Doll News

Submit Your Article to DOLL NEWS

DOLL NEWS is a quarterly publication for members of the United Federation of Doll Clubs.

The mission/purpose of DOLL NEWS is to provide informative articles about dolls, doll artists, doll manufacturers, collectors and other doll-related topics that are of interest to members of the UFDC, as well as to report on the activities and business items of the UFDC and its member clubs.

Articles and photographs submitted to DOLL NEWS are considered contributions to UFDC, a 501(c)3 organization, and are greatly appreciated. It is in sharing that we learn, and it is in researching that we preserve the history of dolls. Contributions to DOLL NEWS are tax deductible. UFDC will send a Donation Acknowledgement Form to an author upon publication.

Articles submitted for publication should be offered exclusively to DOLL NEWS. The same article should not be offered to another publisher at the same time. If DOLL NEWS cannot use your article, it will be returned to you and then you may pursue other sources of publication.

Please submit articles to the DOLL NEWS Editor:

Linda Holderbaum
159 Woodrow Ave S
Battle Creek, MI 49015-3043
Tel: 269-963-6291
Email: lholderbau@aol.com

Submission Guidelines

To simplify the submission process for authors and the editor(s), DOLL NEWS staff have prepared the following guidelines to observe when getting your article ready to submit. Please read carefully through the submission guidelines and review your materials for accuracy before submitting — articles that do not meet our outlined requirements may be delayed to a later issue (or rejected) if not received by the editor's deadline.

What to send

Your article submission 'package' should include the following:

  • Article text in a Microsoft Word document
  • Imagery, including any artwork or photos
  • Your author biography
  • Your author photograph
  • Permission to Publish Form

Requirements for each item and how to submit your materials are listed below.

Article Text

Article text should be submitted in a Microsoft Word (.docx) document, or an otherwise compatible file type (.doc, .rtf, .txt). Handwritten articles will need to be digitally transcribed before submission.

DOLL NEWS recommends that authors refer to the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition, for information on proper punctuation, grammar, and mechanics (capitalization, abbreviations, etc.).

Photographs

All imagery must be submitted in a high-resolution .jpg or .jpeg file type at 300-600 dpi (or in pixels, at least 2400×3000). Photos embedded in Microsoft Word documents will not be accepted. Physical/non-digital photographs may be submitted by mail with special permissions but must be in focus, in a high-quality resolution, and clearly labeled.

Please make sure your image files or physical photos are clear, sharp, and in focus, with attractive texture-free backdrops; no patterns or wrinkled fabrics. Unless your photo is a scene, the best background to use is seamless paper, using a soft white light or moving the subject far enough from the backdrop to avoid harsh shadows.

Please rename your photo image files to match the caption numbers. (Example: Photo 1)

Permission to Publish

Please include a completed DOLL NEWS Permission to Publish Form with your submission. This form confirms the following:

  • Your submission is an original work
  • Your submission has not been submitted elsewhere
  • You give UFDC the right to publish your submission in print and on the Internet
  • Returns the right to publish to the author/artist after the specified term

Author Biography

An author's biography and author profile photo are required for first-time submissions. You can also submit updated biography items as needed. This biography will only appear on the DOLL NEWS section of the UFDC website and will tie all subsequent submissions to your biography page.

Please submit a seperate Microsoft Word (.docx) or otherwise compatible file type (.doc, .rtf, .txt) with your written bio in addition to your article text document.

Editorial Review

DOLL NEWS reserves the right to edit submissions for logic, clarity, and grammar. Meeting editorial deadlines ensures an approval copy will be sent to you for your review.

Submitting Files

For article and image files, authors are urged to use www.wetransfer.com when sending submissions to the editor. This is a free and safe Internet large-file transfer service. Under special permissions, materials may be e-mailed to the editor or saved to a CD or Flash Drive and mailed to the editor. Physical/non-digital photographs may also be submitted by mail with special permission.

Style and Grammar Guidelines

Ages

Use hyphens for ages expressed as adjectives before a noun or as substitutes for a noun. Don't use hyphens when you are simply stating the age of something. Examples: As a ten-year-old girl; she was ten years old.

