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Publication guidelines

Submission of proposals

Articles

MIDAS prioritises articles that demonstrate a good theoretical frame and critical reflection, innovation and originality, proving new information and contributions to advance knowledge in the field of museums and museology.

Articles should not exceed 6 000 words (without bibliography) and must follow the requirements and classical structure of an academic paper, including abstract, keywords, introduction, methodology, results and discussion, and conclusions.

Notações

Texts should not exceed 3000 words (without bibliography): short articles, experiences, short reports, etc. As with articles, “notações” must be accompanied by an abstract (including in English), keywords and a biographical note.

Reviews

MIDAS publishes reviews of books and exhibitions. Texts should not exceed 1500 words.

In the case of book reviews, MIDAS welcomes reviews on recent publications (no more than three years) on the Portuguese and international panorama in the field of museums and cultural heritage.

MIDAS accepts reviews on recent temporary exhibitions (up to one year after their closure when the proposal is sent) and on new permanent or long-term exhibitions (open to the public for a maximum of two years when the proposal is sent). Reviews can cover exhibitions from different disciplinary fields and perspectives, as long as they are organised in a museum context or dedicated to the theme of “museum”. We welcome reviews of exhibitions in national and international contexts, particularly from Portuguese and Spanish-speaking countries. If you have any questions, please contact MIDAS.

The review should identify the author and the full bibliographic reference of the publication under review: (Author. Year. Title. Place published: publisher. Number of pages, ISBN. Example:

Anico, Marta. 2008. Museus e Pós-modernidade: Discursos e “Performances” em Contextos Museológicos Locais. Lisboa: Universidade Técnica de Lisboa and Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas. 490 pages, ISBN: 978-989-646-003-7.

In the case of an exhibition review, take this example:

Discoveries: Art, Science & Exploration. 2014. Curated by Nick Thomas, Martin Caiger-Smith, and Lydia Hamlett. Exhibition presented at Two Temple Place, London by the University of Cambridge Museums between the 31st January and the 27th April of 2014.

At the top of the review the author should indicate: name, institutional affiliation (university, research unit or institution), country, institutional email, and link to the ORCID profile.

MIDAS does not accept reviews in which the author is also the author of the book or exhibition reviewed. We also do not publish reviews of proceedings books or theses (not published by a publisher).

Essays

Essays should not exceed 6,000 words (without bibliography) and include an abstract, keywords and a biographical note.

Interviews

Interviews provide a space to discuss concepts and practices about museum and museology thinking. The section includes interviews with professionals and researchers of recognised merit. The interviews include an abstract, a biographical note of the interviewee and the interviewer, and keywords. It varies from between 4,000 and 6,000 words. For proposals contact MIDAS previously.

Languages

Texts can be submitted in Portuguese, Spanish, English and French. Prior to submission, authors who do not write in their first language are strongly advised to have their manuscript carefully checked over by a native speaker.

Other specifications

Microsoft Office Word (file format); Times New Roman, 12 pt, justify text, line spacing 1,5, sequential page numbers, footnotes (numbering continuous) at the bottom of the page.

Texts should be organized in sections and subsections in accordance with their content.

MIDAS advises to use footnotes in moderation.

The orthographic and grammatical review should be done carefully.

Title

Should be clear, concise and relevant. Subtitle is optional. MIDAS strongly advises against long titles (no more than 8 words). Please do not indicate abbreviations. Titles should be written in lowercase.

Abstract

Articles and “Notações” should include an abstract. It should be a single paragraph, and independent of the article. Please avoid quotes and references. The abstract should include four key elements: background (place the question addressed in a broad context and highlight the purpose your study), methodology (identify the main methods applied), results (summarize the main findings) and conclusions (indicate the main conclusions or recommendations). To summarise: what was done? Why was it done? What were the results? Why are these results important?

The abstract should not exceed 250 words.

Essays and Interviews should also include an abstract that summarizes the proposal.

Keywords

For each article a maximum of 5 keywords should be selected. These words should describe the article’s theme and its main issues. Composed terms can be used (ex. new museology). Keywords must be singular and, should they have dual gender, masculine gender is preferred. Keywords should be written in lowercase except for names, places and countries; and should be separated by commas.

