Jaar citation and style

Citation & Style (jaar-citation-and-style)

JAAR has a citation style that trips up authors coming from history or theology: citations go in-text (author-date), not in footnotes. Footnotes are for substantive remarks only. Getting this wrong signals you have not read the style sheet — fix it before submitting.

When to trigger

• Converting a footnote-cited draft to JAAR's in-text style
• Building the reference list and checking entry forms
• Handling primary-source citations, translations, and transliteration in references
• Final style pass before submission

JAAR's citation rules (verify current style sheet)

1. In-text author-date citations. Cite as (Wolf 1996: 33) or in prose Clarkson notes … (1995: 45–46). Do not put bibliographic citations in footnotes.
2. Footnotes for substance only. Use notes for points outside the body of the argument, not to cite sources. Keep them lean (they count toward the word budget).
3. Reference list. An alphabetized, year-keyed list of works cited; format each entry per the JAAR style sheet.
4. House conventions. Serial (Oxford) comma; gender-neutral language; italicize foreign words; a consistent transliteration system for non-Latin scripts.
5. Fallback style. For anything the JAAR style sheet does not address, the sheet directs authors to the Chicago Manual of Style (the downloadable sheet references the 15th edition; CMOS is now in its 18th — 待核实 the current edition the live style guide cites). Treat JAAR's in-text author-date system as primary regardless.

Primary sources, translations, transliteration

• Cite primary texts by the conventions of your subfield, but keep them consistent and keyed to the reference list; give edition/translation information.
• Provide originals where the argument turns on wording; note the translator; transliterate consistently.

Anti-patterns

• Footnote-style bibliographic citations (the most common JAAR style error)
• A footnote apparatus so heavy it blows the word budget
• Inconsistent transliteration or undefined foreign terms
• Reference-list entries that don't match the in-text author-date keys
• Defaulting to a CMOS edition without checking which the current style sheet names (待核实)

Output format

【In-text citations】author-date, not footnotes? [Y/N]
【Footnotes】substantive only, lean? [Y/N]
【Reference list】alphabetized, year-keyed, style-sheet form? [Y/N]
【House conventions】serial comma + gender-neutral + foreign-term italics? [Y/N]
【Transliteration】consistent + terms defined? [Y/N]
【CMOS edition】confirmed against live style sheet? [Y/N/待核实]
【Next】jaar-review-process

Conversion table: history/theology habits → JAAR house style

Most authors arriving at JAAR are trained in disciplines whose flagship venues cite in notes. The AAR/Oxford University Press journal expects a specific in-text apparatus, so the highest-yield style pass is mechanical reformatting first.

You wrote (footnote-trained)	JAAR wants (in-text author-date)
As Smith argues.¹ + note "¹ Smith, Imagining Religion, 22."	As Smith argues … (1982: 22). + keyed entry
Ibid., 24. / op. cit.	Repeat author-date: (1982: 24) — no Latin shorthand
See note 14 above for sources.	Cite in-text at the point of use; reserve notes for substance
Cf. the *Bhagavad Gītā* 2.47. in a note	Cite the primary text in-text per subfield convention
Bibliography of "Works Consulted"	Reference list of works cited only, alphabetized, year-keyed

Worked vignette: de-noting a textual-historical draft

An author submits a study of a Kabbalistic commentary with 78 footnotes, 60 of them bare citations migrated from a dissertation. The JAAR pass:

• Bibliographic notes go in-text. Note 12 ("Scholem, Major Trends, 205–6") becomes (Scholem 1941: 205–6) in the sentence; the note disappears. After conversion, only 11 notes survive — all genuinely substantive (a manuscript-variant aside, a definitional caveat on sefirot).
• Foreign terms. Ein Sof, tiqqun, devequt are italicized and glossed on first use under a single declared transliteration system, so a non-Hebraist religion-studies reader can follow — a point jaar-writing-style also enforces.
• Budget effect. Cutting 49 citation-only notes returns words to the body, easing the length ceiling that jaar-structure-and-exposition tracks (notes count toward it); every surviving in-text key now matches an alphabetized, year-keyed entry, and "Works Consulted" but never cited are removed.

Referee and copyedit pushback → the fix

• "Citations belong in the text, not notes" → run the conversion table above end-to-end.
• "Note apparatus is overweight" → strip citation-only notes; keep substantive asides.
• "Reference entry doesn't match the in-text key" → reconcile every (Author year) to its entry.

Hedged calibration: the downloadable sheet long referenced CMOS 15th while CMOS is now in its 18th edition; treat the in-text author-date system as primary and verify the named fallback edition on the journal's current submission guidelines rather than assuming the cached number.

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — JAAR style sheet: in-text author-date citations, CMOS fallback