections of their entries regularly, to keep pace with significant new publications, both in print and online. In the case of contemporary authors, editors should be alerted to any new title published by the author, so that it is included in the database. Likewise, if an author has deceased, the editors need to be informed of this matter, and the author profile revised accordingly. If important new publications affect the currency of the main text, then the main text should be altered so as to reflect the important ideas in the new research. The length of time required for a “timely” revision will be negotiable and will both respect the author's current commitments and reflect how seriously the piece fails to accommodate new research or the seriousness of any valid criticism. Articles which require revision but whose authors do not respond to our requests for revising their articles, or decline such revision, may be withdrawn from the Encyclopedia at the discretion of the Editorial Board and recommissioned.
• The views expressed by the authors in their entries are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Literary Encyclopedia, the Encyclopedia's Editors or of anyone else associated with the Encyclopedia.

2. Copyright Policies

The Contributor undertakes to provide Article(s) that are of their own authoring and are not subject to any copyright claim by any other publisher. The Contributor warrants that the Contributor is the sole proprietor and owner of all rights in and to the Article and that the Article has not previously been published in the form offered to the Encyclopedia. The Contributor transfers to The Literary Dictionary Company Limited the sole and exclusive right to publish and sell the Article in all media in all countries and in all languages for as long as The Literary Dictionary Company shall exist.

We are happy for authors to reuse parts of their essays published first on our site under these conditions:

1. they are not published in a competing electronic database
2. they do not reproduce the exact form of words in the essay and do not reproduce the article in its entirety
3. acknowledge an initial publication of the article or parts thereof by The Literary Encyclopedia, with proper citation of the online version we have published

We prefer that articles submitted for publication to The Literary Encyclopedia contain new material that has not been published elsewhere. In our reference articles (profiles of authors and works), we accept a certain degree of overlap with authors' previously published research, and are happy to acknowledge first publication of specific portions of an article in a printed venue (whether journal article, book chapter or reference entry); however, we will not re-publish a previously published article to which no new material has been added or substantial content adjustments made.

Contributors can include their essays published in the LE in teaching compendia, course-handbooks and other pedagogical resources they wish to use with their students (with due acknowledgement of first publication). The publisher's pdf version can be used in such cases.

3. Self-Archiving Details

Since we are a not-for-profit publisher, operating without the backing of large corporate resources, we cannot offer open access to our published articles at this time. All our revenues are generated from institutional and personal subscriptions (which, after all publishing, maintenance and development costs are covered, are disbursed as royalties paid to our editors and contributing authors), so if the articles published in the LE are freely reproduced elsewhere on the internet, such subscriptions will – in due course – be rendered nugatory.

All of our contributors have the right to deposit their work produced for The Literary Encyclopedia in a restricted-access institutional repository, with due acknowledgement, while we retain copyright. We ask our contributing authors to refrain from posting the articles submitted to the LE elsewhere on the internet for a period of at least 12 months from the date of original publication. Contributors are encouraged to list their LE publication on their CVs and publication lists, and provide the link to the published version of their article.

Exception: contributing authors can use the pdf version of their article(s) published in the LE freely in their teaching activities (see section on copyright above; this permission includes teaching platforms such as Blackboard or Moodle).

After 12 months, our contributors can post the accepted final version of the article (the version that has gone through editorial review and was accepted for publication in the LE, but not the version created by the Publisher, with its specific content and layout, i.e. the pdf version downloadable from the website) on their departmental or personal website, in their publicly-accessible institutional repository, or on other professional websites such as academia.edu. Publisher copyright and source must be acknowledged, and a link must be provided to the online published version.

4. How to Cite the LE

To cite the Literary Encyclopedia, we recommend the following bibliographic format, which you may need to adapt to meet the style requirements of the publication for which you are writing. Each entry displays clearly the citation information at the bottom of the published article. For example, the citation information page for Linda Morra’s entry on Michel Tremblay will show you a citation of the following form:

Morra, Linda. "Michel Tremblay". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 July 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5296, accessed 05 August 2015.]

If an article was originally published, and then revised at a later date, the citation information will show both authors (the author of the original article and the revising author), and the two dates (the original date of publication and the revision date). You can modify the format of the citation to conform to the style requirements of the publication for which you are using the citation.

Todd, Richard, Nicolas Tredell. "Martin Amis". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 November 2002; last revised 24 June 2012. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5097, accessed 05 August 2015.]

If you require other kinds of bibliographic information, you may find the following facts helpful.

• Title: The Literary Encyclopedia
• Founding Editor: Robert Clark
• World Wide Web URL: https://www.litencyc.com
• Publisher:
  The Literary Dictionary Company Registered Office: 242/ 242a Farnham Road Slough SL1 4XE
• International Standard Serial Number: ISSN 1747-678X

If you have any further questions, please contact the LE.