Current Issue
Overview
Quest normally publishes historical articles across three major categories: feature & department articles, interviews, and reference.
- Feature and Department articles comprise the core content of Quest. Feature articles are typically long, fully peer-reviewed articles written at the level of professional space historians. In contrast, departmental articles are shorter popular pieces with a less formal review process, typically written by students, industry participants, scholars, or others.
- Interviews are original first person conversations and can be shorter (such as our “Five Questions With” features) or more detailed oral histories that can extend 10-20 pages or more.
- Reference articles include book reviews and short, “encyclopedia-style” articles that briefly summarize information concerning individuals, organizations, museums, or archives of interest to Quest readers.
Most Quest readers are current or former space professionals, space historians, and others interested in the history of space.
Category Specific Requirements
Feature and Department Articles
Feature articles are typically long, fully peer-reviewed articles written at the level of professional space historians. In contrast, departmental articles are shorter popular pieces with a less formal review process, typically written by students, industry participants, scholars, or others.
These standard, scholarly pieces usually range from 3,000 to 10,000 words, excluding endnotes. It should be solidly based on primary source materials such as original reports, papers, letters, memoranda, interviews, or films, and must meet scholarly standards for historical accuracy, clarity, and originality in topic or interpretation.
All feature articles will pass through a peer review process as determined by the Editor. Submit regular articles to the Quest Editor in Chief.
Interview Articles
Interviews are original conversations or transcribed excerpts from oral interviews. If needed, these should contain notes to explain acronyms and references in the text that might be unfamiliar to the readers. The contributor should edit the transcript to include only those portions of most interest to our readers and to ensure correct spelling.
Reference Articles
These short “encyclopedia-style” articles of 500-1,000 words highlight information of interest and utility to students, professionals, and interested observers of space history. They are similar in length and content depth to book reviews.
Book Reviews
Each should be from 500-1,000 words in length, but may be longer if reviewing multiple works. Reviews should convey to the reader an overview of the subject matter of the book, who the book is written for (e.g., specialists, general public, etc.), and an assessment of its value to space history.
Archives and Museums
These brief articles provide an overview of the artifacts and collections of interest to historians and the general public interested in space history.
Submittal Instructions
In addition to the content-specific guidelines above, please ensure your article conforms to the following format requirements:
- Written in Microsoft Word (or importable);
- Includes a 50-200 word abstract, which will be displayed in online descriptions (excepting Book Reviews);
- Utilizes endnotes, not footnotes;
- Employs a format recommended in the Chicago Manual of Style;
- Includes a brief one-to-two paragraph description of the author(s), which will be used in our “About the Author” statement at the end of each article;
- Provides graphics or images, at the highest resolution available, with appropriate captions and credits for each image (excepting Book Reviews); and
- Documents copyright status of all images, figures, and tables AND supplies written permission to reprint in Quest should they not be public domain or owned by Quest/SPACE 3.0.
Submit your article as email attachments to the Editor. The Editor will contact you once they receive the article to describe the review and editing process or to inform you of changes required to make the article appropriate for submission to Quest.
Rights and Legal
By submitting an article to Quest, the author assigns rights of the material provided to the publisher of Quest, including but not limited to its use in an upcoming issue of Quest and the right to reprint in future publications both print and/or electronic.
Originally published in Aug 2002. Updated in Aug 2005 to reflect new editor contact information. Updated in 2007, 2012, and 2020 to redesign the page.
Additional Questions
If your question is not answered in the prior sections, please direct your query to:
Editor in Chief: Dr. Chris Gainor, chris [at] spacehistory101.com
Publisher: Scott Sacknoff, quest [at] spacehistory101.com
Mail: Quest * PO Box 5752 * Bethesda MD 20824-5752 * United States
Benefits of Being a Contributor
Quest and SPACE 3.0 recognize the value and importance of our authors and contributors. By contributing content to the issue, you will receive complimentary copies of the issue in which your content appears along with extending your existing subscription.
- Feature Article: 5 copies and a 1-year extension to your subscription
- Feature Oral History: 5 copies and a 1-year extension to your subscription
- 5 Questions or Short Interview: 5 copies and a 6-month extension to your subscription
- Reference Article: 5 copies and a 6-month extension to your subscription
- Book Review: 1 copy and an extra issue added to your subscription
