The Astrological Journal

Writer's Guidelines for Article Submission

The Astrological Journal publishes articles of general and specific interest to all serious astrologers. It is issued bimonthly and is sent free to all members and sold in specialist shops. Contributions to the Astrological Journal are very welcome.

Material submitted must be in PC format and preferably emailed to the Editor. Articles should be submitted in .doc or .rtf format. Articles should be no longer than 4000 words. Longer articles may be considered but please email first giving us an outline of the article. Include graphical horoscopes and data sources with your copy, not just data (see below). If you include charts please include time, date, place, house system used, chart source, and position of ASC, MC, Sun, and Moon (this is a safeguard against mistakes).

Any diagrams required for the text should be sent separately and not included as part of the text. All graphical content should be of 300dpi resolution and in .jpg, or .tiff format. Please also include a short biography of no more than 100 words and a recent photo of yourself if you would like this to accompany the article. Please keep the formatting to a minimum, as we shall change letter size, etc. depending on the layout. No indents, please use line breaks between paragraphs. Endnotes and quotations should be numbered consecutively throughout the article.

They should not appear at the foot of each page but should be typed separately from the text at the end of the article. As far as possible they should be restricted to references.

The Editor will notify authors as soon as possible of the acceptability of their submissions but will not enter into correspondence about those considered unsuitable. Acceptance or rejection is based entirely upon our perception of content, quality, how well the article fits the Journal, and its appeal to our readers. Articles are not accepted for many reasons. No fee is paid for accepted articles.

Copyright of signed articles and correspondence remains with the author except that the Astrological Association retains the right to republish the material in full, once, without further permission from the author. The Editor reserves the right to amend, cut or otherwise make editorial decisions in line with normal journalistic practice. The Editor’s decision is final.

A note on data sources and accuracy

For professional standards, it is vital that data presented to the astrological community be as accurate and fully sourced as possible. We would also like data presented to the Journal by writers to incorporate this method. It is always nice to see credit given to the astrologer who has collected the data, too. Be suspicious of any data from Internet sites that do not document their data sources. It is recommended that all data are classified using the simple Rodden Rating system:

AA
 Data from birth certificate (BC), hospital or governmental birth record (BR), notes from the Vital Statistics/Registries, notations in a family bible, baby book or family written record. Although birth times may be rounded off or, on occasion, information may be in error, this is the best evidence of data accuracy available.
A
 Data from the person, family member, friend or associate. Also included are newspaper birth announcements and times given within a ‘window of time’ of thirty minutes (e.g. ‘between 3.30pm and 4.00pm’).
B
 Data from biographies and autobiographies where no other source is given.
C
 Caution, data not validated. No source; vague, rectified/speculative data, ‘personal’ ambiguous sources, approximate birth times (e.g. ‘early morning’, ‘around lunchtime’).
DD
 Dirty data. Two or more unsubstantiated quotes of time, place or date. Any unverified data that are contradicted by another source.
X
 Data with no time of birth
XX
 Data without a known or confirmed date

If you have further questions, feel free to contact us by e-mail