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If you are interested in contributing to the SWG Reference Library, please carefully read the guidelines below before submitting your work.

Reference Library Mission

As part of the Understanding component of the SWG's mission, we have set up a Reference Library to collect and showcase essays, articles, and resources that provide reliable information on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, the craft of writing, and the fandom culture in which we all participate, as well as other topics that we feel would be of interest to our members and guests. We aim for our Reference Library to provide reliable, enlightening, and entertaining secondary sources on subjects of interest to SWG members.

Contributing to the Reference Library

We invite authors of nonfiction to consider submitting their work to the SWG Reference Library. Currently, we are accepting submissions on the following topics:

If you have a non-fiction piece that does not fit the topics above, please query us before sending it. Also, if you're not sure if your essay is relevant to our purposes here, please ask before assuming that it is not. We are rarely as strict as people think that we are, and if you think it would be relevant, it probably is!

Reference Library Review Process

All works under consideration for publication in our Reference Library must pass a review process before inclusion. Our review process is intended only to ensure that references meet the SWG's standards for source citation, reliability, and grammar and usage before publication. It is not intended to favor or disfavor a particular interpretation, opinion, or viewpoint.

Please note that the SWG does maintain a public archive for fiction and nonfiction related to The Silmarillion. Any references eligible for our Reference Library are also eligible for the archive. No review system is used to determine what is published on the archive. If you desire feedback on your work or wish not to put your work through our review system, then we suggest that you consider putting it on the archive instead. Works published in the Reference Library will be cross-listed on the archive.

The review process required depends on the publication status of your submission. The Reference Library recognizes three publication statuses:

Staff Review

The review process begins with a review by Reference Library staff. All available Reference Library editors will review a submission prior to advancing it for peer review. The editors will assess the submission for the following:

In the case of a tie in deciding whether or not the Reference Library staff editors want to accept a submission, the submission will be passed to active site moderators to break the tie.

If the submission passes staff review, then it will pass on to peer review. Please note that staff do not accept or decline submissions based on interpretation or other differences of opinion. The SWG is committed to welcoming a variety of interpretations. If an author feels that his or her submission has not received a fair staff review, he or she may request that it be reviewed by the other active site moderators.

Peer Review

Initial publications that have not been vetted and published elsewhere undergo peer review after passing staff review. Peer review is conducted by volunteer reference readers. Any SWG member may volunteer as a reference reader. Please see our reference reader page for more information on how you can help.

Reference readers fact-check and offer suggestions to improve a submission for publication. Reference readers do not vote to accept or reject a submission; once a submission has passed staff review, it is assumed that further work on the submission will focus on preparing it for publication. If a reference reader notices a serious concern about a submission that the Reference Library editors overlooked, they should bring it to the editor handling that submission to decide if the submission should be accepted. Reference readers do not copyedit, beta-read, or provide critiques of the writing or style of the submission. Between two and four reference readers should read and comment on a submission. If at least two reference readers cannot be found, SWG moderators may serve as substitutes.

Once a submission has passed staff review and comments have been returned from all reference readers, the editor handling the submission will return any required edits to the author, as well as additional suggestions from the Reference Library editors and reference readers. The Reference Library editors may accept a submission contingent on changes or edits being made.

Once a final version of the submission has been received, a Reference Library editor will copyedit the submission to adhere to SWG Reference Library style guidelines. Once the author approves the copyedited submission, it will be published.

If an author disagrees with the decision on a submission, they may appeal first to all Reference Library editors. If they disagree with the editors' decision, they may appeal to all active site moderators.

Citing Sources

All submissions to the SWG Reference Library must cite all sources and include a works cited list. Submissions that do not will be returned to their authors for correction before passing to peer review. The SWG Reference Library is open to publication by Tolkien fans as well as scholars, and we encourage Tolkien fans to submit their work to us. Our editors are willing to assist authors with preparing their manuscripts for publication on our site. Please do not let unfamiliarity with academic writing or citation style dissuade you from submitting your work to us.

Reference authors should keep in mind the following:

The Reference Author Resources page has more details on the citation style we use on the SWG. When in doubt, ask us for help before assuming that we don't want your submission. Our reference editors can be reached at loremaster@silmarillionwritersguild.org.

Publication Rights Acquired

Contributors to the Reference Library should be aware that the Reference Library is not a self-editable archive. Writing in the Reference Library is published by the SWG, meaning that it is in a final, completed form and will become a permanent part of our site.

The SWG seeks one-time rights to publish a contributor's work online on our website silmarillionwritersguild.org and to link and excerpt your work on our social media satellite groups.

Contributors reserve the right to have their work removed from our site at any time. It is the contributor's responsibility to contact us at loremaster@silmarillionwritersguild.org in order to effect the removal of their work. However, we do ask contributors not to submit work that they feel they might wish to remove or change at a later date. Reviewing and preparing a reference for the library takes a good amount of time of our staff and volunteers and is done so with the understanding that their efforts aid in making references a permanent part of the SWG Reference Library. The SWG does reserve the right to refuse submissions from contributors who make a habit of withdrawing work from the Reference Library.

Contributors reserve the right to have their work updated at any time and must contact us at loremaster@silmarillionwritersguild.org in order to do so. However, contributors should understand that, depending on the nature of the update, the work might have to pass staff and peer review again, and the updates may be rejected. Again, contributors are encouraged to submit only work that is completed and with which they are satisfied.

Contributors are encouraged to discuss with us any terms they would like to place on the publication of their work. We will gladly name and link any publications in which the work has already appeared and will do our best to meet other terms as well.

All rights and copyright remain with the contributor. This means that that work is yours to do with as you please and to put up on as many other sites and archives as you would like.

Submitting Your Work

Submit your work to us at loremaster@silmarillionwritersguild.org. If your work has been previously published and you believe it may be considered a reprint, please include information on previous publications. Attachments are fine (.doc, .docx, .txt., .rtf, .html), as are links to a document that we can access or download from a cloud storage site like Dropbox or Google Drive.

We will respond within a day to let you know that we've received your submission. If you do not hear from us after a day, feel free to query. At this time, we will communicate with you about how long it will take for the editors to make a decision.




Last updated 23 April 2018.