Submissions

Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines

ARV. Nordic Journal of Folklore publishes scholarly articles on Nordic topics in English and is directed to a wide audience. The contributions present significant research findings and theoretical analyses from folklore fields. The views expressed are those of the authors.

Manuscripts should be submitted through the online form. Authors may submit manuscripts to the research articles section, which will be peer reviewed, and to the book reviews section, which are not peer reviewed. Submissions must be written in English.

All correspondence should be sent to the editor at ane.ohrvik@ikos.uio.no or to the appointed contact person in the editorial team. After manuscripts have been reviewed by anonymous referees, the editorial team will notify the authors about acceptance, rejection, or desired alterations. Rejected manuscripts will be returned.

Typescript

Arv articles are normally between 7,000 and 9,000 words, although longer articles do occur, especially when particularly rich and complex material is presented. Articles may include 3-5 illustrations.

On the first page of the manuscript, an abstract of the article should be presented in 8-10 lines (maximum 200 words), ending with 5-6 keywords.

Use Times New Roman with 1.5 line spacing for the main text. Paragraph breaks should be indicated with a line break and an indentation.

Number all pages consecutively.

Endnotes should be numbered and placed at the end of articles. Please keep endnotes to a minimum.

Headings

Headings should consist of one or two levels. Main headings should be set in font size 14, with a line break before and after. Subheadings should be set in font size 12 in italics and with no line break following.

Avoid headings like «Introduction», «Theory» and “Methods” and use other thematic or descriptive titles instead.

Do not capitalise articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, for, nor) or prepositions (through, against, between, without, since, etc.). However, pronouns (she, it) and short verb forms (be, is, was) should be capitalised.

Running text

Cited sources translated into English by the author should be accompanied by the original text in the notes. Indicate that the translation is by the author the first time a translated text is cited.

Citations exceeding four lines should be set off with a line break before and after.

Centuries are written in full: “nineteenth century”

Small numbers from zero to twelve are spelled out while 13 and higher should be written with digits.

To emphasise a word or passage, use italics only. Italics can be used for terms, passages, and foreign language terms (e.g. axis mundi). Titles of literary works in the main text should always be italicised. Keep the use of italics in the main text to a minimum.

Abbreviations consisting of several letters, such as e.g. or i.e. should not contain spaces.

Verbatim quotations should generally be enclosed in “typographic quotation-marks”. Quotations within quotations “should be enclosed in ‘simple quotation marks’”.

Paragraphs

Do not indent paragraphs that immediately follow a heading.

Please indicate whether paragraphs following quotations should be indented (as a new paragraph) or not (if it is a continuation of the paragraph preceding the quotation).

Do not leave additional spaces between paragraphs.

Figures

Images and tables must have a resolution of 300 dpi/ ppt to ensure production quality and must be submitted together with the article text (as separate files).

Images and tables should be numbered as “Figure 1”, “Figure 2”, etc. References to figures should appear in brackets in the main text where appropriate with double line breaks before and after: [Figure 1. Figure text and information].

Ensure that all figures are directly referenced in the main text: “As Figure 1 shows, the….”

The author is responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce material and for ensuring that copyright information is stated correctly in the figure caption.

References

Arv uses the author-date citation system, most closely related with the Harvard referencing style as it is used in Nordic humanities scholarship.

In-text citations

For works by a single author, the in-text citation should give the author’s surname and the year of publication in parentheses: (Burke 2024). If you quote or refer to a specific point made by the author, add the page number after a colon without extra space, e.g (Burke 2024:35).

If one author is cited with several works published in the same year, the different publications should be distinguished by adding a, b, c, etc. to the year of publication. This should be indicated both in the in-text citation and the reference list at the end.

If you make several references relating to a single point, include all names and dates in parentheses, separated by semicolons (Moore 1966; Hanson, Stephens & Taylor 1992).

Web pages should be referenced in equal manner in in-text citations: (Title of web page/organisation Year) (UNESCO 2026). Remember to use the same title of web page/ organisation in the reference list entry.

Fieldwork and archival sources, such as unpublished papers, interviews, letters and other historical documents, should be referenced in endnotes. When referring to archival sources in the bibliography or reference list, it is often best to do so in general terms (listing only the archive name), and in a separate section of the bibliography (Primary Sources). The formatting of archival sources may vary, as each archive will have its own system of organisation; however, entries from the same source should be presented consistently. It is important to provide as many identifying details as possible. Some example citations:

Norwegian Folklore Archives (NFS), Moltke Moe 106 III.

Landesarchiv Berlin (LAB), C Rep. 118-01 Nr. 31267.

Reference list entries

The reference list should not include any publication that is not cited or referred to in the text.

The bibliography should be headed “References”. If sources are divided into “Primary Sources” and “Secondary Sources”, use “References” as main heading, followed by “Primary Sources” and “Secondary Sources” as subheadings.

Entries in the reference list should be ordered alphabetically by the author's surname, and then by first name. References that exceed one line should be indented from the second line onwards.

If the same author has several works published in the same year, the publications should be ordered alphabetically by title, so the first publication is given the suffix a, the second b, the third c, and so on.

Abbreviations like “vol.”, “no.”, “p.” or “pp.” should be in the language of your text, not the language of the publication cited.

Where available, provide doi references at the end of each entry, following a full stop: DOI: https://doi.org/10.61897/arv.81.51394

Examples

Books: Last name, First name Year: Book title. Place of publication: Publisher.

Miller, Peter N. 2000: Peiresc’s Europe. Learning and Virtue in the Seventeenth Century. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

If there are two authors, give both names each time you cite them. If there are more than three authors, give all names the first time you cite the work, and thereafter give only the first author followed by et al. Give all names in the reference list.

Books with more than one author: Last name, First name & First name Last name Year: Book title. Place of publication: Publisher.

Daston, Lorraine & Katharine Park 1998: Wonders and the Order of Nature 1150-1750. New York: Zone Books.

Edited books: Last name, First name (ed.) Year: Book title. Place of publication: Publisher.

Gunnell, Terry (ed.) 2007: Masks and Mumming in the Nordic Area. Uppsala: Kungl. Gustav Adolfs Akademien för svensk folkkultur.

PhD or Master theses: Last name, First name Year: Thesis title. Thesis: University.

Zachrisson, Terese 2017: Mellan fromhet och vidskepelse: Materialitet och religiositet i det efterreformatoriska Sverige. Doctoral theses: University of Gothenburg.

Journal articles: Last name, First name & First name Last name Year: Article title. Journal name, volume (number), page range.

Händén-Svensson, Sanna 2025: The Lake and Its Monster: Communicating Connections with Landscape, Belonging and Sense of Place with Great Lake Monster Narratives. Arv, 81, pp. 112–129. DOI: https://doi.org/10.61897/arv.81.48343.

Book chapters: Last name, First name Year: Title. In: First name, Last name & First name Last name (eds), Title. Place: Publisher, page range.

Sävborg, Daniel & Ülo Valk 2018: Place-Lore, Liminal Storyworld and Ontology of the Supernatural. An Introduction. In Sävborg, Daniel & Ülo Valk (eds), Storied and Supernatural Places: Studies in Spatial and Social Dimensions of Folklore and Sagas. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society / SKS, pp. 7-24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21435/sff.23.

Web pages: Title of web page/organisation Year updated/copyright: Title [Internet]. Available from: URL [Accessed Date: Accessed 12 March 2025].

“Unesco expands opportunities for women and girls in science” 2026. UNESCO website: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/advancing-gender-equality-stem-education-inspiring-girls-pursue-science (Accessed 24 February 2026).