Biographical note

Articles should be accompanied of a short biography of all the authors (sent in a separate file) that should not exceed 100 words. This short biographical statement (a single paragraph) should refer the most relevant information, such as research interests, academic background, work experience and institutional affiliation (university, research unit or workplace). The short biography must be written in the same language as the article.

If one or all the authors are not currently affiliated with a university, research unit, or institution, or have not been during the development of the text, they should list themselves as an “Independent Researcher”.

The institutional address should be added, including email and ORCID link. If the author does not wish their e-mail address to be published, they must inform MIDAS beforehand.

References and quotes

MIDAS adopts the author-date system of the Chicago Manual of Style (author, year, pages). Thus, footnote referencing should be avoided.

See the following example:

“The museum has always been a complex, contradictory site that is not always amenable to a reading based on a notion of power relations” (Witcomb 2003, 26).

This quote refers to page 26 of the following book:

Witcomb, Andrea. 2003. Re-imagining the Museum: Beyond the Mausoleum. London: Routledge.

In case of more than four authors use “et al.”, e.g.: (Karp et al. 2006, 254).

If, in the bibliography, there is more than one reference of the same author with the same year, a letter should be added after the year (e.g., Witcomb 2003a).

More examples:

Several authors have discussed this theme (Sandell 1998, 2002; Sherman et al. 1994; Branco 2008).

Clara Camacho (1999) studied the subject.

This strategy has been criticized by several authors (cf. Robertson 2005; Simpson 2007; Duarte 2009).

When a quote has two or three text lines should be in the text between quotation marks or in italic. If the quote is longer, it should be highlighted and separated from the main text, with a smaller font size and distinctive indentation. See the example:

La nueva constitución [del ICOM] puede ser verdaderamente democrática [...], pero, afortunadamente, el ICOM se encuentra todavía en una fase inicial de su formación y desarrollo [...]. Tan firmemente centralizada en París como está hoy, no tendría sentido elegir sus altos cargos entre quienes no dispongan de libertad para viajar a sus reuniones. El controlo práctico ha de estar forzosamente en manos de unos pocos entusiastas que disponen de ocasión y de ánimo para dedicarse a ese trabajo. (Griggs 1951, 162)

Bibliography

Final list (in alphabetical order) of all the publications cited throughout the text and which served as support for its development.

Some examples:

Book:

Barrett, Jennifer. 2011. Museums and the Public Sphere. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Sherman, Daniel, e Irit Rogoff. 1994. Museum Culture: Histories, Discourses, Spectacles. London: Routledge.

Varine, Hugues de. 2012. As Raízes do Futuro: O Patrimônio a Serviço do Desenvolvimento Local. Translation by Maria de Lourdes Parreiras Horta. Porto Alegre: Medianiz.

IMC. 2007. Plano de Conservação Preventiva: Bases Orientadoras, Normas e Procedimentos. Coleção Temas de Museologia. Lisboa: Instituto dos Museus e da Conservação (IMC).

E-book:

Simon, Nina. 2010. The Participatory Museum. Santa Cruz, Calif.: Museum 2.0. http://www.participatorymuseum.org/

Edited book or other part of an edited book:

Sandell, Richard, ed. 2002. Museums, Society, Inequality. London: Routledge.

Karp, Ivan, Christine Mullen Kreamer, e Steven D. Lavine, eds. 1992. Museums and Communities: The Politics of Public Culture. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Chapter:

Costa, Palmira. 2007. “Da Natureza e Aspirações da Bioarte.” In Ciência e Bioarte: Encruzilhadas e Desafios Éticos, 9-22. Casal de Cambra: Caleidoscópio.

Brito, Joaquim Pais de. 2006. “O Museu, Entre o que Guarda e o que Mostra.” In Museus: Discursos e Representações, ed. Alice Semedo, and João Teixeira Lopes, 149-161. Porto: Edições Afrontamento.

Article:

Anker, Suzanne. 2014. “The Beginnings and the Ends of Bio Art.” Artlink 34 (3): 1-2.

Coutinho, Bárbara. 2010. “MUDE – Museu do Design e da Moda.” Informação ICOM.PT série II, 10 (setembro-novembro): 12-15.

