Style Guide

Style Guide for Authors

All manuscripts should be original, unpublished works not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and should be submitted to:

Kristopher M. Rengert
Managing Editor, Housing Policy Debate
Fannie Mae Foundation
4000 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
North Tower, Suite 1
Washington, DC 20016-2804
Inquiries: krengert@fanniemaefoundation.org

General

Please submit your manuscript double spaced in MS Word. Provide tables and figures in a separate file (or files) in MS Excel, MS Word, or EPS format. Maps should be supplied in EPS format.

Because manuscripts will undergo a blind review, submit two title pages, the first showing the title of the manuscript, author name, title, affiliation, telephone number, e-mail address, and the date of the manuscript. The second title page should contain only the title of the paper.

Third-person style is always preferred. If appropriate, authors may make limited use of first-person singular, but a single author should not refer to himself or herself as "we."

Biography

The manuscript should include, on a separate page or the "first" title page described above, a sentence listing each author's name, title, and affiliation.

Acknowledgments

Generally, we do not include acknowledgments to the Fannie Mae Foundation as a research sponsor. Acknowledgments to individual staff members are acceptable. Place any acknowledgments in a separate para- graph following the biographical paragraph. Any disclaimers should also be in this paragraph, following the acknowledgments.

Abstract

Include a two-paragraph abstract not exceeding 150 words and place it on the first page of the text. In the first paragraph of the abstract, describe the issue(s) or question(s) the paper addresses. In the second paragraph, state the major findings or conclusions.

Keywords

To help users reference the Fannie Mae Foundation's published research, keywords are included with journal articles. Please suggest three keywords for your manuscript.

Abbreviations

The definition of an abbreviation or acronym is given the first time it appears; afterward, only the abbreviation is used. However, an abbreviation that is defined in the abstract should also be defined in the article. An abbreviation that appears only once in an article should be deleted and the full wording used.

If an abbreviation is first defined in the text, the abbreviation alone can then be used in subsequent footnotes or tables; however, if the abbreviation is first defined in a footnote or table, the abbreviation should be defined again when it first appears in the following text.

Text Headings

Headings are not numbered and are placed flush left. First-level headings are bold; second-level headings are italic; and third-level headings are italic with a period that leads directly into text.

Examples:

First-level heading

Second-level heading

Third-level heading. The text continues....

Tables and Figures

Use arabic numerals to number tables and figures consec- utively in separate series in order of appearance. Include a brief descriptive title at the top of each. Tables and figures should be in separate electronic files, not integrated into the text. The text must contain a reference to each table or figure. Any abbreviations in the tables and figures (including NA) must be defined.

If you draw tabular and other material from other sources, be sure to include these sources in the references and obtain copyright permission if neces- sary. Use a short form of the reference in the Source note: name of the author or agency and date.

Equations

Make sure that all symbols in equations are clear and that all equations (except those in footnotes) are numbered. Single-letter variables should be italicized. Multiple-letter variables and abbreviations (e.g., AGE) and functions (e.g., exp, min, ln) should not be italicized; neither should numbers, parentheses, or math operations. Vectors and matrices should be in bold (not italicized).

Footnotes

Footnotes are numbered consecutively within each article, using superscript arabic numerals. Footnotes may be used for explanatory information but not strictly for references. We do not use endnotes.

References

The manuscript must include complete and accurate citations of all materials referenced in the manuscript that are not of your original authorship. Please double-check your references to ensure that names and dates are accurate, that Web pages are still active, and that there are no discrepancies between the text and the reference list.

IMPORTANT GUIDELINES
The reference section should be alphabetical by author, unnumbered, and placed at the end of the article. Citations must follow the author-date system (see the examples below or in the Chicago Manual of Style[CMS]). All (author- date) references in text must be supported by full references in the reference list. Give authors' full first names (not just initials). (This is a variation on the CMS author-date style.) Include page numbers when citing a journal article or book chapter. When citing a paper presented at a conference, include the place, date, and conference title or sponsoring organization. Give sources for tables in as complete a form as possible in the reference list.

If sources are pamphlets or loose leaf updates, include them in the references nevertheless.

Use initial-cap style for titles (capitalize the significant words: nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs). (This is a variation on CMS author-date style.)

EXAMPLES:
Appelbaum, Richard, Peter Dreier, and Jon Gilderbloom. 1991. Scapegoating Rent Control: Masking the Causes of Homelessness. Journal of the American Planning Association 57(2):153-64.

Abraham, Jesse M., and Patric H. Hendershott. 1993. Patterns and Determinants of Metropolitan House Prices, 1997-1991. In Real Estate and the Credit Crunch, Conference Series No. 36, 18-42. Boston: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Dionne, E. J. 1997. Government Planning That Kept Portland Green. Washington Post, March 21, p. A27.

Congress of the New Urbanism. 1996. Charter of the New Urbanism. World Wide Web page (last modified September 16, 1996).

Note: If a World Wide Web page does not state when it was last modified, provide the date you accessed the page and substitute "accessed" for "last modified."

Dear, Michael, and Robert Wilton. 1995. The Impact of Community-Based Human Service Facilities on Property Values. Unpublished paper. University of Southern California, Department of Geography.

Editing Queries

Once your article has been approved for publication, it will be professionally edited. You will receive a marked-up copy to approve the edits and answer the editor's queries. Please respond promptly.

Proofs

After your article has been edited and typeset, you will receive page proofs to review and approve within three days. Substantive author changes are discouraged at the final page proof stage, but may be permitted after consultation with the Publications Editor.

Keywords Thesaurus

(Select up to three keywords.)

Affordability
Alterations
Assets
Availability
Banking
Budget
Capital
Commercial
Community
Construction/building
Credit
Crime
Data
Default
Demographics
Development/revitalization
Discrimination
Disposition
Education
Elderly
Federal
FHA (Federal Housing Administration)
Financial institutions and industry
Gentrification
Government-sponsored enterprises
Growth management
Health Care
Homeless
Homeownership
Housing
HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)
Immigration
Income
Insurance
Interest rates
Labor Market
Land use/zoning
Legislation
Local
Location
Low-income housing
Macroeconomics
Management
Markets
Microeconomics
Minorities
Mobility
Mortgages
Multifamily
Neighborhood
Nonprofit sector
Policy
Populations
Prepayment
Preservation
Prices
Primary market
Private/for-profit sector
Programs
Property
Quality
Real estate
Regulation
Rehabilitation/maintenance
Rent control
Rental housing
Rural
Secondary market
Securitization
Services
State
Stock
Suburban
Tax policy
Underserved
Underwriting
Urban Environment
Urban planning
Vacancy rates
Welfare

LOCATIONAL KEYWORDS

If a specific country is involved, use the name of the country. If a continent is involved, use the continent's name. If a region is involved, use one of the following:

Africa
Caribbean
Central Asia
Eastern Europe
Great Britain
Latin America
Middle East
Pacific rim
South East Asia
United Kingdom
Western Europe