Open Semiotics
Editorial guidelines
1. All documents must be in Microsoft Word.
2. Maximum length: 35 000 characters (spaces and references included) = about 5000 words.
For the chapters focusing exclusively on theory and suggesting a new approach, it can be up to
45 000 characters.
3. Name of the author, his/her university affiliation and country below the title of the chapter.
4. Each text should have at least 4 sections (two of them should be the introduction and the
conclusion, although these can be assigned different names, e.g., “to finish”, “perspectives”,
etc.). All section titles should be numbered, and written in bold font.
5. Quotations:
– Short quotations should not be separated from the main text as block quotations, but must be
in quotation marks.
– Long quotations (more than 3 lines) must be separated from the main text as block
quotations.
– The exact reference should follow all the quotations.
6. References in the text (always after the quotation and not before):
– As written by Greimas, “QUOTATION” (1983: 146).
– “QUOTATION” (Greimas, 1983: 146).
7. References at the end of the chapter:
7.1. Book:
Morris, Charles (1946). Signs, Language and Behavior. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Perron, Paul; Sbrocchi, Leonard G.; Colilli, Paul; Danesi, Marcel (eds.) (2000). Semiotics
as a Bridge Between the Humanities and the Sciences. Ottawa, Toronto, New York:
Legas.
7.2. Article in a collective book:
Thompson Klein, Julie (2000). “Voices of Royaumont”. In Margaret A. Somerville and David
J. Rapport (eds.). Transdisciplinarity: Recreating Integrated Knowledge. Advances in
Sustainable Development. Oxford: EOLSS Publishers, pp. 3-15.
7.3. Article in a journal:
Prodi, Giorgio (1988). “The Material Bases of Signification”. Semiotica 69, 3-4, pp. 191-241.
7.4. First date:
For all the cases, both inside the text and in the bibliography, if the reference is a translation, or
not the first edition, the date of the first publication should be mentioned between the brackets.
E.g., (2015 [1990]).
7.5. The titles:
The titles of books and articles should be capitalized, with the first letter of each significant
word in uppercase (As is the case with the titles mentioned above).
8. Figures and tables:
Figures and tables should be kept to a minimum and used only when necessary. They should
be in JPG format and inserted within the Word document at the preferred location (which may
be slightly adjusted by the layout designer). Their background should be plain white, and bold
text should not be used. Only “Times New Roman” should be used. All figures and tables
should be numbered and accompanied by a concise caption. The caption should be placed below
the figure or table, outside the JPG.
9. Abstract and keywords:
Chapters must be preceded by an abstract. The abstract should clearly highlight the aims of
the paper, its major conclusions, and its relation to the theme of “open semiotics”. The length
should be exactly between 450 and 500 characters (spaces included).
* Note: The use of bold or underlined fonts is not permitted (except for section titles, which
should be in bold). / Any element not addressed here – such as page margins – is the
responsibility of the editor.