Submissions

Author Guidelines

Thanatos is a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary, and scientific online journal published twice a year by the Finnish Death Studies Associatian. The journal covers various aspects of death studies through the following types of texts:

– Scientific articles and reviews
– Openings and discussions (including conference reports)
– Dissertations (lectio praecursoria)
– Book reviews

Thanatos aims to promote dialogue between different fields of death studies. Authors should consider the journal's multidisciplinary audience by using clear, general language and avoiding specialized terminology. Any field-specific concepts should be explained for clarity. The decision to publish a text, following peer review and possible revisions, is made by the editorial board.

The journal accepts submissions in Finnish, Swedish, and English. Authors of non-native texts must arrange for proper language proofreading after peer review and are responsible for the associated costs.

Articles and other texts intended for publication should be submitted via the "Submit Manuscript" link (registration required).

TEXT LENGTH, IMAGES AND TABLES

The recommended maximum length for scientific articles is 8,000 words (excluding references). Discussion papers and conference reports should be no more than 2,000 words. Book reviews should be around 1,000 words. Accepted file formats are *.docx, *.doc, and *.rtf.

Text formatting

Please do not use any unnecessary formatting, automatic headings, or page settings in the document. Also, remove any automatic fields or formatting added by referencing software (e.g., Zotero). If in doubt, always contact the editor-in-chief.

The following formats are allowed:

– Font size 12 (Times New Roman)
– Line spacing 1.5
– Italics for interview material and emphasis, bold for headings
– Black text (no colored headings, etc.)
– Automatic footnotes

Long interview or literature quotes should be separated into paragraphs. Interview quotes should be italicized. Footnotes should be placed at the bottom of the page where the reference is mentioned. Use discretion in determining whether footnotes are essential or whether the information should be included in the main text or omitted altogether. Footnotes are numbered consecutively (do not use letters or Roman numerals).

Tables and images

Texts may include tables and images. Authors are responsible for verifying and obtaining publication rights if needed. Image credit information must be included. Any image files should be sent in .jpg or .gif format with a resolution of at least 150. Image and table file sizes must be small enough (max 2000 KB) to avoid slowing down online reading.

Files should be sent as separate attachments, numbered consecutively, and titled according to the subject. Images and tables should be numbered and included in the text as follows:

Figure 1. Caption text. Photo: Photographer/Copyright holder, year.

For example: Figure 1. This picture displays things. Photo: Jane Doe, 2011.

Table 5. Table caption.

For example: Table 5. The results clearly show variation.

REFERENCES

Thanatos uses the Chicago Author-Date citation style.

IN-TEXT CITATION
In-text citations are placed in parentheses. When several references are mentioned, they are marked in chronological order from earliest to latest (Pollan 2006; Ketola 2014). When citing more than two authors, do it like this (Ferreira et al. 2024).

END-TEXT REFERENCES

BOOKS:

One author:

Pollan, Michael. 2006. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin.

Two or more authors:

Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. 2007. The War: An Intimate History, 1941–1945. New York: Knopf.

Four or more authors:

Burdick, Anne, Johanna Drucker, Peter Lunenfeld, Todd Presner, and Jeffrey Schnapp. 2012. Digital_Humanities. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Publisher's country, state or province is only provided for specific cases (e.g., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).

Chapter or section in an edited collection:

Kelly, John D. 2010. “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Americana, and the Moral Economy of War.” In Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency, edited by John D. Kelly, Beatrice Jauregui, Sean T. Mitchell, and Jeremy Walton, 67–83. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Preface, introduction, or another section of a book:

Rieger, James. 1982. Introduction to Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, xi–xxxvii. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

E-book:

Austen, Jane. 2007. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Penguin Classics. Kindle edition.

Kurland, Philip B., and Ralph Lerner, eds. 1987. The Founders’ Constitution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Accessed February 28, 2010. http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/.

ARTICLES:

Printed journal article:

Weinstein, Joshua I. 2009. “The Market in Plato’s Republic.” Classical Philology 104, no. 4 (October): 439–58.

Online journal article:

Add the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) as a URL (https://), if available, or use the article's URL. Include the date you accessed the online journal.

Kossinets, Gueorgi, and Duncan J. Watts. 2009. “Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social Network.” American Journal of Sociology 115 (2): 405–50. Accessed February 28, 2010. https://www.doi.org/10.1086/599247.

Article in a newspaper or magazine (printed or electornic):

Mendelsohn, Daniel. 2010. “But Enough about Me.” New Yorker, January 25, 2010.

Stolberg, Sheryl Gay, and Robert Pear. 2010. “Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care Vote.” New York Times, February 27, 2010. Accessed February 28, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/politics/28health.html.

OTHER:

Book review:

Kamp, David. 2006. “Deconstructing Dinner.” Review of The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan. New York Times, April 23, 2006, Sunday Book Review. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/books/review/23kamp.html.

Dissertation or other thesis:

Choi, Mihwa. 2008. “Contesting Imaginaires in Death Rituals during the Northern Song Dynasty.” PhD diss., University of Chicago.

Note! An exception is theses and dissertations published as books through a publisher, in which case the book citation format is used.

Conference and seminar presentations:

Adelman, Rachel. 2009. “ ‘Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On’: God’s Footstool in the Aramaic Targumim and Midrashic Tradition.” Paper presented at the annual meeting for the Society of Biblical Literature, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 21–24, 2009.

Website:

Bouman, Katie. 2016. “How to Take a Picture of a Black Hole.” Filmed November 2016 at TEDxBeaconStreet, Brookline, MA. Video, 12:51. https://www.ted.com/talks/katie_bouman_what_does_a_black_hole_look_like.

Google. 2017. “Privacy Policy.” Privacy & Terms. Last modified April 17, 2017. https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

Yale University. n.d. “About Yale: Yale Facts.” Accessed May 1, 2017. https://www.yale.edu/about-yale/yale-facts.

Blog post or comment:

Jack, February 25, 2010 (7:03 p.m.), comment on Richard Posner, “Double Exports in Five Years?,” The Becker-Posner Blog, February 21, 2010, http://uchicagolaw.typepad.com/beckerposner/2010/02/double-exports-in-five-years-posner.html.

ANONYMIZATION AND COVER SHEET INFORMATION:

Authors are responsible for anonymizing manuscripts for peer review (text, citations, reference list).

To ensure anonymity, the manuscript should be edited so that neither the file nor the text or references reveal the author. Any references to the author's work must be formatted in a way that does not disclose their identity. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, these references can be restored.

Additionally, the Word document must be anonymized so that the author’s name does not appear in the document metadata.

Instructions for anonymization:

• Open the saved Word document.
• In the original document, select the "File" tab, then choose "Info."
• Select "Check for Issues" and then choose "Inspect Document."
• In the "Document Inspection" dialog box, check the boxes for the types of hidden content you want to inspect. At this point, it's recommended to check all the boxes, but the most important one is "Document Properties and Personal Information."
• Select "Inspect."
• Review the inspection results in the "Document Inspection" dialog box.
• Remove the desired hidden content by selecting "Remove All" next to each content type. It's especially important to remove document properties and personal information.

COVER SHEET INFORMATION:

The following author details should be included on a separate cover sheet:

• Author’s name and academic title or professional designation
• University or work affiliation
• Phone number and/or email address (the phone number will not be published)
• A short, free-form description of the author in a few sentences (research area or professional field, ongoing projects, recent publications, and research interests, etc.)
• A 150-200 word abstract in the main language of the article (Finnish, Swedish, or English; language check required, author covers costs)
• In addition to the Finnish or Swedish abstract, an optional English summary (about 500 words) can be added at the end of the article.