Preparing Your Submission

The Getty Research Journal publishes full-length articles (approximately 5,000–7,500 words and 8–12 illustrations) and shorter notices highlighting early-stage research as well as recent acquisitions or discoveries (approximately 1,500–5,000 words and 3–7 illustrations); these limits are in keeping with the journal’s open-access format and the reading experience online. All word counts include endnotes.

All materials must be sent through Scholastica. For guidance on submitting through the Scholastica portal, click here.

Complete submission checklist:

• Article text with endnotes (in Microsoft Word)
• Abstract (no more than 150 words)
• List of captions
• Study versions of all illustrations (collated into a single document or uploaded as separate figure files)

Low-resolution or study images are sufficient at the time of submission; upon acceptance, the author must submit publication-quality images and permission to reproduce them.

Anonymize your documents before submission, including all file names and metadata. Because the Getty Research Journal uses a double-anonymous review process, articles must not contain any first-person references or information that might identify the author to a reviewer. If your submission includes any reference to identifiable personal details, it will be sent back to you for revision before consideration by the editors. Do not post a preacceptance version of your work online (e.g., Academia.edu) or use a manuscript title that can be easily linked to other work listed or available online (e.g., a thesis title searchable in a ProQuest database), as it could compromise the confidentiality of the peer-review process and delay or prevent a decision. Do not provide acknowledgments at the time of submission. If an article is accepted, the author will have an opportunity to add these details.

If your article merits a special kind of review (e.g., single anonymous), please describe this in the “Comments to Editor” section of the submission form.

Brief Checklist for Anonymizing Your Submission:

• Check all file names for identifiable details, especially your last name, initials, and institutional affiliations
• Check your file metadata, e.g., in Word or Adobe Reader/Acrobat, examine document properties for usernames that provide personal details
• Ensure you have not posted a preacceptance version of your work online (e.g., Academia.edu)
• Confirm that your manuscript title cannot be easily linked to other work by you listed or available online (e.g., a thesis title searchable in a ProQuest database)
• Remove any acknowledgments at the time of submission

Author Responsibility for Original Work
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of all information, including dates, citations, or material generated by an AI (artificial intelligence) tool, which should be verified before the manuscript is submitted. All quotations in the text and endnotes must be free of error.

If you have any questions about the use of AI in your work, please refer to Journal Policies and/or contact the GRJ Editorial Office.

To preserve the integrity of scholarship published in the journal, the journal uses Similarity Check, a plagiarism-detection software integrated into Scholastica’s submission management system, to assess the originality of submitted manuscripts. Editors evaluate the nature and degree of text overlap or similarity to determine whether any kind of potential plagiarism—including self-plagiarism—has occurred. Although the journal conducts this procedure, original authorship and any violations of academic integrity are the responsibility of the contributor.

Note for Repeat Authors: Authors are permitted to publish a maximum of two times with the journal over a period of six years. An exception may be made for content in special issues or collaboratively authored pieces.

Formatting An Accepted Manuscript

Prepare all text in Microsoft Word using embedded endnotes. For non-Latin scripts (Greek, Hebrew, Arabic), use a Unicode font. Endnotes should be numbered sequentially in the text with superscript numbers placed after the punctuation at the end of a sentence.

The Getty Research Journal follows the Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition. For sample citations, see the Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide.

Italics should be used for titles of books and periodicals, and terms or short phrases in a language other than English. If a word appears in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition, it does not require italics.

Give institution names in original language: “Musée du Louvre” not “Louvre Museum.”

Follow US English spelling (medieval, not mediaeval; facade, not façade).

Quotations and Source Citations

Authors must be vigilant about citing works consulted for their research, including works that are influential to an author’s text but not quoted. Ensure citation to earlier versions of your own work to avoid self-plagiarism, and write clearly to avoid unwanted ambiguity around attribution when introducing and quoting from sources.

Information obtained through private discourse (live or electronic) must not be published without express written permission from the source. Authors are also expected to keep documentation of cited personal correspondence or other unpublished work and records of permission to reproduce it.

In the main text, quotations in languages other than English should be given in English translation or paraphrased. Every quotation translated into English must be properly attributed to a translator and/or translated edition; in the case of quoted material that has already been published in translation, you must rely on the published version of the quote. If the translation of unpublished material is by you, attribute relevant instances with the phrase “translation by the present author.”

