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Style Guidelines for Referring to The Joseph Smith Papers
The following guidelines are offered to help those who wish to cite or otherwise refer to The Joseph Smith Papers, its component series or volumes, or materials on the Joseph Smith Papers website. These guidelines are merely recommendations based on the Joseph Smith Papers Project’s house style, precedents from other documentary editions, and The Chicago Manual of Style, fifteenth edition (Chicago). Of course, other style conventions and different publication formats may call for adaptation and variation.
The Joseph Smith Papers Project and The Joseph Smith Papers
Use “the Joseph Smith Papers Project” to refer to the entire project’s goals and structure. Do not capitalize shortened forms such as “the project.”
The goal of the Joseph Smith Papers Project is to present verbatim transcripts of Joseph Smith’s papers in their entirety.
The project’s goal is to present verbatim transcripts of Joseph Smith’s papers.
Use “the Joseph Smith papers” or similar forms to refer generally to the documents and papers of Joseph Smith.
The work of collecting the papers of Joseph Smith continued after his death.
Use italicized The Joseph Smith Papers (or, for short, the Papers) to refer to the published and online products, including those that are forthcoming. Capitalize and italicize the initial The when the full title is used.
It is true that The Joseph Smith Papers cite original sources where possible and practical.
It is true that the Papers cite original sources where possible and practical.
When the title The Joseph Smith Papers takes a verb, it will be considered a plural noun.
The Joseph Smith Papers are being prepared under the auspices of the office of the historian of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The name of the project’s website is the Joseph Smith Papers website. The URL is www.josephsmithpapers.org.
The Church Historian’s Press
The publisher of The Joseph Smith Papers is The Church Historian’s Press. The initial The is capitalized in the name of the press but, in accordance with Chicago convention, is omitted in bibliographic and note citations. The press is an imprint of the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This is the fourth volume published by The Church Historian’s Press.
Series Names
In running text, capitalize but do not italicize the name of a series of The Joseph Smith Papers, such as the Journals series. The word series is not capitalized because it is not part of the official series name.
The Journals series of The Joseph Smith Papers presents an unaltered and unabridged transcript of each of Smith’s known journals.
Work is under way on volumes of the Legal and Business Records series and the Histories series.
The official names for the six series to be published as part of this project are as follows:
Administrative Records
Documents
Histories
Journals
Legal and Business Records
Revelations and Translations
Reference to Volumes in Running Text
By full title:
The first volume is titled The Joseph Smith Papers, Journals, Volume 1: 1832–1839 and is now available.
The second volume is titled The Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, Manuscript Revelation Books and will be available soon. (Note: This volume, the first in the Revelations and Translations series, is also the first volume of The Joseph Smith Papers to be presented in a facsimile edition, meaning in a 9 x 12 format with photographic facsimiles of each manuscript page. Eventually, a handful of volumes will be presented in the facsimile edition. The volumes within the facsimile edition do not bear volume numbers in their titles.)
By shortened titles:
The library ordered two copies of Journals, Volume 1: 1832–1839 last Tuesday.
This review of Journals, Volume 1 focuses on the scholarly annotation.
In contrast, volume 1 of the Journals series provides rich contextual notes.
The transcripts published in Manuscript Revelation Books were verified three times.
He was assigned at that time to review the annotation for the facsimile edition of Manuscript Revelation Books.
(Note: Do not capitalize or italicize volume when the word is not being used as part of the title, as in the third example.)
Citing Print Volumes in Bibliographies
For citations of print volumes in bibliographies, please see the rules in Chicago, chapters 16 and 17, which allow for some variations in citation style. The following are among the various reasonable alternatives.
Citation of the entire edition:
Jessee, Dean C., Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman, eds. The Joseph Smith Papers. # vols. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2008–.
(Note: Replace the pound sign in the preceding sample with the number of volumes of The Joseph Smith Papers that have been published at the time you create your citation.)
Basic citation format for any volume of The Joseph Smith Papers:
[Names of volume editors], eds. [Volume Title]. Vol. [#] of the [Series name] series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, [year of publication of volume].
Citation of the first volume of the Journals series:
Jessee, Dean C., Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen, eds. Journals, Volume 1: 1832–1839. Vol. 1 of the Journals series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2008.
Citation of the first volume of the Revelations and Translations series:
Jensen, Robin Scott, Robert J. Woodford, and Steven C. Harper, eds. Manuscript Revelation Books. Facsimile edition. First volume of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2009.
Jensen, Robin Scott, Robert J. Woodford, and Steven C. Harper, eds. Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript Revelation Books. Vol. 1 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2011.
(Note: It is acceptable to cite either version of the first volume of the Revelations and Translations series.)
Citation of the Journals series of The Joseph Smith Papers (for possible use once another volume in the series is published):
Jessee, Dean C., Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman, eds. The Joseph Smith Papers. Journals series. # vols. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2008–.
(Note: Replace the pound sign in the preceding sample with the number of volumes of the Journals series that have been published at the time you create your citation. If the series has been completed, add the year that the final volume in the series was published. This same example can be adapted for other series by changing the series name and the publication year.)
Citing Print Volumes in Notes
The following recommended citation formats for notes, derived from the preceding samples for bibliographies, are among those that are acceptable to Chicago:
Full citation of the entire edition:
25. Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman, eds., The Joseph Smith Papers (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2008–).
Full citation of any volume of The Joseph Smith Papers:
25. [Names of volume editors], eds., [Volume Title], vol. [#] of the [Series name] series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, [year of publication of volume]), [page number(s)].
Full citation of the first volume of the Journals series:
25. Dean C. Jessee, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen, eds., Journals, Volume 1: 1832–1839, vol. 1 of the Journals series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2008), 179.
Full citation of the first volume of the Revelations and Translations series:
25. Robin Scott Jensen, Robert J. Woodford, and Steven C. Harper, eds., Manuscript Revelation Books, facsimile edition, first volume of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2009), 179.
25. Robin Scott Jensen, Robert J. Woodford, and Steven C. Harper, eds., Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript Revelation Books, vol. 1 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2011), 136.
Citing Materials on the Joseph Smith Papers Website
Persons who cite materials on the Joseph Smith Papers website should be aware that updates will frequently be made to the site to correct errors and infelicities, to make revisions based on later research findings and editorial decisions, to achieve consistency in the treatment of similar events or other matters, to expand existing content, and to add new content. As is the case with most websites, no attempt will be made to announce or catalog the changes, or to make past versions of materials available. Therefore, researchers citing materials on this site may wish to print a copy of the cited material and to note on the hard copy the date that the material was printed.
To cite materials on this website, please refer to the rules in Chicago, chapter 17. The following recommended formats appear to be among the various reasonable alternatives:
Citation style for notes:
29. Revelation, July 1828 [D&C 3], The Joseph Smith Papers, http:// josephsmithpapers.org/paper/revelation-july-1828-dc-3 (accessed 29 Nov. 2010).
30. Biography of Hazen C. Aldrich, The Joseph Smith Papers, http:// josephsmithpapers.org/person?lastFirst=Aldrich%2C%20Hazen%20C (accessed 5 Jan. 2011).
Citation style for bibliographies:
The Joseph Smith Papers. http://josephsmithpapers.org/.
