Editorial guidelines

General style
  • Intellectually substantive
    Whether short or long, all of our content aims to be analytically incisive, going to the depths of its topic. We do not require a timely current affairs, journalistic, or policy hook, prioritising philosophical, literary and cultural works which aspire to stand the test of time.
  • Academically rigorous
    Synkrētic's writers and readers include but are not exhausted by professional academic philosophers. Writers do not need academic qualifications or faculty positions to write for us. Their work is assessed  on merit in our non peer-review but stringent editorial process.
  • But above all, clear
    We highly value clearly written prose. Ideas rarely need to be expressed in the turgid prose and technical dialects that can envelop them in academic philosophy. Synkrētic is not a magazine for popularising complex ideas, but a substantive journal committed to their de-jargonisation.
Referencing style
  • End notes
    In-text references are to be provided in end notes and not in Footnotes. Please number them ¹ ² ³ ⁴ etc.
    Formatting
    Please spell out journal issues in full in the format Vol. X, No. Y, using the following end note styling conventions:
    ¹ Susan Satterfield, 'Livy and the Pax Deum', in Classical Philology, Vol. 111, No. 2 (Apr. 2016): 170.
    Commentary
    Substantive discussion should generally be in the body of the text and embedded in end notes sparingly. New translations may warrant a detailed End Note apparatus.
    Bibliography
    Bibliographies are not required due to space constraints.
    Style guide
    Our in-house style guide is generally based on The Chicago Manual of Style, with some exceptions.
House style
  • Australian English
    In most cases, the journal is in Australian English. Major exceptions include the following: skeptic, skepticism.
  • Ligature (æ)
    Words that used to be spelled with æ will be so spelled. This list includes but is not limited to the following:

    æsthetics
    archæology
    formulæ
    Græco-Roman
    Isræl
    Isrælites
    Judæo-Christian
    mediæval
  • Foreign words
    Technical or uncommon non-English words will be italicised and should be defined in text or in brackets.

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