Instructions for Quest Contributors

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Quest normally publishes three kinds of historical articles: feature & department articles, interviews, and reference. Feature articles are typically long, fully peer-reviewed articles written at the level of professional space historians. Department articles are shorter popular pieces with a less formal review process, typically written by students, participants, scholars or others. Reference articles are short, "encyclopedia-style" articles whose primary purpose is to briefly summarize information concerning individuals, organizations, museums, or archives of interest to Quest's readers. This also includes book reviews. Most Quest readers are current or former space professionals, space historians, and others interested in the history of space.

Feature and Department articles are standard, scholarly pieces usually ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 words, excluding endnotes. These 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 appropriate by the department editors. Submit regular articles to the appropriate department editor, or if it does not fit within one of these departments, or if you are uncertain where it belongs, to the Quest editor in chief.

Interview articles are transcribed excerpts from oral interviews. These articles should contain endnotes 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. Submit interview articles to the interview editor.

Reference articles are short "encyclopedia-style" articles of 500-1,000 words, either book reviews or information of interest and utility to students, professionals, and interested observers of space history.

Book reviews should be from 500-1,000 words in length. Reviews should convey to the reader an overview of the subject matter of the book, who the book is written for (specialists, general public, etc.), and an assessment of its value to space history. Archives and museums articles should provide an overview of the artifacts and collections of interest to historians and the general public interested in space history.


Submittal Instructions
All Quest articles should include graphics or images provided by the contributor, with appropriate captions and credits for each image.

Articles should be written in Microsoft Word, and submitted as email attachments to the appropriate editor. The editor to whom you submitted the article 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 toQuest. Please use endnotes, not footnotes, using a format recommended in the Chicago Manual of Style.

We also ask that each contributor provide a brief one-to-two paragraph description of themselves for our "About the Author" statement at the end of each article.


Rights and Legal
By submitting an article to the editors of 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 October 2007 to redesign the page.


Additional Questions / Contact Information
Editor, Dr. David Arnold, at historyofspace @ aol.com
Publisher, Scott Sacknoff, Tel: +1 703-524-2766, Fax: +1 (301) 718-1837

Mail: Quest * PO Box 5752 * Bethesda MD 20824-5752 USA.


Contribution Complimentary Policy
- Feature & Department Article - 5 copies of issue with article
- Interview Article - 5 copies of issue with article
- Reference Article - 5 copies of issue with article
- Book Review - 1 copy of issue with article