Submissions

Author Guidelines

(latest revision July 2026)

Hume Studies follows The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) 18^th edition (2024) using the “Author-date” reference system. Except for references to Hume’s works and other frequently cited pre-19^th century works (for which see below), sources are cited parenthetically in text by authors’ names and date of publication. Full bibliographic details appear only in a “Works Cited” list at the end of the paper. Authors should consult the CMS and ensure their text, quotations, references, and “Works Cited” lists are formatted accordingly.

To reduce discordance with Hume’s orthography and inadvertent auto-corrects to cited text, authors writing in English should select “English (United Kingdom)” as the language for their spell checkers.

References to Hume’s Works

References to Hume’s works should appear in the body of the text. Authors should insert the following note to the first reference:

          See the Bibliographical Note to this issue of Hume Studies for a key to references to Hume’s works.

Authors need not say any more about how Hume’s works will be referenced nor should they include Hume’s works in their “Works Cited” lists. They must, however, use the abbreviations and follow the reference format found in the Bibliographical Note.

When uncertain how to abbreviate a title or numerate a reference, use what is employed at Hume Texts Online (https://davidhume.org/).

When distinctions between what appeared in different editions of Hume’s works are called for, title abbreviations may be dated. For example T1740 1.3.7.7 can be used to designate a passage printed in the 1740 T App. but there directed for insertion to T1739 Book 1, Part 3, Section 7 after paragraph 6.

Authors are expected to know the history of Hume’s revisions and editors’ suggested variants to his texts as well as they know the secondary literature on those texts. To this end, they should make use of the most recent variorum editions, where they exist, and consider whether any variants to their cited passages merit attention.

T, Ab, and L: Hume, David. 2007. The Clarendon Edition of the Works of David Hume: A Treatise of Human Nature, edited by David Fate Norton and Mary J. Norton, 2 vols. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780199596331.book.1 and https://www.doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780199596348.book.1.
EMPL: Hume, David. 2021. The Clarendon Edition of the Works of David Hume: Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary: A Critical Edition, edited by Tom L. Beauchamp and Mark A. Box, 2 vols. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780199284061.book.1 and https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780199284078.book.1.
U: Hume, David. 2000. The Clarendon Edition of the Works of David Hume: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: A Critical Edition, edited by Tom L. Beauchamp. Oxford: Clarendon Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780199266340.book.1.
M: Hume, David. 1998. The Clarendon Edition of the Works of David Hume: An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals: A Critical Edition, edited by Tom L. Beauchamp. Oxford: Clarendon Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780199266333.book.1.
H: Hume, David. 2000. History of England, edited by Frits van Holthoon. In The Complete Works and Correspondence of David Hume. Electronic Edition. InteLex Corporation.
N and P: Hume, David. 2007. The Clarendon Edition of the Works of David Hume: A Dissertation on the Passions; The Natural History of Religion: A Critical Edition, edited by Tom L. Beauchamp. Oxford: Clarendon Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780199575749.book.1.
For Hume’s other works, authors should consult Hume Texts Online (https://www.davidhume.org), ensuring that the “edited versions” option with “show changes” is checked.

(Authors are reminded that use of Eighteenth-Century Collections Online [ECCO] scans of T1739 and T1740 requires also consulting the errata to those volumes as well as Hume’s handwritten corrections to various copies, material that is best sourced by consulting the variorum edition.)

Quotations from Hume should be accurately drawn from the critical text of the editions listed above with any variants from that text being noted. Authors whose circumstances make it difficult to access these editions may cite from the text as it appears in Hume Texts Online (ensuring that the “edited versions” option with “show changes” is checked) or, for The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688, from the edition edited by William B. Todd (Liberty Fund, 1983). They should advise the editors that they are doing so.

Authors who prefer a variant to the critical text are free to quote using the variant instead but should annotate it with a reference to its source.

Examples:

Nothing can be more minute, than some ideas, which we form in the fancy; and images, which appear to the senses; since there¹ are ideas and images perfectly simple and indivisible. (T 1.2.2.5)
________________
¹Reading with T1739 “there” for “these.”

By means of that relation alone can we¹ go beyond the evidence of our memory and senses. (U 4.4)
________________
¹Reading with U1748–60 and U1767–68 “can we” for “we can.”

Hume Texts Online paragraph numbers should not be used to refer to H as H paragraph numbers are not consistent between different editions. References to H should have the form H17xx NN: nn where “17xx” is an optional edition year, “NN” is the Chapter number in Arabic numerals, and “nn” is the page number, in Arabic numerals, as identified in Frits van Holthoon’s variorum edition of H (https://www.nlx.com). These page numbers mirror the page numbers assigned in the Liberty Press edition of H.

References to L1, L2, and NL should have the form Abv App.X L# n where “Abv” is the abbreviation for the edition of the letters being used (see above), X is an optional appendix letter, L# is the letter number assigned in that volume, and n is the page number. (Thus, L1 16: 38–9 refers to Hume’s letter to Hutcheson of 16 March, 1740, which is Letter 16 over pp. 38–9 of L1.) References to HRE and FL should have the form Abv, n.

Authors wishing to refer to the front matter or the editorial apparatus in the Oxford Clarendon editions may do so by using the abbreviation for that work (use PN for the volume that combines N and P) followed by a space followed by Ed., followed by a page number.

Thus:

PG 8 refers to Hume’s discussion of the civil wars between the “Blacks” and the “Whites” in “Of Parties in General”;

PG1741–68 8 designates the additional remark on “complexions” added to paragraph 8 in editions of EMPL from 1741–1768 (used for most purposes);

PG Ed.557–8 directs readers to the pages of EMPL where this variant is found (should that be deemed necessary, for example, when the variant does not fall within a paragraph of the critical text); and

PG Ed.744 directs readers to the editors’ discussion of the historical events Hume was alluding to.

Similarly, M Ed.xxxi-xxxii refers to Beauchamp’s discussion of a lost series of emendations to the 1767 and 1768 editions of ETSS (a discovery further substantiated at U Ed.xl–xlii, PN Ed.xxix–xxxi, and EMPL Ed.433–4).

Authors should note that though the Oxford Clarendon EMPL and T are two-volume works, the pagination is consecutive between both, so there is no need to use volume numbers when citing editorial content.

References to pre-19^th century works

At their discretion, authors may split their “Works Cited” lists into two parts: I. Classic Works; II. Recent Works. Under the former they may include pre-19^th century works that are cited frequently in the paper, providing an abbreviation for the work, title, bibliographical details for the source consulted or quoted (using the author-date system) and a description of how the source is cited. Authors may then reference the work by abbreviation (and an edition date if called for) in the body of the text without needing to annotate the first use.

Entries in Classic Works should be listed in alphabetic order of the abbreviation used. For example,

Essay: Locke, John. (1689) 1975. An Essay concerning Human Understanding. Reprint edited by Peter H. Nidditch. Oxford University Press. Cited by Book, Chapter, and Paragraph numbers.
NTV: Berkeley, George. (1709) 1948. An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision. Reprinted in The Works of George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, edited by A.A. Luce and T.E. Jessop, vol. 1, London: Nelson. Cited by paragraph number.

References to secondary literature

Authors should reference publications that have influenced the submission and that give it appropriate context within the larger scholarly record. They should:

• Ensure that their accounts of the work of others are accurate and are cited accurately.
• Avoid excessive and inappropriate citations to their own work or that of others.
• Avoid excessive citations to support a single statement in their article.

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) should be linked to references as they provide a permanent link to the electronic article referenced and enhance the chances that an author's paper will be drawn to the attention of those consulting the referenced work.