Captions

Captions should be listed at the end of the article. Captions should be in complete sentences and should stand alone in explaining the photograph. For example: Photo 1. The Bye-Lo Baby was created by Grace Storey Putnam in 1922.

Rename your image files to match the caption numbers. Therefore the image file in the example caption above (Photo 1. The Bye-Lo Baby...) would be renamed to photo1.jpg

Dashes

Dashes used to set off text in a sentence are called em dashes. To get the em dash in Word, type the word-hypen-hyphen-word (for example, The newspaper—once published daily—folded in 2002). Word usually generates the em dash from your two hyphens. Commas, parentheses, and em dashes all serve the purpose of setting off information that is additional to, but not necessary in conveying, the core meaning of a sentence. The degree of interruption in the flow/meaning of the sentence generally dictates which form of punctuation is used: commas for the least interruptive; m dashes for the most abrupt breaks in thought.

Dates

Format should be Month Day, Year (May 10, 1951) with a comma after the year if the date is in the middle of a sentence; no commas if providing only the month and year (for example, May 1951). Never May 10th, 1951.

Internet Websites (used as a reference)

Authors are reminded that when information from an Intranet website is used in writing an article, specific text from Intranet web pages, as from any other reference source, must be paraphrased or used with quotation marks and the website given attribution in the text of the article. The Internet is not exempt from copyright, and using text directly from a webpage, without any indication that the author is not responsible for writing that text, is plagiarism.

Italics, proper usage

  • Titles of books, magazines, journals, newspapers, plays, film, artworks, long poems, pamphlets, television shows, and other short works published separately and musical works.
  • Words or phrases you use as words rather than for the meaning they convey
  • Foreign words or phrases not already in common usage in the English language.
  • Occasional use only: The kind of emphasis that a person would make while speaking.

Measurements

Write out inches, feet, etc. Do not abbreviate or use the corresponding symbols (“or ‘). Hyphenate in such cases as the 5-inch dolls, etc.

Numbers

  • Write out numbers less than 100, unless they are part of a measurement as in the example above under measurements.
  • Write out ordinals under 100 (for example nineteenth century instead of 19th century). For ordinals over 100, do not superscript the letters (for example, the 150th anniversary of the ship’s crossing).

Punctuation

  • Use only one space after periods and colons.
  • Periods and commas are always placed inside quotation marks, whether or not they are part of the quoted material.
  • Exclamation points. It is suggested that authors use exclamation points judiciously. To quote CMOS, “An exclamation point (which should be used sparingly to be effective) marks an outcry or an emphatic or ironic comment.”
  • Quotation Marks
    • Titles of essays, book chapters or sections, short poems, short stories, songs, articles in periodicals, radio or television program episodes, and all unpublished works.
    • To indicate that you’re using a word or phrase in a special way.
    • Around words that define a preceding term (for example, Her nickname was petit chat “little cat”).

States

Write out state names, for example, California. Do not use the zip code abbreviations.

Titles (with names)

Courtesy

Don’t use courtesy titles such as Mr., Miss., Mrs., or Ms. before an individual’s name. After using a person’s full name, all succeeding references to that person can be in the first or last name, but try to avoid bouncing back and forth or repeating the person’s full name. An exception would be if there are two individuals in the article with the same surname and you need to distinguish between the two.

Job or position

Do not capitalize a person’s job title or position unless it used as part of the name, for example, Vice President Biden, but Joseph Biden, vice president of the United States. Do not confuse with appositives—a descriptive phrase equivalent to the title. Appositives are lower case and are generally used with a modifier or the . Former presidents Clinton and Bush; the empress Eugenie (but Empress Eugenie of France).

United Federation of Doll Clubs

The United Federation of Doll Clubs (UFDC) is a non-profit organization with the goal of being the foremost in research, education, conservation, collecting, and appreciation of dolls.

  • Email Us

    info@ufdc.org

  • Call Us

    816-891-7040

  • Our Hours

    M - F   9:00am - 5:00pm

  • Visit Us

    10900 N Pomona Ave.
    Kansas City, MO 64153

Due to the spike in COVID, the UFDC Headquarters and Museum remain closed until further notice.

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