Thesis or dissertation:

Camacho, Clara Frayão. 1999. “Renovação Museológica e Génese dos Museus Municipais da Área Metropolitana de Lisboa: 1974-90.” Master dissertation in Museologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

Macedo, Rita. 2008. “Desafios da Arte Contemporânea à Conservação e Restauro, Documentar a Arte Portuguesa dos Anos 60/70.” PhD in Conservação e Restauro, ramo de Teoria, História e Técnicas da Produção Artística, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

Website content:

Museu Nacional do Teatro. 2013. “Exposições.” http://www.museudoteatro.pt/pt-PT/Exposicoes/HighlightList.aspx

Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. s/d. “O Poder da Palavra IV.” Consultado em junho 22, 2023. https://gulbenkian.pt/museu/poder-da-palavra-iv-pecas-sonoras/

News or magazine article:

Canelas, Lucinda. 2020. “Um Inventário de Bens Culturais para pôr Portugal a Pensar Sobre a Colonização.” Jornal Público, january 1, 2020. https://www.publico.pt/2020/01/31/culturaipsilon/noticia/inventario-bens-culturais-portugal-pensar-colonizacao-1902452

Legislation:

Ministério da Cultura. Decreto-Lei n.º 164/2006 de 9 de agosto. Diário da República. 1.ª série, n.º 153 (2006). http://pt.museuberardo.pt/sites/default/files/documents/decreto_lei_164_2006_0.pdf

Interview:

Pontes, Rita. 2012. Interview by Maria Carvalho, the 12 January, at the City Museum, in Lisbon

For more information about this bibliographic style at: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-2.html (Author-Date)

In the final list of bibliographical references, the author's name should always be repeated, even when there are several works by that author, i.e., do not use the hyphen to suppress this repetition.

If you use a reference management tool or software, you must convert it to normal text.

Illustrations

A maximum of 5 illustrations (e.g., photos, tables, drawings, maps and graphics) are accepted. In case of images, the format should be JPEG with high digital quality. All images should be indicated and inserted in the text (fig. 1; fig. 2; etc.).

All information about captions should be as complete as possible (e.g., title, year, author, copyright, etc.). A first line should include the caption title and a second line should include information about the image credits. Example:

Fig. 1 – Room Exhibition, 1980, Museum of Brooklyn

Photograph by João Carvalho © Museum archive

Illustration credits

Is the author’s responsibility to obtain authorization for publishing any material with author rights. Exceptionally, the journal may assist in the requests for authorization on a case-by-case basis. Upon acceptance, authors are required to return copyright agreement forms.

Copyright

The article’s intellectual property belongs to the authors. MIDAS has the right to edit and publish.

All information delivered by the authors to this journal serves only the purposes of its publication and will not be delivered to others.

All contents of MIDAS journal, except when otherwise stated, are published under a Creative Commons License – Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International – CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).

Originality

Texts submitted to MIDAS should neither be published previously (including digital platforms) nor be under consideration for publication in another journal. Should articles result from a conference paper, authors should make such information clear. In case of doubt contact MIDAS.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgements (optional) should appear after the text and before the bibliography. Its purpose is to thank all the people or institutions who have contributed to the text or project, but who are not co-authors.

Funding

All sources of funding of the study should be disclosed (e.g., grants or other funds). Such information should appear after the text and before the bibliography.

Editing

MIDAS reserves the right to uniformise the references in the text and in the final bibliography, among other formal and style changes, as long as these do not alter the meaning of the text.

How to submit

Proposals should be sent to the following e-mail: revistamidas@gmail.com

The corresponding author, who is usually responsible for submitting the proposal and for contacts during peer-review and editing process, must ensure that co-authors participate in all stages of the process and approve the final version of the text. Participation as a co-author requires a substantive and direct intellectual contribution in the design and writing of the text, in the analysis and interpretation of the data, as well as in the revision of the versions and final approval of the text. General supervision of the study alone does not justify authorship. Collaborators who do not meet the criteria for authorship, but who have contributed to the text or project, should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section, indicating their contribution.

The biographic note should be sent in a separate document.

The author's identity and other information that makes it possible to identify him/her, must be hidden from the text, since the manuscripts will be submitted to a peer-review process under anonymity. The information is to be hidden, either in the text or in the footnotes, which includes: data relating to the author, namely self-citations or references to previous studies, and other information that reveals the author's identity. In place of hidden information, you can indicate “reference or information suppressed for peer-review purposes”.

MIDAS doesn’t charge authors for submission, article processing or publication fees.

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