A Unified Style Sheet for Linguistics Journals

At the LSA in 2003, a group of linguistics journal editors began an ongoing set of meetings to discuss shared concerns. Prominent in those discussions has been our lack of a unified style sheet, parallel to what the American Psychological Association or the Modern Language Association have for their fields. Over the last two or so years, some of us have worked to establish a consensus style sheet for references. We are now posting the results of that effort here on the Linguistic Society of America website and we are grateful to the LSA, through the action of its Executive Committee, for its endorsement of our efforts. (It is also available from us directly and on the LINGUIST list, at http://linguistlist.org/pubs/tocs/index.html.)

This style has been worked out in consultation with a broad range of editors, and it reflects broad, though not universal consensus. Most importantly, we see this as a step in an ongoing process: Some journals will adopt this sheet in toto, others will adopt it on most points, but define certain differences, reflecting the norms of a subfield or language-specific tradition.

This style sheet initiative is one project undertaken by the Linguistic Journal Editors' group that has been meeting regularly at the LSA meetings and keeps in touch via an e-mail listserv maintained at Ohio State University by Brian Joseph; all interested editors of linguistics journals are welcome to join us at the LSA meetings or to contact Brian ([email protected]) about being enrolled on the listserv.

— Brian Joseph, Keren Rice, Joe Salmons

Download the Unified Style Sheet (PDF)