LENGTH: The journal welcomes articles of varied lengths, from brief notes (500 to 1000 words, with one to three illustrations) to complete catalogues raisonnés (with up to one hundred illustrations). The average length is between 2,500 and 3,750 words, with five to twenty illustrations. Reviews should be about 1,750 words, with one to three illustrations. Letters to the Editor should be no longer than one page. Exceptions are made, in all instances, at the discretion of the editors.

LANGUAGE: All material is published in English. Translations can be arranged by the journal, but the cost may be deducted from the honorarium. For foreign quotations in English texts, provide a translation in parentheses or in an endnote.

SUBMISSION: Please submit texts in electronic form, in Microsoft Word or RTF (Rich Text Format), either by email (administrator@masterdrawings.org) or on a CD/DVD by post (The Editor, Master Drawings Association, 225 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016-3405). Four sets of photocopies of the text and accompanying illustrations (with separate caption list) should also be sent by post. This will be forwarded to the Editor and other readers for review.

REVIEW PROCESS: Manuscripts are assessed by a team of readers, including members of the Editorial Board, the Editorial Advisory Board, and/or other scholars. Since most readers have other professional commitments, this process can take from six to twelve months, and authors are asked to be patient. Articles are typically published within a year of acceptance.

ILLUSTRATIONS: Once an article has been accepted for publication, the author will be asked to submit original illustrative material. Illustrations should be supplied as high-resolution digital files on a CD (scanned at no less than 300 dpi, ideally from the original work of art and not from a book), color transparencies, or high-quality black-and-white photographs, color transparencies. It is essential that digital images be accompanied by accurate color print-outs that can be color matched by the printer on press. Authors are responsible for obtaining illustrations and reproduction permissions from the copyright holders.

EDITING PROCESS: The Editor will send an edited version of the text to the author by e-mail for approval, either in the form of a Word document and later as a Adobe Reader file, showing the page layout with illustrations and captions in place, or—if a deadline is looming—as an Adobe Reader file only.

COMPENSATION: Each author will receive one copy of the journal, fifteen offprints, and a modest honorarium. Original illustrative material will be returned to the author with the offprints.

STYLE GUIDELINES: Master Drawings follows the Chicago Manual of Style in most matters of style. In addition, please follow these guidelines when writing your article or review.

  • Leave one space, not two, between the period at the end of a sentence and the next sentence.
  • Please provide dates for all artists and collectors mentioned in the text, checklist(s), or footnotes.
  • For the spelling of artists’ names, institutional names, and so forth, see the Master Drawings cumulative index (available online) and the Grove Dictionary of Art (the source used for life dates unless proved incorrect).
  • For the styling of checklists or appendices, please refer to
    those published for Thomas Gainsborough in vol. 46, no. 4 (Winter 2008) or Gaspard Dughet in vol. 47, no. 3 (Fall 2009).
  • Please include a one-sentence biographical statement at the end of your text with your professional affiliation or academic focus.
  • Italicize rather than underline book titles, titles of drawings, foreign words, and so forth.
  • “Embed” endnotes rather than submitting them as a separate document.
  • In general, for works of art illustrated or discussed in the text, cite the artist’s name, the title of the work, and the collection in the main text. The endnote should include inventory number (if in a public collection), media, dimensions, and a published reference or reproduction (stating whether it is in color). For example:
    [SENTENCE IN TEXT]
    ...The fourth new drawing by Willem van Herp in the Louvre, Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem (Fig. 21),41 can also be linked to several paintings by the artist....
    [ENDNOTE]
    41. Inv. no. 21787. Oil, with pen and brown ink, on brown paper; 227 x 298 mm; see Frits Lugt, Musée du Louvre. Inventaire général des dessins des écoles du nord: École flamande, 2 vols., Paris, 1949, vol. 2, no. 1561 (as anonymous seventeenth-century Flemish), repr. (in color).
  • The support of a drawing should be mentioned only if it is NOT white or off-white paper (e.g., tracing paper, blue paper, pink prepared paper, vellum, and so forth). Inscriptions, watermarks, and provenance details may be noted if relevant to the discussion. In general, the condition of the sheet and other conservation details should not be included.
  • For reviews, provide full publication details and price after the heading, for example:
    [BOOK]
    Per Bjurström, Nicola Pio as a Collector of Drawings
    Stockholm: Suecoromana II, 1995. ISBN: 917042151x (hc). 292 pp., 250 illus., of which 24 in color. 75 Euros
    [EXHIBITION CATALOGUE]
    Correggio and Parmigianino: Master Draftsmen of the Renaissance
    Exhibition catalogue by Carmen C. Bambach, Hugo Chapman, Martin Clayton, and George R. Goldner, 2000 (British Museum, London). ISBN: 0714126284 (hc). 192 pp., 190 illus., of which 150 in color. $59.00
  • Include a full list of captions for illustrations:
    Figure 21
    Here attributed to WILLEM VAN HERP
    Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem
    Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts Graphiques
  • Bibliographical sources should be cited in full in endnotes on the first occurrence:
    [BOOK]
    Elizabeth Johns, American Genre Painting: The Politics of Everyday Life, New Haven, 1991.
    [EXHIBITION CATALOGUE]
    William W. Robinson, with an essay by Martin Royalton-Kisch, Bruegel to Rembrandt: Dutch and Flemish Drawings from the Maida and George Abrams Collection, exh. cat., Cambridge, MA, Fogg Art Museum, and elsewhere, 2002–3, no. 24, repr. (in color).
    [JOURNAL ARTICLE]
    Eric Shanes, “Turner and the Creation of his ‘First-Rate’ in a Few Hours: A Kind of Frenzy?” Apollo, 153, no. 1589, 2001, pp. 13–15.
  • For subsequent citations, use the author-date/place-date style.
    Examples:
    Johns 1991.
    Cambridge, MA, and elsewhere 2002–3, p. 72, fig. 1.
    Shanes 2001, p. 14.