Give facts of publication for each source cited in your endnotes (publisher’s name, date of publication) and spell out an author’s first name; do not use an initial unless the author is commonly known by initials, e.g., T. S. Eliot.

After giving a full citation, shorten subsequent citations to the author’s last name, shortened title, and page citation; for example, Huizinga, The Waning, 57–65.

Do not use the following abbreviations: eadem, ff., ibid., idem, loc. cit., op. cit.

Provide locator (accession) numbers and dates for archival items cited in your endnotes.

Authors are responsible for verifying and citing any content generated from AI. Per the Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition, 14.112, “Authors who have relied on content generated by a chatbot or similar AI tool must make it clear how the tool has been used (either in the text or in a preface or the like). Any specific content, whether quoted or paraphrased, should be cited where it occurs, either in the text or in a note.” Please refer to Journal Policies for the use of AI in your work.

Permanent Links and Stable URLs

Authors should ensure they are providing the most stable link available when citing an online source. These can be different from browser links and are often included on websites (located when you click the “cite” or “share” button) or in online library cataloging. For example, Permalinks (permanent URLs) are provided for items included in the Getty Library Catalog and in the Getty Museum Collection Online. For Youtube videos, do you not use links pasted from browser (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch); instead, use the “share” button to locate the stable link (e.g., https://youtu.be/).

A long link can be edited (see Chicago Manual of Style, 13.9), but authors should avoid using third-party services to shorten links, as these mask domain names or other information that could be useful to researchers. Per CMOS 13.9, “A very long URL—one that runs to as much as a line or more of text, especially if it includes long strings of punctuation or other syntax intended mainly for computers—can often be shortened simply by finding a better version of the link.”

Links should be used judiciously, as each link will send readers away from the article at hand.

Illustrations and Captions Style

When referring to illustrations in the main text, use fig. or figs. inside parentheses (e.g., fig. 1, figs. 2–4). All images must be called out sequentially in the main text. Any subsequent references to figures are styled in the format above preceded by “see” (e.g., see fig. 1).

Full captions for all illustrations should be listed at the end of the main text, before the endnotes.

Each caption should include the following information, whenever available and appropriate, in this order:

• Figure number
• Artist name, nationality, and life dates
• Title (in italics), date, medium (on support, if applicable), dimensions in centimeters (h. x w. x d.)
• City of collection, name of collection (in original language), accession number, and other collection information such as gift lines
• Copyright or credit-line information for the image file and the artwork (often separate credits)

Captions are “run-in” style; a period separates each grouping of information:

• Fig. [no]. Description / title of archival object, medium (if applicable), date. City, Institution, Accession Number, box/folder numbers (if applicable). [Permissions and copyright information—usually dictated by the rights holder].

For titles of artworks in languages other than English, supply English translations in parentheses.

Resources

For artists’ nationalities and life dates, please consult the Getty Union List of Artist Names® (ULAN).

The other Getty Vocabularies can be consulted for terminology:
Art & Architecture Thesaurus®
Cultural Objects Name Authority®
Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names®

Acquiring Images and Permissions for an Accepted Article

Upon acceptance, authors will be responsible for obtaining publication-quality images and permission to reproduce them in the Getty Research Journal; authors are also responsible for paying any associated fees. (Getty staff will acquire images of items in Getty collections.) If you anticipate any problems with obtaining permissions, please notify the editors, who will offer guidance on this process. When you send your images to the journal, you must submit copies of all permission forms, invoices, and correspondence.

The Getty uses its open-source digital publishing tool, Quire, to produce the Getty Research Journal in web, PDF, e-pub, and print (archival only) formats. The text of the publication will be issued under the terms of a Creative Commons-Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) license from which illustrations are explicitly excluded. The journal requires the right to publish (nonexclusive, Worldwide, English) in the various online formats (web, PDF, e-pub) and print format of one issue of the journal only; and the right to deposit in electronic archives (Project Muse and JSTOR). The journal cannot accept permission grants that restrict use to a specific period of time.

Allow at least 6 to 8 weeks to receive each permission grant, longer for new photography. Image files and permissions that are not submitted on time could delay publication of your article. In most cases, you will need to obtain an image of the artwork from the museum, gallery, or archive in which the artwork is housed, either directly or through an image bank. Normally, you will be granted the reproduction permission when you receive the image file.

Images from Getty collections: the Managing Editor will order high-resolution images for collection items, but authors must provide detailed information for locating the items to be photographed, including library or museum accession numbers, box and folder locators, and page, plate, or folio numbers. Many images are in copyright and require the additional permission of third-party copyright holders.

Public domain: An image of an artwork in the public domain may still require permission for reproduction from the holder of the image file.

Art photographed from a book published after 1929 must be cleared for permission. This includes diagrams, maps, and line drawings. The publisher of the book may not be the holder of rights to such images, but you can usually find “illustration credits” that indicate the source of such images in the front or back of a book. If there is no credit page, then write to the permissions department of the publisher.

Tips: Work with a fine-art photo archive. Art Resource is an excellent place to begin your search. Another helpful resource for reproductions is Bridgeman Art Library. Ask for a fee reduction, emphasizing that this is for a noncommercial, scholarly publication and that you, as the author, are responsible for the fees.

Sample letter requesting image file & permission to reproduce it in the Getty Research Journal

Note: This letter requests both reproducible image file and the permission of the copyright holder to reproduce the work depicted. Adjust the letter if requesting only one or the other.

Dear [Name of lender]:
I am writing to request a photograph (TIFF or JPEG) suitable for publication (2400px or greater on the long side preferred, 1800px minimum) of the following work in your collection:

[Insert name of artist, name of work, date, medium, dimensions, institution name, acquisition number]

A low-resolution representation of this work is attached. I would appreciate your confirmation of the caption information given above, in addition to any required credit lines.

I am also requesting permission to reproduce this image as an illustration to my essay, [insert title of essay], which will appear in the Getty Research Journal, no. [insert issue #] (YEAR).

The Getty Research Journal is an online, open-access scholarly journal published by the Getty Research Institute, a nonprofit institution dedicated to advancing study in the visual arts, on Quire, a digital platform where scholarly articles are offered at no cost for online reading or in downloadable electronic formats. The text of the publication will be issued under the terms of a Creative Commons-Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) license from which illustrations are explicitly excluded. A small print run of the downloadable PDF will be made available for purchase for those who prefer to consult the journal in print.

Here are the rights needed:
The journal requires one-time, nonexclusive world distribution rights in English; the right to publish in the online (web, PDF, e-pub) and print formats (up to 50 archival copies) of this journal issue only, in perpetuity; and the right to deposit in electronic archives.

As the author, I am responsible for clearing and paying for rights and permissions for the scholarly use. In light of this, I hope that you might be able to waive any fees.

If you are willing to grant me permission to reproduce the image referenced above, please reply with your official confirmation. If you are not the copyright holder or if permission is needed from another source, please do let me know.

Thank you for your consideration.

[Name of requester] [Title of requester] [contact information of requester]

Image File Formats Accepted for Publication

Following an acceptance of an article, the journal requires authors to submit image files suitable for publication, preferably JPEGs or TIFFs that are at minimum 1800 pixels on the longest side, while 2400 pixels or greater is preferred. See below for guidance according to media type.

Figures and Tables

• Regular figures should be submitted in JPEG or TIFF formats.
• The larger the image, the deeper the zoom capability. We will accept images up to 10,000 pixels on the longest side, while the minimum is 1,200 pixels on the longest side. (Note that the traditional measure of DPI or PPI [dots or pixels per inch] are not as important as the overall pixel dimensions of the image.)
• Tables should be delivered in Microsoft Word, never as static image files. Tables will be rewritten in HTML to provide the best clarity, legibility, usability, and accessibility online.
• Charts and graphs should be delivered in Excel.
• Files for any diagrams or other special visuals created by the author in a software program should be submitted in their source format (e.g., Adobe Illustrator [AI] files) and as an exported placement file (JPEG, PNG, TIFF, or SVG).
• Multipart figures—e.g., figures with an (a), (b), and (c)—must be submitted as individual files. If a special arrangement is important to the image group’s meaning or interpretation, a placement file reflecting the desired arrangement should also be submitted.

Audio and Video

• Videos should be submitted as MP4 files.
• Audio should be submitted as MP3 files.
• For both video and audio, the journal hosts the content either on Getty servers or through a secure external account and embeds from there. The journal cannot embed third-party videos or audio hosted by an outside source; the source file is required.
• Videos must include a “poster” image, which is a static image representing the content of the video prior to users playing the video online. The poster image should follow the same guidelines as figure images (see above). It should also share the same aspect ratio of the video, usually 16:9 or 4:3.